£1.4bn of economic growth and 3,200 jobs created – the economic impact of Leeds City Region LEP

IT WAS in a building that was being constructed at the same time as the French Revolution was starting that President John F Kennedy delivered a speech that included the words: “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.”

At the same time as Frankfurt’s Paulskirche was being built, Marshall’s Mill in Holbeck was being conceived and it was on that site that Roger Marsh recalled the President’s words as he launched the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership’s Impact Report.

The site was chosen because of how it has been regenerated – it is now home to a thriving business community that includes Genus Law and Northern Monk brewery – giving old buildings a modern purpose and attracting innovative and ambitious businesses into the city region.

The report set out the key achievements of Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and its partners, which were headlined by the addition of £1.4bn of economic output and the creation of 3,200 jobs in the last four years.

Providing value was also stressed, with the LEP’s analysis showing that for every £1 of taxpayers’ money it had secured, some £10 in economic output had been generated.

Prime Minister David Cameron had sent a message of support, acknowledging the LEP’s “phenomenal success” and saying the outcomes of the public and private sector partnership showed “the Northern Powerhouse in action”.

For LEP chairman Mr Marsh, though, “this is not job done but job well begun”.

He said: “We have shown what we can deliver with relatively modest resources. Now, as a result of our Growth Deal, EU funding and other public and private sector investment we’ve brought into the region, we have the resources to deliver our ambitious vision for growth at a scale unprecedented in 10 years of economic partnership working.”

Part of that ambition is to create an additional 20,600 jobs and add an extra £2.1bn a year to the city region’s economy by 2031, above and beyond current projected growth.

The LEP’s work has been built on four pillars – supporting growing businesses, developing a flexible and skilledworkforce, making the City Region more resource efficient, and providing the infrastructure for growth.

It has invested £29m in hundreds of businesses through its grant and loan funding programmes, attracted 31 investment projects from outside the city region and facilitated the creation of 2,000 apprenticeships.

The LEP’s growth deal has enabled the West Yorkshire Combined Authority to deliver a £1.4bn programme of transport improvements across its patch while LEP green economy board member Simon Pringle said “we should see spades in the ground” next year as work begins on the city’s heat network.

Mr Marsh repeated one of his guiding aims, for the city region to become a net contributor not a net taker to the public purse, and pointed to the impact of the LEP to date in making progress towards that end.

“Hopefully you will believe, like me, that we can transform the economy,” he added.