Planning to give Yorkshire a voice of its own

BUSINESS leaders behind a proposal for a new company to improve the competitiveness of the region's private sector said the new organisation will be called the Yorkshire Enterprise Partnership.

The name was agreed at a meeting of business representatives who believe that Yorkshire needs a voice of its own as the Government prepares to claw back decision-making powers to Whitehall.

The draft proposal for the new Community Interest Company (CIC) will be published next week for public consultation before it is submitted to Whitehall in September.

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Clare Morrow, chairman of Welcome to Yorkshire, and Nick Pontone, director of policy at Yorkshire and Humber chambers of commerce, are writing the consultation document, while Ajaz Ahmed, the Huddersfield-based e-tycoon who founded internet giant Freeserve, will lead the web strategy.

Barry Dodd, chairman of the steering committee which agreed the draft proposal, said: "The Humber is included in our proposal but we want to get across the Yorkshire brand in the name.

"We went through several names and came up with that one because it is the closest to the brand that we want to create."

The coalition is scrapping regional development agencies such as Yorkshire Forward and has invited local authority

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and business leaders to set up local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) while shifting key roles including inward investment, innovation and access to finance to London.

The group said there is "significant concern" that Yorkshire will be less able to stimulate business growth, create jobs and attract investment following the shake-up.

The draft proposal aims to create a community interest company (CIC) and the group has enlisted the help of firms including law firm Irwin Mitchell, accountants Grant Thornton, and engineering consultancy Arup.

There are 25 business leaders on the steering group, but this could expand as support gathers momentum.

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Mr Dodd said: "The support so far has been quite outstanding. People are waiting for this and we've had nothing but encouragement. There will be huge disappointment in the business community if it doesn't go ahead."

The group also includes the CBI, the IoD, the EEF manufacturers' organisation, the Federation of Small Businesses, the Yorkshire and Humber Chambers of Commerce and York University.

The draft proposal says that the CIC is "not a successor to the RDA, but a fresh approach fully consistent with government policy tasked with maximising the economic potential of the Yorkshire brand and leading big ticket competitiveness projects of a remit and scale beyond the LEPs".

Mr Dodd said: "It's really important to understand that the Yorkshire brand is incredibly powerful internationally and we will be worse off without a body like this."

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Core functions would include promotion, innovation, finance, intelligence and infrastructure, which the group argues are best performed at a Yorkshire-wide level, working in tandem with LEPs.

Mr Dodd said: "We have to work in hand with the councils and we have already started personal briefings and had positive comments from them. During August we will be making sure that all council leaders and chief executives are briefed properly on what is happening.

"To succeed, this has to be a democratically accountable CIC with full council support. We can't go off on our own."

The draft document will be sent to a large professional services firm at the end of August to produce a final version to present to the Government.

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Mr Dodd said: "Our bid has to be submitted to Whitehall by September 9, so we will use the rest of August to gather ideas."

A final decision on the proposal is likely to be made after the Government's comprehensive spending review later this year.

The Yorkshire Post is campaigning for a Yorkshire-wide body that champions the cause of Yorkshire and fights for new investment.

Who does what

Yorkshire Enterprise Partnership's core functions would include promotion, innovation, finance, intelligence and infrastructure.

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On promotion, the community interest company would combine tourism and inward investment activities to get the best out of the Yorkshire brand.

Regarding innovation, it will look at how to build on Yorkshire's strengths by focusing on what cannot be achieved in London.

On finance, YEP would assume responsibility for the new 90m Finance Yorkshire venture capital and loan fund among others.

Regarding intelligence, it would try to build on the work of Yorkshire Forward's economists and use pooled resources from the local enterprise partnerships to avoid duplication and get better value for money in using economic intelligence for future planning.

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