Tom Riordan: Don't silence the strong voice that shows we mean business

In this global economy, the price of commodities like steel, confidence in stock markets and access to credit can sweep like wildfire from the US and China to affect jobs here in a matter

of days.

Many larger businesses are now owned by foreign parent companies. Interest rate decisions are taken in London. Regulatory decisions are taken in Brussels and London. Most public spending decisions are taken in London. There is little local discretion in banking, with investment decisions taken by centralised credit committees.

In this shift of economic power away from the region, the one antidote to this trend has been Yorkshire Forward, the region's development agency.

Ten years ago, it was formed by allocating powers and resources that were controlled centrally in Whitehall to a body led by business and political leaders from Yorkshire

and Humber.

Over that period, its budget has doubled, its effectiveness has increased and it has been given more power over decisions relating to business support, tourism, European funding and skills.

It has never missed a core target set for it by Ministers, and for every pound it invests, only eight pence goes on overheads and, for business investments, 10 comes back into the economy. Above all, it has recognised that businesses create wealth and shaped its role around supporting them to do so.

The real test of Yorkshire Forward, however, has come in the last year. There was a real risk a year ago that the collapse in parts of the region's economy that took place in previous recessions would happen again.

Unlike those recessions, however, this time the region had spent the last decade building stronger public-private partnerships and a more diverse economy. And it had Yorkshire Forward's flexible resources to deploy.

More than 100,000 businesses have been helped by the Yorkshire Forward-funded Business Link and independent research shows that those receiving intensive help are performing better. Job fairs with councils have helped bring together employers with thousands of jobseekers, and although inevitably jobs have been lost, we still have more than 200,000 more people in work than in previous recessions.

We have continued our urban and rural regeneration programmes in Sheffield, Bradford, Hull, Leeds, Harrogate, Grimsby and many more places across the region. A Financial Services Task Force has convinced decision makers in Lloyds Banking Group that the excellent workforce in Halifax and Leeds is to form one of three UK retail banking hubs in the

new group.

Welcome to Yorkshire's excellent marketing campaign has led directly to a 20 per cent increase in visitor numbers, augmented by a hugely successful Clipper weekend in Hull and the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards coming to Sheffield.

Superfast broadband is coming to South Yorkshire in 2010, rather than five years later. The largest carbon capture scheme in the world is to be built with 165m of EU money in Hatfield, creating thousands of jobs and already stimulating investors to look to Yorkshire as the European capital of carbon capture. And Rolls Royce has chosen the flagship Advanced Manufacturing Park in Rotherham to house new nuclear manufacturing and research facilities. This site of the Battle of Orgreave from the miners' strike, which used to symbolise tragic economic and social breakdown, is now a symbol of optimism for hundreds of new jobs in new industries.

None of the achievements mentioned above would have happened without Yorkshire Forward. Ask Rolls Royce, Lloyds Banking Group and the energy industry or read what the region's key business organisations said to the recent Parliamentary committee about the risk of dismantling the agency, if you don't believe this. All of the investments represent calculated risks that would not have been taken by either the public or private sectors.

Equally, none of it could have been done by Yorkshire Forward working alone. Rolls Royce are investing in the world-class expertise of Sheffield University. Our record foreign investment figures are testament to our team-work with local government. The innovation in the voluntary sector has ensured UK award-winning schemes like Charity Bank and Richmond Station.

"Team Yorkshire and Humber" is more than a concept these days; it's

the way we do business. It's the main reason we are now punching above our weight, beating the competition and making our own economic weather.

While we have weathered an unprecedented economic storm, there are huge risks for this region that the winners of the next General Election will need to consider. Businesses will need policies that create a low inflation/low interest rate environment and a fair and affordable credit and taxation system. They also need a strong transport and IT infrastructure, as well as good schools, colleges, universities and hospitals. In many towns and cities the public sector is the biggest employer and the inevitable cuts that will be required to reduce the UK's deficit will need to be handled carefully.

So the other big risk is to lose the one element of economic decision-making the region still has in Yorkshire Forward.

Who will turn the thousand jobs on carbon capture into 50,000?

Who will decisively act when the next economic shock comes, which it inevitably will? Who will bind together business and political leaders into a united team?

Who will help mitigate the inevitable upheaval caused by the cuts in public spending?

Who will listen to critics and repeatedly act on their concerns?

Whitehall won't. The market won't. National quangos won't.

Yorkshire Forward can get better. Although we have tried hard to engage locally (and won an international award for this!), Regional

Development Agencies are still perceived as being unaccountable. The region is a large one and local economies tend to cluster around the cities, so a city-region approach is welcomed by Yorkshire Forward. A stronger input to key decisions by local government can certainly help achieve economic success.

The key issue on this "localism" agenda embraced by all three main parties should not just be Yorkshire Forward's budget, however, which

is the tip of the iceberg.

Real economic power still resides in Whitehall, and the scale of transport, housing, innovation, skills and other key budgets dwarfs that of Yorkshire Forward. That is the real prize for our cities and towns to strive for.

Whoever wins the next General Election, this region needs far-sighted decision making based on facts. By all means change Yorkshire Forward.

By all means make it more accountable and "owned" by the region. Let political and business leaders decide any future model.

But don't cut it back so much that it loses its ability to get

investors to the table. That would be tantamount to abolition. Don't remove its business voice and its flexibility. And, above all, don't throw away the most effective economic development agency that this region has ever had.

Tom Riordan is chief executive of Yorkshire Forward.