Your Top 10: Power to the North, landlord’s lament and Boohoo keeps it in the family
WE’VE got George Osborne to thank for the Northern Powerhouse and, now that he is outside Theresa May’s cabinet looking in, we’ve got his new Northern Powerhouse Partnership – a think tank of sorts to keep the momentum up in light of May’s lack of enthusiasm for the project.
So, in a bid to build on his own northern power base, Labour’s Greater Manchester mayoral candidate Andy Burham, MP for Leigh, said at a private dinner last week that he was in discussions with leaders and other potential future mayors about the creation of a Council of the North.
“Westminster has failed the North of England,” he said before adding that spending decisions announced in Chancellor Hammond’s autumn statement in November will be a critical indicator of whether the Northern Powerhouse concept is anything more than rhetoric.
Burnham added that he is working with other leaders and candidates ahead of the autumn statement on common causes such as transport to make a submission on behalf of the North of England.
It’s an idea that got our readership thinking as it was one of the week’s top stories – find out more about it below.
Burnham’s comments are timely as the Federation of Small Business’ quarterly report shows a drop in the confidence of small business owners following June’s Brexit result. Look out for our story on Monday about FSB’s report.
Earlier this week deputy editor Nick Jackson went to have a chat with the landlord of the Sir Ralph Abercromby pub, who finds himself in the eye of a storm.
The historic pub, which dates back to the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 and was the inspiration for TV series Life on Mars, will likely be demolished to make way for Gary Neville and Ryan Gigg’s £200m St Michael’s development. See what the landlord has to say about it all, below.
And finally, interesting times ahead for Manchester-based fashion giant Boohoo.com and the Kamani family.
The company, which listed on the stock market in 2014 and today has a turnover in excess of £127m, has an option to acquire Pretty Little Thing for £5m or less by March next year.
That’s because the rival fashion firm was set up by Boohoo chief executive Mahmud Kamani’s sons Umar and Adam back in 2012 before the float, but back then it was small fry. PLT has since grown into a £30m+ fashion business, popular with the likes of US celebrity Lindsey Lohan and X Factor winners Little Mix.
Boohoo said it is in the process of evaluating the related management incentive and how the business will be best managed as part of the Boohoo group. Hmmm, definitely more to come on that one…
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