Member Article

Business leaders back devolution for Sheffield

Business representatives from across Sheffield are urging devolution from Whitehall so that the major cities can be more economically competitive.

With guest speakers Cllr. Sir Richard Leese, the Leader of Manchester City Council and Chair of the Core Cities Cabinet and Andrew Carter, Deputy Chief Executive of the Centre for Cities, business leaders and the City Council discussed how devolution could drive economic growth and create jobs in Sheffield.

Of central importance to the meeting is how Sheffield, Leeds and Manchester could play a bigger role in the national economy if they had the power to make more decisions locally over things like skills and training and transport investment.

Leader of Sheffield City Council, Cllr Julie Dore, who co-chairs the Business Advisor Panel said: “Sheffield’s businesses recognise the difference we could make to the local economy if only Government would give us the tools to do the job.

“Cities like Sheffield are where economic growth happens. They are the key sources of business, innovation, culture, research and employment in the country.

“But every city is different. How can civil servants in Whitehall know what is best for Sheffield’s economy? It’s not rocket science - you can’t expect the skills and training needs of businesses in Sheffield to be the same as Southampton.”

Paul Houghton, partner at Grant Thornton and co-chair of the Business Advisor Panel commented: “If the UK is to be a more competitive, attractive place to do business, it needs to release and harness the latent capacity of its cities and enable those cities to punch their weight on an international scale.

“International studies have shown that, where countries have more devolved local control and a stronger performing group of cities, they tend to do better economically.

“But English cities are not competing on a level playing field, which is undermining UK economic growth and hindering the UK from making full use of its economic assets.

“The tight central control of finances, local infrastructure development and skills provision has limited what can be achieved in cities and city regions like Sheffield.”

As part of the ‘Think Cities’ campaign, Centre for Cities’ deputy chief executive, Andrew Carter, stressed that businesses in cities have a vital role in persuading Government to give cities the control over decisions and money they need to drive growth and create jobs.

Andrew said: “There is real momentum behind the push for devolution and we have seen all the main political parties making positive announcements towards delivering greater devolution ahead of the 2015 General Election.

“But, we need more than words; we need the parties to Think Cities and make commitments in their manifestos to give our cities real powers to drive growth.

“And it’s not just politicians and thinkers who are on-board; businesses across our major cities, like Sheffield and Manchester, want to see our cities better equipped to punch their weight and contribute more to the national economy.”

The Centre for Cities will be including the feedback from the local businesses who attended the meeting into their wider campaign activity.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .