Roundtable discussion shines a spotlight on the North

The incredible success story that is the Northern economy was the main topic of conversation at a roundtable organised by TheBusinessDesk.com in partnership with international law firm CMS.

Twelve business leaders and professionals took part in a wide-ranging discussion which looked at the major issues, opportunities and challenges facing the region’s economy.

Amongst the topics raised in the debate were Brexit, the future of the economy, devolution and transport.

The debate was framed around a CMS report titled Corporate North – which quizzed 150 company leaders in the region on a number of issues.

The topics include devolution, transport, exports and sectors to watch.

The key finding to come out of the report was the sense of civic pride in the region amongst business leaders.

Just under 80 per cent said they feel positive about the economic prospects of the region and just a handful would consider moving away.

The roundtable discussed the report in depth for  more than an hour.

Daniel Storer

Daniel Storer, business development director at Midas, believes that the  North is experiencing unprecedented growth.

He said: “Midas sits on the Greater Manchester investment pipeline so we get a good view going forwards. From a sector perspective what is happening now is quite extraordinary.

“There are two polar opposites. From a digital perspective there is a fantastic story around investment, tech is booming.

“There is also the ecommerce sector in the city, that is booming as well. There is a pipeline of born and bred Manchester ecommerce companies that are growing at an incredible rate.

“Where things are a little less positive is the manufacturing sector which is quite worrying. Anything that has a European remit is currently on ice at the moment.

“The fundamentals are there to be positive, we are not seeing any let up in international interest in Manchester at the current time.”

The mention of Europe inevitably meant that the subject of Brexit was raised.

Emma Degg

Emma Degg, from the North West Business Leadership Team, said: “Brexit is a mammoth sized elephant in the room. This is a really good report and it appears to identify advance manufacturing as the key to the future of the north.

“What my members have been saying is that the deal on the table can be made to work. It might not be ideal but it can be made to work.

“In the region the professional and financial services have never known anything like this. Things are fantastic.

“Retail is soft and property is getting softer but there investments on lockdown at the moment. The North is exposed more than anywhere else in the country to a hard Brexit or further uncertainty.

“What concerns us is the degree of unpreparedness for all the eventualities.”

James Heather

James Heather, a director from U+I, the developers behind the Mayfield Development in Manchester, added: “There is always uncertainty, it doesn’t matter whether it is Brexit or something else.

“We have to just ensure what we are doing is providing the things that the region needs to grow. If we don’t do that then we will have a problem.

“People invest in Manchester because we have all of the things that people want – whether it is foreign investment or comes from inside the UK.

“We have the graduates that stay here, we have quality of life which is incredibly important when you compare us to living in London and the other big cities.

“The fundamentals and foundations of the city are pretty strong.”

John Hall, from Professional Liverpool, touched on the divisions across the region.

He said: “To be honest Manchester has dominated for the last 20 years and I don’t knock it, I think Manchester is a fantastic city.

“Liverpool has been guilty of comparing itself with Manchester, but things are happening in Liverpool.

“There are five new law firms coming to Liverpool. One of them ruled Manchester out straight away because they thought it was saturated.

“There is an optimism but there is a worry when it comes to politics. Momentum is gathering momentum.

“Frank Field is facing deselection and I don’t think Joe Anderson will get in again in 2020. But that begs the question, why does Liverpool need a city mayor and a metro mayor?”

Darren Drabble

Darren Drabble, from Moneysupermarket.com, added: “We are a national business but the founder happened to live in Chester.

“The interesting thing for us is that we opened a London office and most of our head office functions moved there.

“It would have been easy to just cut Chester off, but as an organisation there is a real benefit to being based in the North West.

“We have a technology talent pool in Manchester and there are lots of other benefits. There is more stability in the North West.

“When it comes to Brexit there has been a two-fold effect. Firstly, it has taken up valuable time of MPs and ministers.

“My fear is there has been a loss of momentum in the Northern Powerhouse, it will require a huge effort to continue that momentum and that voice.

“Decisions being made in London are very much Brexit-focused.”

Gary Sheader

Gary Sheader, from the Manufacturers’ Alliance, said: “I just think we are not very good at telling people about the fantastic stories out there. I think we are too good in this country at promoting the bad stuff.”

Sue Barnard, from the British Business Bank, said: “ We are doing a lot of investment in manufacturing. We have done 350 investments in 18 months. We have invested £70m and 42% was manufacturing.

“We are in the news every day, but when we try and get a manufacturer to do PR it is really hard work. I think they are just too busy getting on with their work.”

Emma Degg added: “We need to be talking about the North in a collective way, but we also need to be challenging the view that there is the UK economy and then there is the Northern Powerhouse.

“The future of exports in this country rests largely on the North, this is not a local or a regional issue, it is a national issue. We need to get a bit better at saying we are part of the UK.”