Business leaders call for politicians to act on transport and devolution

 

Transport and devolution are two of the main issues that concern business leaders in the region.

The fact that businesses want the authorities to take action on transport and hand over more powers to the North will come as no great surprise.

TheBusinessDesk.com has been running a series of articles focussing on a report put together by global law firm CMS.

The Corporate North Report looked at the issues facing the region and surveyed 150 business leaders across the North of England,

And as part of the week-long series a roundtable was held at the offices of CMS Law which looked at a number of issues, challenges and opportunities coming out of the report.

Daniel Storer

The second half of the hour-long debate focussed very much on the issues linked to transport, politics and devolution.

Daniel Storer from Midas said: “If you think about the big industrial clusters in the North they are pan European – automotive, chemicals and aerospace are all international businesses.

“There seems to be a lack of strategic focus on them and a lack of Government intervention. If you look at Germany they have much more strategic management of their key clusters at a local level.

“Their local development agencies can attract talent, they can invest and incentivise. I am not aware of anything like that in the UK.

“We are often in a competitive situation for manufacturing and there are regions in Europe that can offer incentives.”

Martin McKervey, a former solicitor and chair of the Sheffield Property Alliance, said: “Great things are happening in Manchester and Liverpool and in places like Sheffield, but what we are not very good at is acting as the North.

“The harsh economic reality is that we have 16m people, we have some wonderful businesses but there are two factors we are poor on.

Martin McKervey

“Our GVA is 25 % below the UK average and our income per person is £7,500 less than the average.

“There has been a tendency for far too long to see the North as a drain on London, so we have to suck things out of London.

“We need to learn a way of how we can collaborate more. As a brand the North is only a prick on the world map.

“Unless we grapple with the idea of working on a more cross-regional basis we will never close the gap.

“At a time when we are being failed by our politicians now is the time to take the structures that the Government has given us and use them.

“The only institution that is getting anywhere close to what we hoped for from devolution is Transport for the North.”

John Hall, from Professional Liverpool, added: “ I think we have to do it ourselves and we cannot rely on central government. I think the Northern Powerhouse has lost momentum.

George Osborne

“It is not a good sign when George Osborne, who’s idea the Northern Powerhouse was, buggers off and promotes London through the Evening Standard.

“I didn’t even know Jake Berry was the Northern Powerhouse minister until recently.”

Iain Craven, finance director for Transport for the North, said: “If somebody were to say that High Speed Two is finishing at Birmingham, I think you would be extremely naïve to think that the money will automatically head Northwards.

“The people who will be cancelling it will not be doing it to send the money North. I think there has been a perception that HS2 is there, but actually the second phase is not agreed at the moment.

Iain Craven

“The way politics and Government works, once you lose High Speed Two it will be hard to see the money coming back.”

Mark Haywood, from CMS, said “For the first time in my lifetime we are starting to see a real difference.

Mark Haywood

“The experience of young people now in London is that the quality of life is harder and the cost of living is higher. There is now a solid push out of London.”

James Heather, from developer U+I, added: “While everyone is concentrating on HS2 there is actually a fundamental issue which is getting people around the region. We have got to get that right.”

Peter Catlow, from Businesswise, added: “This grand strategy is all very well but where I live in Lancashire we have a motorway that ends up nowhere.

“It is all very well talking about HS2 and all that kind of thing, but it doesn’t really help me in Lancashire.”

Iain Craven added: “People can always tell you what’s wrong and how long it’s been wrong for.

“Everyone knows when there is a problem but somehow nothing ever gets done about it.

“There is no mechanism to make things happen. Central government is very bad at worrying about things that happen in the North.

“We are in the early stages in devolution, it takes time. If someone had done this 20 years ago we would be having a different conversation.

“Once you have something that allows the North to come to together and state the case for the region, it makes it somebody’s job to be interested.

“If we don’t do something for ourselves then things will never change.”

Darren Drabble

Darren Drabble from Moneysupermarket.com added: “We live in an incredibly centralised economy and it is all London-based. The decision makers are all in London and that is the problem.

“The people that make the funding decisions and the criteria are skewed towards what happens in the South East.”

Martin McKervey added: “We need to get the North together around this agenda. Our politicians also need to be involved in this discussion.

“There is a challenge about how we can develop all the good things we are doing and make them even better. We need to be mature and work together towards the same agenda.”

Mark Haywood added:  “I think it is really important not to lose sight of where we are at the moment.

“The North has made massive strides over the last 20 to 30 years and is now a completely different region.

“In the early 1980s we were dealing with political conflict and recession and now we are looking at an incredible growth story across the region.”

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