Private sector backs Liverpool’s decision to drop MIPIM

PROPERTY professionals in Liverpool have backed the city council’s decision to cut its £150,000 a year funding towards attending the flagship MIPIM property conference at Cannes in March.

Liverpool City Council leader Joe Anderson confirmed that the council would not be represented at MIPIM next year, saying that it had already invested heavily in its Pavilion at the World Expo in Shanghai and would continue to build on that by targeting inward investment efforts on Chinese investment.

“Liverpool could be represented at MIPIM if the private sector provides funding but we will not be using council taxpayers’ money for this event,” he said.

“We are opening an ‘embassy’ in London to promote the city to investors and next year’s Boat Show in Liverpool, which will be attended by a Chinese delegation, is also a great opportunity to showcase the city,” he said.

Paul Houghton, development director at Liverpool-based property firm Downing said that MIPIM had “served its purpose for Liverpool”.

“Having supported the city’s presence in previous years, we’ve seen the benefits, but now is not the time to be seeking deals in Cannes,” he said.

“MIPIM may well return to play an important role in how Liverpool markets itself to the world, but it’s a costly exercise and not the right tactic for 2011.”

He said that the city council’s decision to relocate its pavilion to London in a bid to create an ’embassy’ in the capital was “a sound idea”.

“As a business we are partly focusing our efforts in London, so we’re looking forward to working with the city.

Maggie Mullan, partner at the Liverpool practice of architectural firm Austin-Smith:Lord, said: ”We have been going to MIPIM for eight years and have always found it helpful in terms of profile raising and supporting our clients. However, we will review our attendance there next year.

Neil Sturmey, head of accountancy firm Grant Thornton’s Liverpool office, said that in the past few years the city’s property community had not been in the position to contribute enough to support the city’s presence at MIPIM.

“If we are going do it, we need to do it properly. There is no point going in half-heartedly,” he said. He agreed that a shift in focus towards London and Shanghai was a wise strategy, arguing that “priorities for the city have changed”.

Mullan is currently in Shanghai at the World Expo and said the city’s decision to establish a presence there had been a “tremendous success”.

“It was incredibly far-sighted of Liverpool City Council to support the event and there appear to be infinitely more opportunities here than in Europe. The future is looking brighter than the glow from the Cote D’Azur.”

A spokesman for Marketing Manchester said that it was still planning a significant presence at Mipim and had already signed up 22 partners to help fund its presence at the event, which is ahead of the same number at this stage last year.

A sales brochure it has published for the 2011 event quotes Manchester City Council chief executive Sir Howard Bernstein stating the importance of the conference in boosting the city’s economy.

“MIPIM brings together public and private sectors and is one of the
ways that new jobs, new investment and new opportunities can be
identified, developed, discussed and underpinned for the benefit of
everyone in the city region,” he said.