Paul Drechsler: Let's make Yorkshire count now the election is over

My first point doesn’t start in Sheffield. Or Yorkshire. Or even the UK but 5,000 miles away – in Chengdu, China. With Wang Chunming, a man who started out selling bamboo clothes hangers before moving into the construction industry.

Last year, he was at the heart of a deal between Sheffield and Sichuan Construction Group – £1bn of investment over 60 years.

Apartments, offices, leisure facilities – maybe the city’s first five-star hotel. Investment which could transform Sheffield city centre. So why here? Why Sheffield? Why didn’t Mr Wang choose Frankfurt? Or Madrid? Or Amsterdam?

Well – the answer’s simple. His daughter studied here. It was only when he visited her at the University of Sheffield that he saw the city for the first time and realised the opportunity on offer.

Let’s remember that every satisfied customer of our world-class education system is a mini-trade envoy for the United Kingdom. Every time someone in China mentions Sheffield or York or Leeds at the dinner table, we’re spreading our influence.

Every time someone in India looks proudly at a degree certificate from a British university on a mantelpiece, we’re spreading our influence.

Every time someone in Malaysia googles the league tables and sees our universities at the top, we’re spreading our influence – on investment, on research and on innovation. Our world-class universities are an asset. And that’s something we should shout about.

Let’s move onto the second point. For decades, Yorkshire’s been known for manufacturing. When I moved to the UK from Ireland – aged 22 – the first place I lived was near Yarm. My first job was as a mechanical engineering trainee in an ammonia plant.

But today South Yorkshire has taken manufacturing to the next level. To paraphrase an old M&S advert, this is not just any manufacturing... this is advanced manufacturing. When firms can’t solve their problems anywhere else, they come to the Sheffield City Region.

Last month, Rotherham’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre celebrated its centenary. Not its 100th year – but its 100th member.

In years to come, when you see a Boeing plane in the sky, the wing flaps that got it there will be built in Rotherham. And when you see a McLaren sports car, its chassis will have been built in Rotherham too.

The Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre is printing 3D models of the inner ear for use in local hospitals and it’s the only place – outside the United States – which can cast a ton of titanium into a single part.

Yet, to attract the Centre’s 200th, 300th and 400th partner, the newly-elected Government will need an industrial strategy.

An industrial strategy which is a ‘survivor’ – which makes it through the elections and politics and comes out the other side unharmed.

That’s why – at the CBI – we want to see a newly-created unit modelled on the Office for Budget Responsibility.

This would measure the new industrial strategy’s progress towards its goals and it would make sure that words are backed up with actual, measurable action.

This brings me to my third point – transport. Sheffield City Region is in the ‘Goldilocks Zone’. North enough to be part of the Northern Powerhouse; South enough to get to London in decent time; East enough to be near to Leeds and Hull; West enough to get to Manchester and Liverpool. Sheffield’s central location is just one reason that logistics firms love it here, but there’s still a lot to do.

Sky Betting and Gaming set up an office in Leeds six years ago. They started with around 200 staff. And – as business boomed – they took on another 500 people. So far so good. Yet – despite their best efforts – they found it almost impossible to get people to commute the one-hour drive from Sheffield to Leeds.

In the end, they opened an office in Sheffield and set up a graduate academy in Leeds.

But it’s just one example of the ‘invisible walls’ that exist due to poor transport links. Yet, if we can finally crack this, the gains could be massive.

Imagine if we reduced the time it takes to travel from Sheffield to Leeds; Leeds to Manchester and Manchester to Liverpool from the hour it takes today to just 30 minutes.

This would spark a quiet revolution in the North as – with their commute halved – people in Manchester and Sheffield thought about working in Leeds, and vice-versa.

But it would also do something else. It would bring 18 million people – a population larger than the Northern Powerhouse – within an hour of Leeds.

Of course – as we head into the next Parliament – no-one’s going to come up with the answers for us. It’s up to us, so let’s make the rest of the UK stand up and take notice.

Paul Drechsler is the president of the CBI. He gave a keynote speech to Sheffield business leaders last night. 
This is an edited version.