Member Article

Manchester unveils Business Growth Hub

Manchester’s new Business Growth Hub was launched by Lord Heseltine at Etihad Stadium yesterday afternoon.

Lord Heseltine outlined the new body, which aims to give firms of all size in Greater Manchester, and the wider North West, the help needed to grow.

Over 400 delegates attended the Manchester Conference for Growth, where the announcement was made, along with speeches from Mike Blackburn, chair of the greater Manchester LEP and regional director for BT, and Richard Guy of the Business Growth Hub.

In his rousing speech, Lord Heseltine talked of a recovery strategy to confront and overcome the current economic crisis.

He said: “We need to rebalance our economy. That means a major shift of power from London to provincial England.

“We are all in this together and Government needs to put its own house in order as it exhorts others to do the same.

“I believe that we need a rebirth of provincial power, characteristic of the centuries when our cities first came to prominence.”

Improvement of failing schools and leveraging budgets to link private sector investment were also talked about.

The new hub is in response to publicly funded business support schemes that have been scrapped, such as Business Link.

It aims to build a community of private firms to share advice and mentoring for up to 75,000 businesses with the ambition and potential to grow.

Help will be available for businesses to grow their bottom line, develop their profile, find partners and create growth.

Mike Blackburn added: “The launch of the Manchester business growth hub is hugely important and is another great example of the private and public sectors in Manchester joining forces to support businesses.

“As we strive to stabilise our economy and then grow again, giving support to businesses is a crucial component in that plant.

“I’m delighted therefore that the LEP has given it’s full backing to this initiative and look forward to seeing successful growth in the coming years.”

The Hub is chaired by Michael Oglesby CBE, and directed by Richard Jeffery, and supported by the Manchester LEP, Manchester Solutions and Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce.

It is free to join, and will be recruiting businesses who can benefit from the group of experts who will be at the centre of the organisation.

Business mentors, coaches, banks, universities, innovation specialists, lawyers, marketing agencies, chambers of commerce, and other Private sector partners including Ernst and Young, Baker Tilly and Experian are already signed up.

Director of the Hub, Richard Jeffery, said: “We are creating a community where businesses with the desire and potential to grow will get the professional and world-class support they need to succeed.

“We know that supporting and accelerating the growth of these ambitious companies is absolutely key to our economic recovery.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .