New Chair for Leeds LEP

Roger Marsh, Senior Partner of the Leeds office of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP ("PwC"), will take over the chair of Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership from Neil McLean on 1 July 2013.

Born in 1953, educated at Stockton Church of England Grammar School and the University of Leeds, Marsh joined PwC in 1976. Specializing in business recovery and insolvency he managed T&D Industries, Sheffield Forgemasters, Carpets International, Dixon Motor Group, Shotton Power and Bradford Cathedral.

Between Jan 2007 and Aug 2009 Marsh served as Director-General of Strategic Finance and Operations at the Cabinet Office and was an executive member of the Cabinet Secretary's board.  According to his Linkedin profile, his overall role was "to improve the operational efficiency and efficacy of the agreed strategic objectives of the centre of Government."

Marsh became Senior Partner of the Leeds Office in 2011 and will retire from that post on 30 June 2013. His successor will be Arif Ahmad.

Further Information
"PwC announces change of leadership in Leeds," PwC 26 March 2013

"New Chair for Local Enterprise Partnership". Leeds City Region LEP, 26 March 2013

Leeds City Region Growing Places Fund: £26 million Loan Fund

Earlier today a conference and exhibition took place at Bradford University to launch Base Leeds City Region. I was unable to attend the event so I have to rely on the event website which states that it would  "promote the City Region as a low carbon location and highlight opportunities arising from initiatives that are under way." I noticed that there had been similar events in London and Glasgow that had involved many of the great and the good of our country. All very worthy stuff.

Looking through the programme the item that caught my eye was an announcement by Neil McLean (Chair of Leeds City Region LEP) of a £26 million fund  for projects that are ready, but have been delayed and now need support to proceed.  This is known as the "Growing Places Fund" and appears to be open to all businesses and organizations of any size based in or looking to invest in the Leeds City Region. The fund will provide loans of between £250,000 and £5 million for capital investment in infrastructure such as expansion of business premises or the development of new road junctions.  Full details of the scheme are set out in the prospectus. Expressions of interest have to be communicated on a form that can be downloaded from the LEP's website by 1 Nov 2012.

There is also an interesting article on the Growing Places Fund and the Base Leeds City event by Ian Briggs on the Business Desk Website ("Growing Places Fund offers development opportunities" 11 Sep 2012).

LEP Summit: My Impressions of the Day as a Delegate

Yesterday I attended the Local Enterprise Partnership Summit at the Leeds Armouries. As you can see from the programme it was a very long day but also an instructive one. There were said to be over 750 delegates. Throughout the day there was a constantly updated twitter stream which you can find at #lepsummit2011.

Although the focus was on Leeds City Region (an area that includes the five metropolitan boroughs of the county of West Yorkshire as well as Barnsley in South Yorkshire and Craven, Harrogate, Selby and York in North Yorkshire) the summit was important to local enterprise partnerships ("LEP") everywhere. That was no doubt why Mark Prisk MP, the Minister of State for Business & Enterprise, was invited to speak together with representatives of the Manchester, Sheffield and North East LEP, the OECD, the British Chambers of Commerce and the Centre for Cities.

As I have said many times in this and my Inventors Club and IP North West blogs, the LEP represent a sea change in regional development For as long as I can remember regional development strategy of both major parties has taken the form of handouts from central government for big infrastructure projects such as motorways and universities usually administered by quangos in the hope that they would stimulate enterprise. And it just hasn't worked. As I observed in my question in a breakout session on infrastructure on what can we do to encourage a "Silicon Roundabout" in Yorkshire along the lines of the one in Old Street, businesses will cluster where they see advantages in clustering and not where well-intentioned planners want to put them.

The reason why the traditional strategy does not work was explained by Dr Enrique Garcilazo of the OECD. It is ironic that it took an economist from Paris to explain the reasoning behind LEPs rather than the Minister and the massed ranks of local and national politicians. Dr Garcilazo is author of the OECD publication "How Regions Grow: Trends and Analysis". Briefly, his research shows that central government spending on infrastructure and human capital development (education and training) in isolation are not enough to stimulate enterprise. If you build a motorway to a depressed region as was done in Southern Italy you simply make it easier for people to get out. Similarly, if you improve the education system without creating employment or business opportunities they will just find it easier to get jobs in places like the South of England or Northern Italy. There has to be a systematic and holistic approach to local development best managed from the bottom up that utilizes the competitive advantages of each region.

That seems to be the thinking behind the Leeds City Region plan which was unveiled at the conference. It is perhaps best summarized in the following passage from a handout to delegates:

"The LEP will lead a cross-sector, balanced approach to economic growth, and will build on the unique combination of city region assets to unlock the potential of our economy, businesses and workforce."

The handout outlined 4 priorities for the LEP:

• unlocking the growth potential of business and enterprise;
• enabling a flexible, skilled workforce;
• facilitating a low carbon economy; and
• creating the environment for growth.

The LEP aims to achieve a minimum of 2.6% GVA (gross value added) growth every year to 2030 and a return to pre-depression levels of employment by 2016.

