Business Diary: September 14

MARK Prisk, the Minister for Business, was not backward in coming forward about certain parts of the media talking down the economy when he believes they should be talking it up.

Mr Prisk, who ran a business before entering Parliament, told journalists during a visit to Sheffield: "Day in, day out, talking

to small, medium and large businesses it is crystal clear to me, especially in engineering, that the gloom and doom of the John Humphrys of this world is misplaced.

"I'm not complacent. There is a long way to go. But this wholly negative attitude that we'll all go to hell in a handcart and double

dip is just around the corner is unproductive."

Going forward, locally

THE new chief executive of Leeds City Council has called on the coalition Government to give local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) the power to rebalance the economy.

Speaking at a debate on the changes and challenges in Yorkshire 100 days after the 2010 General Election last week, Tom Riordan, former chief executive of regional development agency Yorkshire Forward, said: "The real issue is that we are far too centralised as a country still. Yorkshire Forward has done some great things but we never really had the opportunity to be a creature of this place, we were always a creature of Whitehall.

"This is an opportunity to say, 'You can't rebalance the economy from London. If you want us to rebalance the economy' give us the tools to do it here'."

The event, organised by DLA Piper and Financial Leeds, was led by BBC political commentator Jon Sopel at Leeds Metropolitan University's Rose Bowl building. Mr Riordan was joined on a panel with GSM Group chairman Barry Dodd, Financial Leeds chief executive Howard Kew and Mike Collier, chairman of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

Link questioned

MEANWHILE, Mr Riordan sparked a debate after claiming that Yorkshire should develop closer links with Manchester.

Mr Riordan said the one improvement to transport infrastructure he would make in the region would be to cut the rail journey time between Leeds and Manchester to half an hour.

"If you could get from Leeds to Manchester in half an hour by rail, it would make a big difference to the economy," he said. "It is the key transport improve-ment we should make."

However, speaking to Diary afterwards, one member of the business audience said: "Leeds has got more in common with London, Newcastle and Birmingham than it has with Manchester. We shouldn't try to force a relationship that isn't there."

Winning brand

IT is not yet clear what funds will be available to support the work of LEPs, apart from a 1bn Regional Growth Fund, but businessman Barry Dodd, who is also leading the proposal to create a pan-Yorkshire body to work with individual LEPs, said the lack of money presented a great opportunity for the region.

"We will have to think differently," he said. "We have the best international brand outside London, called Yorkshire. If we can put the right package together to attract inward investment we could do better than we do now which is already a vast improvement on what went before."

Sombre message

THERE'S a lot to be said for holding your nerve when microphones malfunction. So hats off to Terry Hodgkinson, the outgoing chairman of Yorkshire Forward, who carried on regardless when his mobile microphone fell off during the Institute of Directors' Awards dinner at the Royal Armouries in Leeds.

Using the microphone on the lectern, he addressed the audience "not as the chairman of Yorkshire Forward, but as an independent, free-thinking businessman".

He acknowledged that Yorkshire Forward, which is being axed by the coalition Government, might have been a bit big and sometimes a bit bureaucratic. But, he argued, it had always enjoyed great support from most business people.

Although he declined to talk at length about the new Government, he said he was worried about the process of transition to Local Enterprise Partnerships. "Surely we are stronger as the sum of our parts, rather than just the parts?"

It was a sombre message that reflected the uncertain times ahead.

Hot on currry trail

WHAT is more British – curry or fish and chips? Fish and chips may be widely regarded as the UK's signature dish but the country's first curry house opened almost 50 years before the first fish and chip shop.

Sake Dean Mahomed established the Hindoostane Coffee House in George Street, central London, in 1810 – the first Indian restaurant

in the UK. The first fish and chip shop is believed to have opened in about 1860.

Zulfi Karim, director of the World Curry Festival, which is taking place in Leeds next month, said: "You could say that curry is more traditional in the UK than fish and chips."

But the search is now on to find out when Yorkshire's first curry house opened.

Mr Karim said: "We're calling all curry fans out there to help us find out when the first curry house was established in the region."

If you have a contender, let us know.