Liverpool

Lancashire United

Lancashrie Rose

Last night over a thousand business leaders packed in to the Winter Gardens for the annual Red Rose Awards to celebrate the success of a diverse and impressive number of companies who have enjoyed a successful twelve months.

The event, hosted by the excellent publication Lancashire Business View, was no doubt a fabulous evening, and one I was really sorry to miss due to commitments today.

As they sat celebrating the wonderful business stories from across the county guests can be forgiven for not giving too much thought to the discussion and debate that I referred to in my blog here last week, whereby cities and city regions are increasingly seen as the future of economic growth in the UK.

So, how should Lancashire respond to the notion of cities exclusively taking the mantle of economic growth hubs, and indeed the idea presented by Evan Davies in his excellent BBC programme ‘Mind the Gap’ that to compete with London a Northern ‘super city’ ought to be created, consisting of Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds.

There is much merit in these three giants working more collaboratively, as I pointed out last week, but it then leaves the question as to how places like Lancashire, Cheshire and Cumbria will be supported.

If national policy continues to drive city hubs as the solution to relative economic decline in the North, then counties can only suffer – unless they create a fresh operating environment themselves.

There has been near irrational resistance from the various components that make up the Red Rose County to accept a hub city or an attack brand that can lead the marketing and business development agenda for Lancashire.

The Local Enterprise Partnership has performed remarkably well in bringing the disparate parts of the area together, but the underlying tensions between Blackburn, Preston and Blackpool still exist.

As the surrounding boroughs of Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds buy in to the inevitability of city hubs being the only way to drive city region wealth, albeit some more enthusiastically than others, Lancashire continues to insist on equal distribution of resource across its vast expanse, therefore diluting the offer that a united Lancashire would offer.

Both the private and public sectors need to address this problem before it’s too late. Ninety nine councils, hundreds of councillors and several Chamber of Commerce organisations representing one county cannot be right. A combined approach to our collective challenge will help enormously, and we’ll be approaching you soon to ask if you’re up for helping Lancashire overcome that challenge.

Three is the magic number

LLM

A report headed by esteemed economist Jim O Neil caused a stir last week with the suggestion that the great cities of Manchester and Liverpool should merge.

The City Growth Commission, an independent inquiry aimed at trying to boost urban growth in our major cities, suggests that ‘Manpool’ would enable the two Northwest giants to economically compete on the global stage more effectively by coming together, and help to begin to address the growing North –South divide which I wrote about here.

The argument goes that by creating a Northern super city we will see a genuine competitor to London, a capital city whose population and economic activity positively dwarves all other UK core cities.

As much as aggregating the might of Manchester and Liverpool would undoubtedly establish an economic juggernaut for the region, the practicalities of bringing the two traditional rivals together in a formal administrative sense would be challenging if not impossible. You only have to look at the deranged lobbying that took place over the name of the proposed Liverpool city region Combined Authority to see how difficult parochial local politicians find it to give up ‘power’ for the greater good.

Nonetheless, there is every prospect, indeed already existing evidence, that on issues of strategic economic importance significant co-operation takes place between Manchester and Liverpool. The two major transport infrastructure projects HS2 and the ‘Northern Hub’ are the most obvious, though not exclusive, examples.

Even on the international stage there is sharing of platforms and resource. The chief executive of Manchester city council and the mayor of Liverpool will share a stage in MIPIM next week. And Manchester is a key partner in the forthcoming International Festival of Business to be hosted in Liverpool.

So though a formal coming together of the two cities is as likely as Luis Suarez signing for Manchester United, the agenda for even greater collaboration should be explored and progressed.

However, why stop at Manchester and Liverpool? In both those transport infrastructure projects mentioned Leeds is a key partner too. And the attractiveness of a great northern economic hub, with three major conurbations working together rather than two, is a powerful and surely more compelling option.

By coming together to form a triumvirate of the north, Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds could accelerate the work that they do together already, and extend it. Motorway connectivity is a major issue that can only be genuinely addressed by all three cities working in partnership and finding and funding a solution.