Of course, these are very fine aspirations but they can be achieved only if businesses actually find a market for their goods and services. Mike Spencer, Senior Policy Adviser to the British Chambers of Commerce, displayed bar charts that showed that consumer and government spending had more or less flatlined since the start of the current downturn. Mr Spencer reasoned that if there was to be any growth it would have to come from exports. As the USA and EU were doing no better than us we have to sell more to Brazil, India and China. I mischievously asked the panel what exactly suppliers in our region had to sell to consumers in Bahia, Bangalore and Beijing. Neil Mclean the LEP Chair suggested biotech and IT. Mark Ridgway of the Rhodes Group mentioned all the things that his company did in India. The fact is that Yorkshire and Humber does not seem to do as well as other regions when it comes to developing new technologies with just 1,144 patent applications in 2010 trailing the South East with 2,810, London (2,584), East of England (1,984), South West (1,639) and the North West (,246) (source IPO Facts and Figures 2009 and 2010).

While all credit is due to Mr McLean and his fellow board members for staging this event I left feeling that they had a mountain to climb. One of the first questions in the manufacturing breakout section was "What about old technology?" Other questions were on what can be done to make the NHS buy from local suppliers. I had to intervene to point out that we were in a single European market and indeed a single national market where everyone was entitled to a fair crack of the whip. I detected more than a whiff of protectionism in the air.

Another depressing theme was inter-regional rivalry and dependency on London. One gentleman from the floor asked when Leeds-Bradford airport would restore its link to Heathrow. There is already a major international airport at Ringway connected by a direct rail service and the M62 motorway to most parts of Yorkshire. There are some things such as airports that are best done on a Northern and not just City Region basis. I think our LEP Board realizes that which is why they invited representatives from the other regions.

Overall I hope this project works and in my own small way I shall do my best to help it along the way. Over drinks after the conference, I met several of the young men and women who had been seconded by local authorities and businesses to work for the LEP secretariat and was very impressed by their quality and enthusiasm. I hope I am no sycophant but I am also genuinely impressed by the members whom I have met over the last 6 months such as Neil McLean and Mehboob Khan from Leeds and Philip Bartey and David Grey of Sheffield. They give their time to this project for nothing for which they deserve our gratitude. I just wish there were more representatives of the communities that they serve.

New Local Enterprise Partnership for York and North Yorkshire

I have already written articles for this blog and elsewhere about local enterprise partnerships (see, in particular, "News of Yorkshire LEPs" 12 Jan 2011 and "Leeds LEP Board Members"). By a letter dated 10 Feb 2011 signed by Mark Prisk MP and Greg Clark the Business and Communities Departments approved proposals for a new local enterprise partnership for York and North Yorkshire.

Yorkshire now has three local enterprise partnerships:

• Leeds City Region
• Sheffield City Region, and
• York and North Yorkshire.

There is a measure of overlap between those partnerships. Both Leeds and Sheffield City Regions include Barnsley in their orbits and York is a member of the Leeds City Region and the York and North Yorkshire LEPs. Representatives of all three LEPs attended the so-called "Big Debate on Local Enterprise Partnerships" at Venturefest on the 16 Feb 2011 at which I was present.

The new York and North Yorkshire LEP has announced a number of activities including:

• investing in rural broadband
• promoting enterprise and raising expectations
• supporting food and agriculture
• supporting tourism and hospitality
• promoting the care sector
• investing in York as the economic driver for the region
• reducing barriers to high growth business
• delivering rural programmes, and
• supporting coastal regeneration.

All very worthy though in parts somewhat vague. We shall be following all three Yorkshire LEPs and will report on anything that is likely to be of interest to those investing in new brands, design, technology and the creative industries in Yorkshire and the Humber. Click here or call us on 0113 320 3232 if you want to be kept up to date about business advice, events, funding, professional advisors or news from our region.

Leeds LEP Board Members

Earlier today Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership announced its new board members. They are as follows:

Private Sector

Neil McLean, DLA Piper (Chair)

John Parkin, Chief Executive, Leeds Bradford International Airport

Stephen Kennedy, Chief Operating Officer of CPP Group, York

Mark Ridgeway, Managing Director of Group Rhodes, Wakefield

Stephanie Burras, Chief Executive, Leeds Ahead

Gary Jones, Chairman, MSA Engineering Systems Ltd & Heights Group, Halifax

Paul Hamer, Chief Executive Officer, WYG Group, Leeds

Brian Cantor, Vice Chancellor, University of York

Gary Lumby, Director of Small Business Banking, Yorkshire and Clydesdale Banks

Local Authorities

Leeds, Cllr Keith Wakefield

Bradford, Cllr Ian Greenwood

Kirklees, Cllr Mehboob Khan

Wakefield, Cllr Peter Box

Calderdale, Cllr Janet Battye

York, Cllr Andrew Waller

North Yorkshire, Cllr John Weighell

Harrogate, Cllr Mike Gardner

Everyone in these chambers sincerely and profusely congratulates those members and wishes them the best of British luck.

Having wished the team well we can't help reflecting that local enterprise partnerships are supposed to "drive sustainable economic growth and create the conditions for private sector job growth in their communities". The board has only one woman from the business side and one from the local authorities. Even though some of the best young entrepreneurs that this county has produced are of South Asian heritage the only representative of those communities is Mehboob Khan who is, of course, leader of Kirklees metropolitan borough council. There is nobody from the creative, electronics, food and drink, hospitality, media or software industries even though Yorkshire is strong in all those industries.

So who would we have? Young entrepreneurs like Ajaz Amjad who has already served on the board of Yorkshire Forward. Ideas men like Imran Ali. Catalysts like Linda Broughton who have united business and education at the NTI. Instead of a banker how about Steve Waud who heads the CDFA, the financial institutions that actually assist small businesses rather than trip them up. Possibly someone from an incubator like Brent Woods of the Huddersfield Media Centre. We could go on.