Financial Leeds vows to keep its identity

Financial Leeds' initial contract for funding runs out in March next year, and Howard Kew, chief executive, said the body's impact risked being diluted if it was forced to merge.

The organisation receives 2.45m from Yorkshire Forward and has seen an increase in its membership, which pays a fee.

Mr Kew said they had begun planning for the possibility of post-election austerity and said that efficiency savings meant they had not spent all of the 2009-10 budget.

He told the Yorkshire Post that while there could be a "superficial" attraction to bring organisations together, it could prove misguided.

"If you try to bring it in with broader agendas, these things can get diluted. Whether the ownership or funding structures change, I think the identity of Financial Leeds is really, really important. It may be that the way we are funded or the ownership changes."

Financial Leeds agreed a three-year funding deal from March 2008, but Mr Kew, a former Norwich Union executive, said it had effectively become a two-year plan for him because he joined the organisation in November of that year before spending a few months "getting up to full speed".

"The funding is contracted to March 2011. After that, who knows? There is a challenging environment there in that discretionary public investment is under very significant challenge as we all know.

"As you would expect of any small business, we are looking at the post-March 2011 period already and thinking about it very carefully."

Mr Kew said the activities which had pleased him most were Financial Leeds' involvement and regional financial services task force and a banking group, both set up in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

"None of these were envisaged at all. We have had to invest a lot of time and effort in areas which we had not envisaged. The RDA was completely supportive in both these areas."

Mr Kew said also said he was proud of the strong case his organisation had put for retaining HBOS jobs in Halifax, as well as improving the relationship between banks and borrowers but said there other things which Financial Leeds could do better, citing the events with which it has been involved.

"There has been an approach of suck it and see to some of the events we have done. Some were better than expected but some didn't go as expected."

In future they would seek quality over quantity so it is not merely "bums on seats", he added.

Staff from Financial Leeds and Leeds Financial Services Initiative, as it was previously known, have been on trade visits to Barcelona, Shanghai and Milan over the last two years.

Mr Kew said they were still in dialogue with some Chinese businesses about them establishing a presence in the West Yorkshire city.

There are particular opportunities in advisory, legal and intellectual property work, he said.

"What we are not seeing is US venture capital money coming in to buy Yorkshire businesses," he said.

Financial Leeds has also identified several intermediaries who are active in inward investment and is now developing links with them.