‘Think big on job creation’ says LEP chair Hough
THE head of Liverpool City Region’s Local Enterprise Partnership last night challenged business leaders to “think big” in terms of job creation, and to set aside local rivalries.
Robert Hough, chairman of the LEP, told more than 100 members at a dinner at Knowsley Hall that the city region needs to be “ambitious, visionary and bold” if it is to thrive in an ultra-competitive global market.
Mr Hough, the former chairman of the North West Development Agency and a long-serving director of Peel Group, one of the region’s largest and most influential private businesses, said it was important too for the area to think as one.
“Our best assets – and our best chance of success in this [global] race – span the entire City Region. The whole is bigger than the sum of the parts. Put differently and simply, economic development does not recognise administrative boundaries.
“We must not be precious about boundaries or whether the spotlight sometimes shines more brightly on one part of our City Region than on another,” he added.
He said the city region had made “substantial progress” in economic development over the last decade, albeit from a low base, but warned that more was needed – particularly in new business creation.
“For 10 years, Liverpool was the fastest growing of any city in the UK. But despite that progress, there are today around 18,000 too few businesses in the city region against the national average and there are too few people in work.”
He argued that the pace of economic growth must be accelerated and challenged guests to “come forward with a big idea to drive forward economic development and create jobs – preferably multiple jobs.”
Mr Hough added: “Think jobs, young people and opportunity and think about the turnaround from poverty with no job, into a career providing reward and opportunity and the social wellbeing that that brings.”
Business leaders attending the event included Sir Michael Bibby, chairman of the £1bn turnover Bibby Line Group, Joe Morris from discount retailer TJ Morris and Richard Else, director of operations at Jaguar Land Rover’s Halewood factory.
