True Yorkshire grit shines out among our Top 50

Once again, we are delighted to bring you tales of great business success, endeavour and achievement from across Yorkshire and Humberside.

View The Yorkshire Post’s Fastest 50 supplement in full

This is the sixth time that Ward Hadaway has organised and staged the Yorkshire Fastest 50. We started the awards with the intention of highlighting and celebrating the great work done by companies of all kinds and all sizes in expanding their businesses whilst remaining profitable.

We also wanted to emphasise what a great place Yorkshire is to do business and I believe that this year we have again succeeded.

I think this is important for a number of reasons. To start with, as everyone living and working in Yorkshire will know, the past 12 months have not been the easiest. The floods which hit the region at the end of last year had a devastating impact on homes, businesses and livelihoods and Yorkshire is still very much feeling the effects.

We were fortunate at Ward Hadaway to escape the worst after our Leeds office was hit and had to be closed between Christmas and New Year. However, even that small taste of the disruption and difficulty such incidents can cause was enough for us to see just how badly affected business can be by events beyond our control and I know many companies suffered far worse than we did.

Nevertheless, it was heartening and encouraging to see how communities across Yorkshire joined together to help each other out in the immediate aftermath of the floods and in the weeks which have followed. The spirit, resilience and determination on show typified the Yorkshire grit which this year’s Ward Hadaway Yorkshire Fastest 50 displayed to make it into the final list. Celebrating and showcasing these qualities – and hopefully making people proud to be living and working here – is what the Fastest 50 is all about.

I agree with the Leeds Chamber of Commerce that without better flood defences to ensure that there’s no repetition of what happened last Christmas, it will be hard to attract investment and jobs to the city.

For many, the floods were a first chance for the Government to demonstrate the Northern Powerhouse in action, to show it was serious about closing the economic gap between the North and South.

Whilst last week’s Budget brought some welcome news in the form of £150m in funding for flood defences, this money is being shared between Yorkshire and Cumbria and concerns remain that it may not be enough to avoid a repeat of the December 2015 floods. This is unfortunate not just for the businesses and communities affected, but also on a broader level for the future of the Northern Powerhouse project.

There is a fear that without real, material progress on the Northern Powerhouse agenda, people will see it as hot air rather than something which could make a huge difference to the economies and the businesses of the North of England.

Greater powers and greater funding at a local level could be one way to address issues such as flooding and skills shortages. However, while a limited devolution deal has been agreed for the Sheffield City Region, similar deals for the rest of Yorkshire remain at a deadlock. Whilst it is important to get the structure for devolution right, the lack of progress is causing some concern for businesses.

Those involved in the situation and those leading the wider Northern Powerhouse agenda would do well to take a leaf out of the Yorkshire Fastest 50’s book. The companies in this year’s list have achieved success by taking action, forging ahead and getting the job done. It’s an approach we can all learn from.

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