Enter the world of politics, urges new CBI boss
The Government is transferring funding and powers to city regions that agree to have elected mayors from 2017.
Some members of the business community have raised concerns that the influential roles will go to long-serving town hall politicians rather than a new breed of city leaders.
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Hide AdCarolyn Fairbairn told The Yorkshire Post: “Business leaders that are prepared to put themselves up for that and take a leap would be fantastic.”
She made the comments during the launch of Business North, a lobby group designed to help northern businesses speak with a united and coherent voice and provide leadership in support of economic growth in the North of England.
Around 80 business leaders attended the event at KPMG’s new office in Leeds last night.
They heard presentations from McKinsey & Co and the Big Four accountancy firm about some of the world’s most successful mid-sized cities.
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Hide AdVivian Hunt, managing partner of McKinsey in UK and Ireland, said these cities demonstrated collaboration, long-term vision, scale through connectivity and smart diversification.
Ms Fairbairn told The Yorkshire Post it is important that initiatives to create a Northern Powerhouse “are about what really matters to business”.
She said: “It is going about the real things on the skills agenda, it is going to be about the right kind of infrastructure and connectivity and it is going to be about the right kind of innovation. But unless it comes from the bottom up, from business, we won’t get the right kind of impact.”
Ms Fairbairn added: “The North starts with extraordinary assets in terms of its people, its universities, its businesses.”