Join us to make region a success – Riordan

TOM Riordan has urged business to get on board to help Leeds and its neighbours realise their economic potential.

The chief executive of Leeds City Council said he understood why the private sector might have felt let down in the past but insisted that a string of recent announcements showed the authority was delivering for business.

Mr Riordan spoke to TheBusinessDesk.com as the council celebrates the agreement of a new city deal which will hand significant funds and power to local authorities in the area in important economic areas as well as funding for the NGT trolleybus scheme.

“There will be a lot of business people that over the years have felt let down or have felt there have been false dawns – whether its NGT or John Lewis coming to the city. We have realised we have had to break that cycle and now that we have I think the time’s right for people who have felt disullusioned and we weren’t punching our weight to come and see us,” he said.

“I think we have got a fantastic opportunity for the business community to use this momentum we have gathered to drive things on because it’s the wealth creators that will make this city fly. Leeds will only achieve its potential when everybody in the city believes in that potential and that’s about the council getting its act together and punching its weight and making a difference.

“But I would ask and invite the business community, those people who really believe in the city and what its capable of, to join us in this endeavour.”

Mr Riordan is approaching the end of his second year in the job having joined from regional development agency Yorkshire Forward and admitted that delivering significant cuts to the authority’s budget had dominated his time.

“Although I think people have respect in terms of what we’ve done on the cuts I realise that for everybody that’s almost the day job. Because people knew me coming into the job they wanted me to try and emulate some of what you could call competitor or partner cities outside London, particularly Manchester, to see whether we could really get Leeds punching its weight and being more ambitious and realising its potential.

“One of the conversations I have regularly had with the leader of the council and the lead member [for development], Richard Lewis, over the last year has been that we are lacking a wow factor. We felt although we were getting things moving behind the scenes we hadn’t really got that step change publicly to get people thinking we had momentum. I think the last two weeks have done that.”

Acknowledging the expectations the private sector had given his RDA background, Mr Riordan insisted the nature of his current role meant others in the authority would take the lead on working with the private sector.

He identified councillor Lewis and new Marketing Leeds chief executive Lurene Joseph as the key figures trying to bring the city and wider region together to capitalise on recent successes.

And he stressed the benefits to the private sector of the city deal which will include measures to help business take on apprentices at lower costs as well as powers to tackle the transport issues often complained about by business.

“If we need to take decisions on something like trolleybus in future rather than waiting for Whitehall, we in the city will be able to take those decisions for ourselves.

“There’s a symbolism about NGT for me because this city has waited 20 years for a public transport scheme. We didn’t get supertram and I think everyobody would have wanted a tram system if we’re being really honest but it isn’t second prize, it’s a real opportunity for us. The transport needs of the area won’t be fixed by one scheme but it does show we can do it and we are building a new relationship with Whitehall.”

The city deal covers the whole of the Leeds City Region with a combined authority set to be created to wield power over transport.

“I think we’ve got to find a way forward where everyone in the partnership can see the benefit and feel the benefit but we’ve got to get people to the point where they realise an investment in Huddersfield may be good for Leeds and vice versa.

“Of course their are tensions, people are elected with a mandate for their city so of course they are going to get the best deal they can but everubody recognises and the city deal shows it we’ve got to be opportunistic and get the investment in and worry about how the cake is divided later,” he said.