What of aviation? Is the wider region capable of sustaining three airports without greater dialogue between Leeds Bradford, John Lennon and Manchester Airport Group?

Beyond transport, there are many cultural and social projects where greater collaboration and a pooling of resource could bring benefit to the entire region.

Another area where the three cities are already at one is in their call for devolved powers, budgets and responsibilities. Ultimately this is the key that will truly unlock the potential of our great cities and begin to close the unhealthy gap that exists between London and the rest of us.

Liverpool needs to appoint the ‘Special One’

Special One

Top

In the summer Manchester United had a decision to make. The most successful British manager of all time, Sir Alex Ferguson, was standing down and they needed to find a replacement who would continue to lead United to trophies at home and abroad.

The obvious, cast iron guarantee candidate was a flamboyant Portuguese man by the name of Jose Mourinho. With him in charge there would be little doubt that the Old Trafford side would continue to dominate domestic football and challenge for the Champions League.

That he wasn’t appointed came down to the fact that some in the boardroom  and possibly Sir Alex himself, felt that Mourinho was too outspoken, controversial and, perhaps, too charismatic.

Instead of appointing the most obvious and well qualified man for the job, United took a punt on David Moyes. A safe pair of hands, for sure, but with neither the experience, track record nor credibility of ‘the special one’ and a huge risk too.

A glance at United’s results since Moyes’ arrival will tell you that they have had a poor season so far, and it is unlikely to get much better following a surprise 2-0 defeat in Greece this week in their Champions League tie. Moyes looks like a man who is out of his depth. Maybe next season it will be different – but don’t hold your breath.

What has this got to do with the politics of Liverpool you may ask. Well, the proposed Halton, Sefton, St Helens, Knowsley, Liverpool and Wirral Combined Authority, so called as a result of private lobbying from city region districts, now looks like it will be led by a David Moyes equivalent.

In Joe Anderson Liverpool has an elected city mayor with a massive electoral mandate. He is someone who has a profile at regional, national and international level. During his leadership, the city has continued to grow, with more private sector jobs being created in the city than ever before; and he has brought the Global Entrepreneurship Congress and the International Festival of Business to the city. In addition, successful jaunts into the continent with the Shanghai Expo, MIPIM and the States add to his impressive CV – not to mention his bold move to open a Liverpool Embassy in London.

Despite all of this, and the fact that the city he leads accounts for over 70% of activity in the city region, the suggestion is that the leader of Wirral will chair the new Combined Authority organisation. Presumably this would be a one year appointment, and then we would have ‘Buggins Turn’ with Halton, St Helens, Knowsley and Sefton taking their place at the head of the table periodically. What an absolute nonsense.

If the name of the new body hasn’t already done so, then this type of political manoeuvring and game playing will most certainly turn the business community and potential investors off.

Joe Anderson may not be the pin up that Jose is, but in Liverpool city region terms he is ‘the special one.’ He is the only individual politician who can begin to restore credibility to an already discredited organisation, and the only one that can guarantee success.

We need to appoint Mayor Anderson as the leader of a Liverpool City Region Combined Authority – or accept that, just like Manchester United, decline in our performance is inevitable.

What A Farce!

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Downtown Liverpool has been a long time campaigner for a Liverpool city region Combined Authority.

It is a model that has worked and served Greater Manchester well for several years now, and the opportunity and potential that comes with a more collaborative approach between the six local councils in this part of the North West is easy to see.

However, our politicians have a knack of shooting the region in the foot, looking gift horses in the mouth and grasping defeat from the jaws of victory that is as uncanny as it is tragic.

The latest gaff, apparently courtesy of local districts who did not wish to see the word Liverpool dominate the title of the new local government body, comes with the proposed name which is, wait for it, ‘The Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, St Helens, Sefton and Wirral Combined Authority.’ That trip’s of the tongue easily doesn’t it?

