Financial Leeds’s ‘work will continue’

SUPPORTING the development of the financial services sector will be a key element of the work of a new organisation set to co-ordinate the way Leeds is marketed, according to Financial Leeds chairman Joanne Lake.

Speaking to TheBusinessDesk.com, Ms Lake stressed that the work of the organisation will continue if the plans go ahead to turn Financial Leeds, Marketing Leeds and Conference Leeds as well as the council’s Visit Leeds and Locate in Leeds into a single body.

Leeds City Council’s executive board is due to discuss the plans at a meeting today.

Ms Lake said: “My understanding is that they will be genuinely merging. There is a lot of detail still to be worked out but it is the intention to bring together the activities within all these organisations.

“There will be a team within that new entity who will continue the activities of Financial Leeds.”

Ms Lake said that Financial Leeds would continue to maintain relations with its existing members and be seeking new supporters as the new organisation would follow the public-private sector model.

“We want it to be a true partnership between the public sector and the private sector and obviously Leeds City Council is putting funding in and we would want the private sector members to keep putting their funding in.

“I think it makes absolute sense to bring everything together. There have been disparate organisations that has created some duplication and some internal competition and discussion as to who is performing which functions and created the potential for conflict and now we have the opportunity for one entity with a clear focus for getting the right solutions for the city.

“The financial services sector is a very important driver for  economic growth for the region and we are keen to make sure that emphasis on financial services continues within the new organisation.”