LEP leader to seize opportunities
THE new chief executive of the Humber LEP has pledged to businesses that the partnership will deliver its strategy and embrace the opportunities the region presents to improve its economy.
Kishor Tailor, who was appointed in June, has also highlighted a number of challenges facing the region, the biggest being the skills shortage for the area, which is currently awaiting news on the potential Siemens £210m wind turbine factory on the north bank in Hull and the £450m Able UK scheme on the south bank.
“We don’t have enough highly skilled people in our economy. So, if we are to create the sort of economy we want to, we need to train people to the level where future jobs will be available,” Tailor said.
“This is a very big challenge here and my fear is that we will create these jobs but if we don’t have the right people for them, the jobs will go to others, not local people.
“We have got to now focus on our delivery and we must start delivering. This is already happening on a smaller level but the big delivery will happen soon. We need to be planning for those jobs that are going to come our way because if we don’t, we will miss this once in a lifetime opportunity. We have to capture it now.”
Tailor also highlighted the need for the LEP to market the region to attract investment and make the opportunities known to others.
He said: “There is a lack of awareness about what we can offer here and a lot of people don’t even know where the Humber is.
“One of the things that attracted me to this area was the amount of opportunities. The amount of development land here is enormous. We have issues to deal with, such as flooding, but we must now bring land back into operation.
“We have a great opportunity to develop the estuary area and develop the investment opportunities here. Our estuary is a big player in the UK for oil and coal coming into the ports and I want to raise the profile of the Humber.”
Tailor said major obstacles for the region include reversing areas of economic decline, improving skills and employability and persuading both banks of the Humber to work as one functional region.
He also said that 27,000 jobs need to be created just to get this area up to the average for England.
Tailor said the LEP will also look at the increasing importance of other sectors in the region, too – food manufacturing, digital and marine engineering – as well as the ones it is already focused on – renewables, chemicals and ports and logistics, which are seen as the growth areas for the Humber region.
Before joining the Humber LEP, Tailor was chief executive of Leicestershire Economic Partnership, a public-private partnership that delivered economic growth for Leicester and Leicestershire. He later took the role of economic development director at Partnership for Urban South Hampshire, where he led a number of initiatives.
