Rival Pennine power players debate value of City Regions
KEY players from the Leeds and Manchester City Regions will come together today to debate the value of the initiatives to regeneration and growth.
Under the banner ‘Powerhouse of the North’, the five local authorities from the Leeds City Region – Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, Calderdale and Kirklees – will host a breakfast event at the MIPIM international property conference featuring a panel of speakers including Sir Howard Bernstein, chief executive of Manchester City Council and Jean Dent, Leeds City Council’s director of city development.
Also taking part at the event at the Palais Stephanie hotel in Cannes will be Andrew Wallhead, corporate director for regeneration and sport at Wakefield Council, and Richard Serra, a director at the Leeds office of commercial property agent Savills.
The event will look at the significance of city regions – Leeds City Region has an economy estimated at £48bn representing 5% of UK GDP – within the context of the UK economy and the potential for the city region model for driving forward regeneration and growth.
Speakers will also discuss whether the city region model allows UK cities to compete more effectively with their European counterparts.
The Leeds City Region, together with Manchester, is one of two ‘pilot’ city regions tasked by central government with developing a programme of devolved powers and decision-making structures to direct funding in areas key to future economic development and growth.
Jean Dent will highlight the combined strengths of the Leeds City Region and set out the key priorities within the city region programme, which focuses on housing-led regeneration, innovation, higher level workforce skills and transport investment.
She said: “We believe that as a city region we have the critical mass and diversity of offer – as a place to live, to visit, to invest in and do business – that allows us to compete on a level playing field with our European counterparts. It is a complementary offer which focuses on our combined strengths and shared priorities.”
The Leeds City Region partnership has a full programme of events for the week which includes a focus on flagship regeneration projects and development opportunities in each local authority area. The exhibition stand can be found on 16.16/18.05.
The Leeds City Region includes 100,000 businesses, eight higher education institutions producing research of which 36% is world-class, 10% of which is world-leading, and 36,000 students graduating each year.
