What a Northern Powerhouse in Yorkshire means to: James Sleight, director of PKF Geoffrey Martin & Co

As Bdaily’s Northern Powerhouse series continues to give the business people of Yorkshire the opportunity to voice their opinions on the the government’s Northern Powerhouse initiative, we speak with James Sleight, director of PKF Geoffrey Martin & Co.

PKF Geoffrey Martin & Co is an insolvency and business restructuring specialist. James is also head of the Leeds office.

Hi James, so will the Northern Powerhouse be realised in Yorkshire?

Yes, but the form it takes will be crucial.

Many people think that there is an endgame to the Northern Powerhouse, that once we have transport sorted out, everything else will be miraculously transformed. My take on the Northern Powerhouse is that it has to be constantly worked on. It’s about an onward cycle of investment and innovation, that’s the only way we will keep and attract talent.

Having grown up in Yorkshire, I was the only one of my school friends to move to London after university. Now it seems that graduates feel they have to move to London to build a career. Where are the incentives for them to stay here? It’s not just about transport, although that plays a big role. We see a large variation between our cities in their ability to keep hold of graduates; we need to talk to each other and keep more in the region.

Look at the skills shortage in the digital sector at the moment. Companies such as Sky, Sky Bet, Callcredit and others are all struggling to attract the right talent. When you take living costs into account, those jobs are paying a premium over similar jobs in London, yet we can’t seem to get that message over; we need to look at how we promote our cities. Here in Leeds, we had Marketing Leeds, then Leeds & Partners and now there isn’t a body that’s fully responsible for the promotion of the city.

What should devolution look like?

The form of devolution we choose is crucial to the future success of the region. Having lived in London for many years, I saw the success of having a named mayor that people could recognise and who could drive through projects. Whether it was Ken Livingstone or Boris Johnson, Londoners had a figurehead and they could feel part of something. At the moment, in Yorkshire, there is no grand vision which will bring the different towns and cities together.

We seem to have spent the last couple of years in West and North Yorkshire trying to find the right size of devolution deal, and either upsetting parts of North Yorkshire with a land grab or just ignoring the east of the county altogether. In the meantime, we’ve seen Manchester with its Devo Manc deal lead the way, followed by South Yorkshire (with bits of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire) and the North East. All of these deals accept the fact that elected mayors are part of the package.

The mayor doesn’t need to be a businessman or a politician, but does need to be someone who is committed to the region and can provide a vision that the public can get behind. The key thing is transparency: having a mayor takes the decision-making process out of closed meetings with no published minutes as we have at the moment. The mayor can then focus on one clear thing: improve the economy of the region.

I would go further and push for the Greater Yorkshire concept, including Hull. By combining the West Yorkshire cities, with York and Hull, we would create a powerful East-West corridor which would bring tremendous synergies. We could build a London Assembly-type of forum, where all towns would be represented.

Let’s also ask for fund raising powers, so the voters and businesses can decide what we spend our own money on. London has been given more money per head for transport but a big part of the costs of those projects are raised by Transport for London through such charges as the Crossrail Business Rate Supplement and the Community Infrastructure Levy. We should push for similar powers in our region.

What should our vision for the 21st century look like?

At present, the general public haven’t been captivated by the idea of a Northern Powerhouse, as the politicians haven’t explained it clearly. Let’s unite Yorkshire with a grand vision: to build a strong, modern economy fit for the 21st century.

Within this wider vision, we have to start to move away from the focus on traditional manufacturing and start to push the unique strengths we have in digital and tech, to enable our region to compete within new markets. Leeds was built on innovation, first in manufacturing, then retail, then finance. Now it is uniquely placed to be the digital hub of the North.

Look at the groundbreaking data companies we have in Leeds, just to mention one area: we built the NHS Spine patients records service here with a local company, BJSS, within time and budget. Contrast that with earlier efforts which costs billions.

Sky moved to Leeds last year, purely because of the great digital culture already in place, built on existing companies such as EMIS, TPP and aql, who run the only Tier One internet exchange outside of London. We’re now seeing innovative startups come out of the region, such as Cocoon, an ‘internet of things’ home security business, as well as spin-outs from our great universities, such as Xeros from Leeds University.

Connectivity has been a major driving force behind the Northern Powerhouse. Do you believe that spending billions on infrastructure will improve the economic climate in the North?

It will, but it has to be spent in the right way. There’s no point in having a flash new train line between Manchester and Leeds that will benefit a few thousand people, if it still takes tens of thousands of commuters in Leeds 45 minutes to travel three miles by car or bus. We need more investment in local transport to make Leeds, Huddersfield, Wakefield better places to live and work. This will attract talent as it improves their, and their families’, everyday lives.

Having lived in London, I know the difference a high quality local transport network makes to a city. And the improvements don’t have to cost billions: anyone who has tried to drop someone off at Leeds City Station will know the impact of poor local infrastructure and planning. If we make public transport easier to use, more people will use it and our towns and cities become better places to live and work; we will see firms relocating into the region for a better quality of life.

What will it do for Geoffrey Martin & Co?

The Northern Powerhouse will make the economy of the region more transparent, with better governance. It will also be a better connected region, not just in the transport sense, but with the different towns and cities working together to build a joint vision.

This will help our business in a number of ways, not least because it will make it easier for us and our clients to get together. Our services will be opened up to a much wider audience and enable us to open up new markets. Not least, a stronger economy will attract more firms to the region, which we will benefit from.

Are there any other areas which you believe money should be spent on, ahead of transport?

Education is vital, if we are to succeed as a region. I mentioned the skills and talent gap in just one area, in just one city: the digital sector in Leeds. We need local government, universities and businesses to be more joined up if we are to close these gaps and keep our talented young people within the region, as well as attract others. Let’s have more flexible courses, with more on-the-job experience so students are ready for jobs the moment they finish their course, instead of employers having to train them in specific skills and attitudes.

There is a new University Technical College opening in Leeds this year, that will provide 14-19 year olds with an education based on technical skills. This will be a great start but we should be planning a UTC in every city in Yorkshire.

We need more support for new and smaller companies, especially grant funding. There is money out there at the moment, but it’s almost impossible to find it unless you know the system. Let’s also have more focus on attracting businesses into the region, by better promoting the unique mix of a growing economy, a skilled workforce and a great standard of living.

Thank you James.

Don’t miss our latest Northern Powerhouse coverage here. To nominate a Yorkshire business leader to be part of our new series, contact Nick at nick.hill@bdaily.co.uk.

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