Businesses will be key to delivering economic growth and the Chancellor is right to look to change the Green Book - Susan Hinchcliffe
It’s the economy stupid. The new Chancellor was right when he emphasised the importance of his mission - to make Great Britain, Growth Britain again. Businesses create wealth, businesses create jobs. It’s the role of the Government to create the right environment so that businesses can deliver on these growth ambitions for all of us.
In my experience businesses are more than willing to play their part. As Leader of Bradford it was businesses who led on the skills agenda, putting their shoulder to the wheel alongside the Council and West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
The results are clear. The lowest Neet (young people not in education, employment, or training) figure in the city for a decade, well below the national average. That means the youngest city in the country now has more young people with higher skills and broader experience than previous generations. They’re job ready, thanks to this longstanding public private partnership.
Before politics I was Head of Regeneration for Business in the Community, a brilliant national business-led charity. There I worked with big businesses, who by changing their operating practices in a small but significant way, showed they could make a big societal difference.
Where they locate, how they recruit and train their staff, how they procure and include SMEs in their supply chain were all missions not just embraced by senior business leaders but led on by them.
PWC’s investment in Bradford is an excellent example of how this can work in a place. They made a huge investment in a new regional centre in the city centre but it’s not altruism on their part. It makes hard business sense for them.
PWC gets access to a young, skilled, diverse workforce that powers their business growth. In spite of all the talk of AI there are still significant skills shortages in the country.
Grant Thornton published a study last year where 79 per cent of the businesses they spoke to said a lack of necessary skills was affecting their productivity. A young skilled workforce is what any successful business and nation needs.
It’s clear the Chancellor will find willing partners in the business community to achieve Growth Britain. Businesses want to play their part.
And the investment, innovation and job creation objectives of John Healey’s plan are all implicitly understood by a business audience.
But to join in they do need an easy plug and play mechanism. A Government which has an open door and is a facilitator, not a blocker, will harness a lot of goodwill leading to positive change in our regional economies.
Our regional Metro Mayors are increasingly the front door for this kind of engagement. They’re getting more powers, more access to investment and in return will be expected to deliver quickly, with businesses, to achieve growth.
The National Wealth Fund will be alongside them building a strategic infrastructure pipeline for each region, facilitating more private sector conversations and giving them the confidence to invest.
Finally I was delighted to hear the Chancellor talk about changing the Green Book. The Green Book is the mechanism through which all projects are measured for economic value by the Treasury. It’s the document which I butted up against regularly when trying to secure funding for the region.
On paper and in the short term, more prosperous areas with higher land values are always going to seem to provide a better return on investment using Green Book calculations.
But always investing in richer areas to the detriment of those with lower land values, just entrenches inequalities and overheats successful regional economies.
The Chancellor in his first major speech on the economy recognised this straightaway. He will now introduce an economic potential analysis to the Government’s business case decisions alongside the Green Book, assessing places “not on what they are today, but on what they could become in the future”. That’s absolutely the right call.
Ultimately poverty in communities is expensive. The public purse morally and legally has to support adults and children who might not have fared well in life. If those same people are given access to opportunities to get the right skills and good jobs then they will have enough money to look after themselves and their family, leading to happier, healthier lives. The result is that poverty reduces and the cost of it declines. That’s a prize that should unite all parties – the individual, the state and business.
The budget next month needs to recognise the size of that prize and match the ambition set. It’s time for our obvious potential to now be converted into the next wave of Great British Growth.
Susan Hinchcliffe is the former leader of Bradford Council.