Meet the team charged with making York better

The city council, right?

Wrong.

Since April, all these have been in the hands of Make It York, a new organisation that is wholly-owned and partly funded by the city council, but independently managed. It has also taken over responsibility for tourism organisation Visit York and for Science City.

The launch of Make It York represents a big change. Effectively, the city council has entrusted control of things that will hugely affect the future wealth of the city into the hands of a publicly-owned but independently-run business.

There are good reasons for bringing together in one organisation responsibility for things as diverse as tourism, the city centre, Shambles market, Science City and economic investment, says Steve Brown, Make It York's first boss.

There will, for a start, be a lot more joined up thinking, says the 54-year-old, who has 30 years on experience on regional newspapers - including as regional managing director of Yorkshire Post publisher Johnston Press.

He gives an example. Last year, tourism staff at Visit York were still busily promoting the Festival of Angels, blissfully unaware - because staff at the city council hadn't told them - that the event had been cancelled because funding had dried up. "That should never happen again," he says.

Make It York will also be able to prioritise important jobs - such as supporting local businesses or encouraging new businesses to come here - that for the city council were lower down the list.

"When the council ran everything, something like business support would have been 15th on its list, below social care, education, housing. But for us, it will be first or second," Mr Brown says.

There will also be less bureaucracy. And the new Make It York should be able to take a longer-term approach when it comes to things like developing a business strategy for York, since it will be less subject to the whims of local politicians with their eyes on the next election.

For Jane, Lady Gibson - the former chair of Visit York who is now chair of Make It York - the new organisation offers a huge opportunity to better promote York, to better manage its festivals and markets, and to encourage new business and inward investment.

It makes sense for the organisation promoting York as a tourist destination to also be responsible for running markets and festivals, she says: and for the people providing support for new businesses or trying to find office space for companies which want to come here to be sitting next to the team from Science City, which itself offers business and innovation support to new and existing science- and technology-based businesses.

She uses the analogy of a shop window. Visit York used to be the shop window for the city, she says - but it had no control over the things that were put in the window.

"Make It York can develop the products, as well as put them in the shop window."

It isn't the first time that services once provided by the city council have been hived off. In the past, it has been tourism itself (to Visit York); museums and galleries (to the York Museums' Trust); and, most recently, libraries (to the Explore York libraries and archives mutual).

In many ways, the advantages of allowing such services to be managed outside of direct local authority control - less red tape; access to funding sources not available to councils; a stronger, more effective business ethic - are obvious.

But isn't there a risk that the more the council sheds functions like economic development and managing festivals and the city centre, the less democratic control we will have over them?

If we don't like the council's policies, we can vote councillors out of office every few years. Not so with organisations like the museums' trust or, now, Make It York.

It is the way the modern world is going that, in the teeth of continuing austerity cuts, councils are shedding more responsibilities, says Lady Gibson.

But York people needn't be concerned that Make It York will be unaccountable, she says.

It remains wholly-owned by the city council. The council is Make It York's sole shareholder, the authority has two seats on the Make It York board - and the organisation is accountable to a special cross-party council with which it will meet every two months and, ultimately, to Cabinet.

Make It York's job is to make York a more prosperous, cultural, thriving city. "If we deliver on that, we will carry on," Lady Gibson says. "If we don't, our shareholders (the city council) will say 'that's not a good job. We will have to do something else.'"

Both Chris Steward and Keith Aspden, the council's new Tory leader and Liberal Democrat deputy leader respectively, share that view.

There was no direct democratic control of either Science City York or Visit York before, points out Cllr Steward. They are both now part of the council-owned Make It York. So if anything, he argues, the authority has more control: not over the day-to-day running of the organisation, but over whether it delivers. "Ultimately, we could decide to pull the plug if it isn't working," he says.

Cllr Aspden agrees. The key thing will be for Make It York to succeed in its job of promoting tourism and encouraging inward investment and economic growth, he said.

But the five-member council 'shareholder' committee which will work with Make It York - and which will include a councillor from every party plus one independent - and the Cabinet would between them be able to "make sure the council got a good deal", he said.

Ultimately, Make It York's job will be to make York a better place to visit, to live, and to work.

Jane Gibson wants it to become one of those organisations - like the Museums Trust or the Civic Trust - that future generations will look back on and think made a difference.

It has already had a few interesting thoughts about Shambles market - including the possibility of opening an evening market featuring arts and crafts stalls and even car boot sales in the summer months.

Watch this space...

Panel Make It York has a total annual revenue of about £3.6 million. Of this, about £900,000 comes directly from City of York Council. The remainder comes from income generated through tourism-related activities and marketing services, sponsorship and so on.

The organisation is managed by a 13-strong board of directors, headed by Managing Director Steve Brown and chair Lady Gibson. The city council has two representatives on the Make it York board - the council leader, and council chief executive.

The organisation is wholly owned by the city council, and is accountable to a five-member council shareholder committee (made up of one councillor from each party, plus an independent) and to the council's Cabinet.

Make It York has several areas of responsibility:

- Visit York, the city's tourism authority, responsible for promoting York nationally and internationally, and encouraging the visitors on which a significant number of jobs in the city depend. According to latest figures, York has 6.7 million visitors a year, who between them spend £573 million and support 19,000 jobs

- Science City York, which provides support and expertise for businesses in the science and technology sector in York

- Management of York city centre and the Shambles market. A new city centre and markets manager, Chris Price, has recently been appointed. make It York's aim, says managing director Steve Brown, is to "achieve the right balance between getting the Shambles market working really well and backing it up with high quality, complementary activity in Parliament Street."

-  Festivals and events.

- Business support and inward investment. The economic development and inward investment teams from City of York Council have transferred across to Make It York. The organisation offers support to help local businesses grow: there are plans, for example, for a 'one stop shop' for business advice. It is also responsible for trying to attract businesses that might want to relocate to York or open an office or branch here. "Where is the next Hiscox coming from?" Mr Brown says. "It is our job to go and find it. We will be targeting growing companies in some of the sectors that York already specialises in, for example rail, science, food production etc."