Imagine calling the Downtown office and being met with ‘Hello, Downtown Liverpool, Lancashire, Manchester and Leeds in Business’!

The suggested name is nonsense but it is what this says about the reality of genuine collaboration amongst our local government representatives that is of most concern. If they can’t come up with an agreement on a sensible name for an organisation, what chance is there of them producing a coherent economic strategy?

For this reason I am urging Liverpool’s Mayor Joe Anderson to walk away from a body that at best will be a talk shop and at worse could do serious damage to the city’s future regeneration and economic growth.

Will the city Mayor be expected to continually placate and negotiate with those who actually believe that their districts are as big a brand as Liverpool? Would there need to be a ‘redistribution’ of opportunities that emerge via inward investment activity and marketing and promotion? Can Joe really be expected to dilute a Liverpool brand which has been in the ascendency now for over a decade? I simply ask Joe this question – do you think you could sign up to this backward looking agenda?

Parochial politicians and council officials may try to hide behind Eric Pickles and government ministers for the botched name fiasco. They are not being honest with us. Our Whitehall sources have confirmed that heavy private lobbying has taken place to abandon the publicly agreed name of the ‘Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’ to the humdinger we have been saddled with. Worse, political leaders are working behind the scenes to unseat Joe Anderson as the chair of this organisation.

The local daftness aside, it is equally contemptible for the government to propose this bizarre name for what they presumably want to see as a serious policy making body for the city region. It may amuse Tory and Liberal Democrat ministers to see Labour council leaders scrap like rats in a sack, but they ought to care more about the credibility of Liverpool and the wider region.

If it wasn’t so serious, and embarrassing, it might be funny. Business leaders are fed up with this nonsense. We need to demand maturity and vision from our political masters – nationally and locally!

2014 is going to be a good ‘un

2014

Unemployment down, inflation down, predictions of growth up and Everton riding high in the Premier League playing a brand of football not seen at Goodison Park sine the halcyon ‘school of science’ days, 2013 has ended up being quite a decent year – but I’ll predict that 2014 will be even better.

The economy has turned the corner, business confidence has returned, and during the next twelve months that confidence will deliver enterprise, jobs and growth for UK Plc and for the North of England.

In the regions where Downtown operates, there is even more reason to be optimistic.

Leeds will host the Tour de France, a tremendous coup for the city region and an event that will elevate Leeds’ international standing and generate significant interest in Yorkshire. With the new Trinity shopping mall now open, and a 13,000 seat arena, Leeds will be looking to build its visitor economy, whilst maintaining its position as a leader in the professional and advanced manufacturing sectors.

Lancashire has been working hard to put in place a business support package that is private sector friendly and can deliver for ambitious companies in the county. Its BOOST initiative is the most comprehensive project of its kind that I have seen, and Lancashire County Council and the Local Enterprise Partnership deserve huge credit for genuinely listening to business and establishing a programme that will really work for Lancashire firms.

Manchester continues to deliver major regeneration and infrastructure schemes, and its plans for Airport City will take the city to another level again. Greater Manchester continues to demonstrate the importance of good civic leadership, private-public sector partnership that work, and the ability to avoid complacency and continue to drive forward with visionary strategies that build on past successes. I expect Manchester to lead the pro HS2 campaign and lobby for the acceleration rather than cancellation of a project that will benefit the North, but arguably Manchester in particular.

Liverpool will host the biggest international business event the UK has seen since 1951. Max Steinberg and his team at Liverpool Vision are organising a six week jamboree of activities that will take place in June and July of next year, with Downtown holding a significant series of high profile events during the International Festival of Business’ ‘Cities & Enterprise’ week. Over 140 countries are already signed up to IFB, and some top speakers have been booked. Again as a showcase for what the Liverpool city region has to offer, it couldn’t get much better.

As for Downtown, well 2014 see’s us mark our tenth anniversary. As you can imagine we have a whole host of special events, parties and celebrations in store for you, so watch this space.

Have a fantastic Christmas – and look forward to an absolutely fabulous New Year.