YORK Economic Partnership (YEP) is working with City of York Council to make York a more international city.

The partnership of public and private-sector members will help the council to develop a strategy, with York Professionals conducting an audit of its members’ engagement in international trade.

The strategy will then be used to set targets to improve exporting.

However, members said the plan would need cross-party buy-in from local politicians.

Brian Cantor, vice chancellor of the University of York, said becoming an international city required “shoe leather” to be spent getting out in front of people.

James Alexander, leader of the council, said: “To have an international flight budget, you have to have political buy-in to recognise it’s about shoe leather rather than a junket.”

Kersten England, chief executive of the council, announced they had produced documents summarising York’s masterplan, with key statistics from areas such as economy, sport and culture, for travelling York businesses to pass to their international colleagues.

International trade was one element of the partnership’s focus for increasing York’s output, measured as gross value added (GVA), which it said was its top priority when considering the challenges the city faces over the next few years.

The body said it would await the outcome of a retail impact assessment before deciding its stance on the debate surrounding out-of-town retail development.

Adam Sinclair, chairman of York Business Forum, who is against plans to develop further retail space at Monks Cross, which forms part of a proposal for York’s community stadium project, said he would be commissioning a study separately from the developers’ impact study.

Peter Kay, chairman of the YEP board, said: “We want a vibrant and successful city centre. Our strategy is to support net GVA improvement. We’re against any development of net economic detriment to the city and we’re keen to see improvement of the city centre.”