Enter the world of politics, urges new CBI boss

The new director general of the Confederation of British Industry has encouraged ambitious business leaders to enter politics when northern cities hold mayoral elections next year.
By The Newsroom
Published 1st Feb 2016, 21:20 BST
Updated 1st Feb 2016, 21:24 BST
New CBI Director-General Carolyn Fairbairn poses for portraits at the CBI offices in London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Monday November 16, 2015. In a message to CBI members, Carolyn Fairbairn set out other "defining issues" such as how devolution will affect growth outside London. See PA story INDUSTRY CBI. Photo credit should read: Anthony Devlin/PA WireNew CBI Director-General Carolyn Fairbairn poses for portraits at the CBI offices in London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Monday November 16, 2015. In a message to CBI members, Carolyn Fairbairn set out other "defining issues" such as how devolution will affect growth outside London. See PA story INDUSTRY CBI. Photo credit should read: Anthony Devlin/PA Wire
New CBI Director-General Carolyn Fairbairn poses for portraits at the CBI offices in London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Monday November 16, 2015. In a message to CBI members, Carolyn Fairbairn set out other "defining issues" such as how devolution will affect growth outside London. See PA story INDUSTRY CBI. Photo credit should read: Anthony Devlin/PA Wire

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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Carolyn 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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Vivian 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.”

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