Leeds City Region: Focus to be placed on strengths
THE Leeds City Region must capitalise on the opportunities presented as a result of its great diversity, if it wants to push its profile internationally.
This is the message from leading Yorkshire business people who think that to drive business growth, the focus should be placed on the strengths in population and culture and sector strengths.
The comments were made at a Round Table event held by TheBusinessDesk.com. The full report is in our Leeds City Region supplement.
The business figures also highlighted that Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) policy should ensure that opportunity is maximised for all businesses, regardless of size, in recognition that today’s SMEs will be tomorrow’s PLCs.
Amjad Pervez, managing director of food company Seafresh/Adam, is also a board member of the Yorkshire Asian Business Association and has sat on the Leeds City Region board for the last three years. He has vast experience in the food sector.
He said: “What is lacking is a vision of where we take the food and drink sector over the next 10 years. We don’t look at up and coming SMEs – there are ones that have been going 30 years but why are they just regional businesses? Why can’t we grow them?”
He also argued that businesses should use the region’s cultural and ethnic diversity as a means to attract business internationally.
“We need to open up and use our diversity in a more commercial way,” he said.
“It is not connected – why is Yorkshire not a hub for halal food? We are importing halal food from Belgium – why can’t we produce that here?”
To emphasise the need for the opportunity to be maximised for all businesses, a push for the city region to speak with ‘One Voice’ – at international events such as annual property convention MIPIM, held in Cannes – is being led by inward investment agency Leeds & Partners, which those at the discussion said needs to harness this diversity and work with businesses of all sizes.
Dr Matt Stroh of Grant Thornton, where the Round Table event was held, said: “The One Voice message does a great job in bringing the region together under the one mantra, but the diversity that the city region offers is something we should be celebrating and building on.”
Tom Bridges, chief economic development officer at Leeds City Council, pointed to the scale of the job in hand in working across the region – highlighting that the Leeds City Region is the largest in the UK, with 3 million people living here; 100,000 businesses and 1.5 million jobs.
He said: “It’s a large area but we are making progress. In West Yorkshire there is a commitment to be a combined authority and pool our resources.
“There is a good partnership between the public and private sector here. But
we should not be complacent and other LEPs like Sheffield have really hit the ground running, but there is a lot of good work we can do.”
