WELCOME to a Budget free commentary zone.
That is for two reasons.
Firstly, we seem to have been talking about it for months – the “Autumn Budget” came so late that it was virtually covered in a hoary early winter frost by the time Rachel Reeves approached the despatch box in the House of Commons on Wednesday.
And secondly, brighter people than me will have already weighed in with their two penn’orth.
So let us turn to one of the better and less contentious decisions the Chancellor has made in recent weeks.
Calm down at the back and give me a chance to explain.
I mentioned last month that Tom Riordan, the former chief executive of Leeds City Council, has been appointed as the Government’s first envoy dedicated to northern growth by Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
Tom will work closely with senior government departments, mayors, ministers and other external partners to develop a plan to support growth and investments in the North of England.
Prior to his 14 years at Leeds City Council, Tom was CEO of regional development agency Yorkshire Forward and took up a role as the number two civil servant in the Department of Health and Social Care in September last year.
When I saw Tom at an event a few weeks ago he hinted at a new regionally-focused role and said he’d like to have a chat with me about it.
When the announcement about his new job was made it was greeted with a brouhaha of positivity that political dispatches rarely receive.
I surmised that Tom’s pledge to come and have a chat to me about his new role might get lost in the clamour.
And one reader of this blog cynically suggested that Tom probably doesn’t even read what is written here.
(The person that made that hurtful comment is in recruitment – what do you expect?)
Anyway, let’s banish cynicism from this column (well, for a couple of paragraphs anyway) because, true to his word, Tom came to see me just a few days after taking up his new role which will be working three days a week for an initial 15-month term.
He will report jointly to the Treasury, the Department for Transport, and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
Tom will hold the first civil service post of its kind as Northern Growth Envoy and his initial brief will centre on shaping a northern transport strategy.
He knows he has got his work cut out but what I like about his approach is that he is keen to engage with as many businesses as possible to find out what they think and what they need to help them grow to deliver wealth and jobs across the North of England.
He has already identified a key target area is small and medium sized firms which form the backbone of the economy.
In Germany they have a name for them – Mittlestand – which literally translates to ‘middle estate’ and takes in companies with common characteristics including family ownership, innovation, a focus on niche markets, and long-term strategies.
They can be traditional manufacturers or hi-tech operators who usually employ up to 500 staff and are known for their focus on exports, commitment to quality, investment in training to help them maintain skilled workforces.
Germany recognises that these SMEs make up around 99% of the nation’s companies and it understands their value to the country’s economy.
It is a sector that has long been ignored by British politicians and credit to Tom Riordan for identifying its value.
Tom has asked me to organise a series of regular events where we can bring together those running these types of businesses in the North of England so he can hear from them and identify how the Government can support their plans to grow.
It promises to be fascinating and valuable in equal measure.
If you are interested being involved drop me a line david@copagroup.co.uk
:::
WHAT do you call a gathering of journalists?
I know what the public relations people who had to deal with the group in the photograph above might call them.
And even by the standards of vernacular used in this blog, I don’t think any of the words they might choose would bear repeating.
My old colleague Ian Briggs posed the question when he posted the photo above on LinkedIn and some of the politer suggestions included: a cauldron, a gaggle, a chunter, a scribble, a scoop, a grump, a column and a hack.
Thanks to the efforts of my predecessor as Yorkshire Post business editor, Peter Curtain and my successor Bernard Ginns, a group of journalists and photographers – most with YP connections – got together for lunch in Leeds last Friday.
Among the gathered throng were three of my former deputies at the YP – the aforementioned Ian Briggs who is now a partner at Aberfield Communications, James Graham who works at the BBC in Media City in Manchester and Sheryl Moore who returned to business journalism as the Yorkshire editor of TheBusinessDesk.com earlier this year.
I prefer to think that I had so many deputies not because I was a tyrant boss but because I empowered them to become the best versions of themselves and they went on to great success.
In the case of Sheryl, she was headhunted by the Manchester Evening News to become its business editor.
When I found out the package she had been offered by MEN editor Paul Horrocks I wish he’d tapped me up instead.
Also around the table last Friday were John Yates, the former YP’s former chief leader writer and literary editor, Andrew Palmer, who was on the paper’s business desk before going on to run the CBI in Yorkshire, former business sub-editor Bill Hudson, photographer Bruce Rollinson, former business and farming editor Mark Casci and Alex Turner, joint managing director at TheBusinessDesk.
Unfortunately YP deputy business editor Greg Wright was ill and unable to make it but two of the paper’s current employees were there – property editor Lizzie Murphy and sub-editor Chris Maguire who is one of only a handful of staff that still go into the office everyday.
I can’t declare that the conversation was very high brow – well not at my end of the table – but there were plenty of daft stories told as we recalled the glory days of Yorkshire business journalism when you could make a business lunch stretch all afternoon and then go back to the office and fiddle your expenses.
Stories included one about a sub-editor who came to work and completed an entire shift dressed as a black and white minstrel.
Another involved a Yorkshire business magnate who prided himself on his athleticism and insisted a journalist who came to interview him joined him on a fell walk in the Yorkshire Dales.
As the entrepreneur reached the top of a steep hill he turned to the panting journalist who was struggling to keep up with him and said: “Ee, I’m as fit as Ghandi, me.”
:::
IT is a story that made even my slightly dulled journalistic antennae prick up.
It was announced last week that roadside advertising business 75Media had entered voluntary liquidation.
The Leeds-based company, which was founded less than five years ago, operated over than 1,200 billboards across the UK, employed more than 60 people across six offices and had a host of well-known brands and agencies as clients.
A statement issued by 75Media said: “Over the last six months, the board has explored every viable option to secure the long-term future of the business but sadly, despite extensive negotiations with our infrastructure landlord, it has not been possible to agree a way forward.”
Look, we all know how tough it is to run a business and plenty are under a great deal of pressure.
But the collapse of 75Media happened eight months after it secured a seven-figure investment from the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II which is managed by venture capital company Mercia Ventures.
That deal came on the back of the company achieving a 454% increase in revenue and doubling its headcount of employees in the 12 months to the end of 2024.
The deal, it was said back in March, would allow 75Media to accelerate its AI platform and support international growth.
Within days it acquired Mass Media which gave it 31 new sites.
And just months later 75Media has put itself into liquidation.
I don’t have the gift of clairvoyance of Clinton Baptiste but there are two things I can be sure of.
There is much more to this story than is out in the public domain.
And someone at Mercia Ventures is getting a right kicking.
:::
I WENT to the Yorkshire Young Achievers Awards at Elland Road earlier this month as a guest of the fast growing and very hospitable Titan Wealth.
It was the first time I had been to the event for many years.
The awards, launched by Yorkshire lawyer and top football executive Peter McCormick 31 years ago, celebrate the best of the region’s young talent across arts, charities, communities and sport.
It was nice to bump into lots of old friends and contacts including entrepreneur Jan Fletcher and Sarah Lamper, who has done a sterling job behind the scenes of the YYAA for many years.
And it was good to see that one of the awards has been named after the late and much missed committee member Martin Gerrard, who was Barclays Bank’s long-serving man in Harrogate.
Although how the recipient of the Martin Gerrard Award, former Leeds United footballer Eddie Gray qualifies as a Yorkshire Young Achiever is beyond me.
Peter McCormick, who now has a non-executive role at Leeds United, is always entertaining and he told the audience how he and fellow guest, Irving Weaver, the owner of Harrogate Town, had met the new chair of the Independent Football Regulator, David Kogan, earlier that day.
“So it is great to be here tonight speaking to a live audience…” quipped Peter with a trademark twinkle in his eye.
Have a great weekend.