Help us ‘gang up’ on ministers says Lord Mayor
THE Lord Mayor of London has invited Manchester’s professionals to “gang up” with their City counterparts on Government ministers over future legislative changes.
Alderman Michael Bear told an audience at a lunch organised by the professional services group Pro Manchester yesterday that harmful and badly conceived regulation was a key concern.
“If there’s legislation that you’re concerned about, either coming from Europe or Westminister, you need to let us know because we can gang up on ministers and European officials. We’re all on the same page.”
He was keen to underline the concept of the City stretching beyond the Square Mile to represent the financial services industry throughout the UK.
“We have the ear of quite senior people so they’ll listen to us and we have to make sure they’re alert to the risks to our competitive advantage.”
Mr Bear, who became the 683rd Lord Mayor last month and is a director at the construction giant Balfour Beatty, also cited infrastructure investment as a priority area.
Speaking to TheBusinessDesk.com he said economic growth will come from the UK’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) but the Government must create the right conditions.
“It has to create the conditions for private sector money to come in, they need to create the right environment and we’ve put it to Government to start thinking about that. The future is in SMEs, that’s where the growth in jobs will come from.”
He said the global economy was worth $32 trillion in 2000 and has a predicted value of $142 trillion in 2030.
“It’s not going to be on a straight line, we’ve got business cycles but what it does mean that in the next decade the global economy will double and that’s an enormous opportunity for all of us.” He added: “I’m enormously optimistic about the future.”
