New network launched to help Leeds businesses drive forward inclusive growth

Leeds City Council has launched a new network to support large businesses across Leeds to drive forward positive social outcomes and contribute to the delivery of inclusive growth across the city. 

Building on the success of the Leeds Anchor Network, the council is launching Leeds Business Anchors. An initiative to bring together large businesses operating in Leeds, that are committed to working together to create growth in the Leeds economy that works for everyone.

Membership of the network is underpinned by a commitment to complete the Business Anchors Progression Framework, a tool to help businesses shape their contribution to inclusive growth across four key areas: employment, procurement, environment and assets, and corporate and community behaviours.

Developed in partnership with large businesses in Leeds the framework has been adapted from the approach used with public sector anchors and enables firms to take an ‘anchor’ perspective on their relationship with Leeds, providing them with an effective tool to measure their impact on driving forward inclusive growth.

‘Anchor’ working refers to the ways in which organisations can positively contribute to the place where they operate, strengthening the local economy, and contributing to employment, skills and health and wellbeing for local people.

Social impact is said to be increasingly important for businesses of all sizes and the framework aims to provide an ‘innovative’ way for businesses to evidence their local impact and provide a vehicle for reflection on their progress and ambitions.  

Having tested the framework businesses are now coming together to form a network to identify ways they can work together to maximise their impact for Leeds.

Leader of Leeds City Council, Councillor James Lewis, commented: “We recognise the important work businesses already undertake driving forward inclusive growth across Leeds. The new network will allow these businesses to come together to pool knowledge and resources, helping them to take their impact to the next level.  

“The network that we are launching is further welcome news; it is so important that as a council we support organisations that want to deliver real impact, and I look forward to hearing more success stories of businesses harnessing the framework to prioritise impactful change in Leeds.

“Fundamentally our Anchors approach is rooted in a culture of collaboration, bringing key anchors of Leeds’s public and private sector together to improve outcomes across the city.”

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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