With a rallying call for localism,wartime spirit, and a Manchester Mayor, the governments regional Czar Lord Heseltine descended on Manchester yesterday afternoon.
He was here at the launch of the Business Growth Hub for Manchester along with Mike Blackburn (Chair of the Greater Manchester LEP) and Richard Guy from the Hub but it was Heseltine who captivated the crowded room of 400 businessmen at the Etihad stadium with his rallying call for wartime spirit.
The former Deputy Prime Minister firmly believes in the city having an elected mayor,
But also pointed the finger at a London centric outlook and bureaucracy that the country has.
Everybody knows he said who speaks for London in the guise of Boris Johnson and who speaks for Scotland,Alex Salmon said Lord Heseltine,"Manchester must take its place in that league"
"Dynamically led,properly incentivize,and significantly freed from the monopolistic functionalism of Whitehall,it is incalculable what the reborn powerhouses of our cities could contribute to our recovery."
He went on to identify ten key ideas that could help to lead to increased and hopefully more productive action including school improvement, leveraging budgets to link to private sector investment, the spirit of competition and deregulation.
Lord Heseltine added that we need to re balance our economy 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.”
The Manchester business Hub is dedicated to making it easier for ambitious businesses to grow.
With the huge cuts in public sector business funds and following the closure of the NWDA and Business Link regional support services, the Hub will bring together new and existing business support services that are focused on supporting and developing growth companies.
Mike Blackburn,head of Manchester's local enterprise partnership described the launch as 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 plan. 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.”
More information about Manchester's business hub can be found at http://www.businessgrowthhub.com/ or by calling 0161 359 3050 email info@businessgrowthhub.com or on Twitter @bizgrowthhub
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