12:26pm Monday 6th September 2010
By Ron Godfrey
YORKSHIRE must speak with a united voice in the wake of the abolition of its regional development agency, according to Neil Warwick, partner with northern law firm Dickinson Dees LLP.
Mr Warwick was speaking at a special consultation, attended by Yorkshire business leaders and council chiefs, at the York offices of Dickinson Dees in Bishopthorpe Road.
The round-table discussion focused on the future relationship between business and local government, following the winding down of regional development agency Yorkshire Forward and the proposals for Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs).
Mr Warwick said: “It is absolutely crucial that Yorkshire businesses work very closely with local authorities and Yorkshire Forward itself in the coming months, as the proposals for LEPs are formulated.
“This three-way, three-pronged approach should ensure that a strong and coherent message is sent to Whitehall. It is also important to move fast.
“Concrete proposals for LEPs need to be in to central government by the end of the year, so there is little time to lose.”
Barry Dodd, the chief executive of the GSM Group, and a leading member of the new business pressure group Big Conversation Yorkshire, was one of the main speakers at the seminar.
He said: “Across Yorkshire’s business community, a conversation has begun about a new approach which uses ‘Brand Yorkshire’ wherever it can add value to support a step change in the county’s economic fortunes.
“It will bring together the skill and responsiveness of the business community to deliver targeted strategies of government and the new local economic partnerships, at a pan-LEP level, where this will achieve maximum impact in a cost-effective way.
“Discussions are taking place among businesses, within local authorities and those involved in creating the emerging LEPs, about how best to develop the economy against a backdrop of decreasing public expenditure.
Yorkshire business wanted to add its voice to the debate and was proposing that a pan-LEP approach be taken in four key areas:
• Promotion for tourism and the generation of inward investment leads.
• Innovation to develop new business opportunities and harness the power of the region’s leading universities.
• Finance for business expansion and to develop investor readiness.
• Intelligence to help understand the challenges and opportunities that exist.
He said: “By creating a Community Interest Company, set up solely for the benefit of the people of Yorkshire, we believe we may have found a model that will bring the private and public sector together behind a single and cohesive aim; to accelerate business growth at a rate which will put the county on the world’s economic stage.
“We are provisionally calling this new entity the Yorkshire Enterprise Partnership.”
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