Tag: Manchester

BRING ON REGIONAL BANKS!

A major national bank is closing its branch in my village. No doubt they will say there wasn’t enough business. Perhaps that’s because a couple of years ago it decided to close my branch on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Traders who need to deposit cash every day took their business away and the downward spiral was achieved.

 

The people responsible for this decision have probably never heard of my village. On a wider scale, what do the big national banks know of small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) in the north asking for loans? It’s unlikely they have the knowledge about the regional economy to make good judgments. The huge central and international banks are not fit for the purpose of helping our SMEs. Net lending by banks participating in the government’s Funding for Lending Scheme, fell by £2.4bn in the last quarter of 2012.

 

So in this week when the Chancellor has grabbed the headlines with his Budget, let’s give a cheer to Ed Miliband’s proposal for regional banks. Labour would give their backing to regional banks in Yorkshire and the North West. The model would be based on the German system where local banks performed far better in the recession than the country’s large banks. The Sparkassen (regional banks) ran up less debt and avoided ruinous high risk investment. As a result, while lending by big German banks fell by 10% between 2006 and 2011, the Sparkassen increased lending by 17%.

 

The purpose of this policy proposal is to rebalance the British economy and the concept of basing it on a regional footprint is a sound one. Labour has yet to be persuaded to restore regional development agencies or a council of the North but at least this provides financial backing over a larger footprint than the Local Enterprise Partnerships that many feel cover areas that are too small to be effective.

 

The Hannah Mitchell Society which is campaigning for Northern Regional government welcomed Mr Miliband’s move calling it creative and radical.

LEEDS AND MANCHESTER STAR AT MIPIM

 

Both cities used their time well at MIPIM. The international property market held in Cannes is an important gathering for local councils whatever the Taxpayers Alliance might say.

 

Leeds told delegates about the increased co-operation with Bradford and Wakefield, learning some of the lessons of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority. The city region is reported to be worth £54bn.

 

Despite shrinking workforces and cuts in budgets, councils like Leeds are often the largest landowner, biggest capital spender and the highways and planning authority. MIPIM was told about the Trinity Leeds shopping development opening this year and work getting underway in June on the Sovereign Street office block. Bruce Springsteen is to be the first major band to play the Leeds Arena in July. Considering what the MEN Arena did for Manchester, and the ACC Arena being acknowledged as one of the major legacy benefits of Liverpool’s Capital of Culture; this should be a major boost for the West Yorkshire economy.

 

Meanwhile there was much interest at MIPIM about Manchester’s acquisition of Stansted Airport. The conference was told of ambitions to get passenger flow through the twenty million mark. Manchester Airport is approaching that now and its all still owned by the ten local authorities of Greater Manchester.

CUT COUNCIL ELECTIONS IN CITIES TO SAVE MONEY

Where ever I go it’s a chapter of woe. In the last few days I’ve been to Winsford, Manchester and Liverpool to witness councils struggling to fix next month’s annual budget against a background of swingeing cuts.

 

The problem with this story is that I’ve been covering this sort of issue for forty years. Councils complaining that these are the worst cuts ever and forecasting doom and gloom for the services people need. This time I don’t think they are crying wolf. The scale of the cuts means that they are having to completely rethink the way they provide services.

 

With health authorities, the police and fire service also facing the same pressure; there is a willingness for them all to get out of their “silos” and talk together about providing us with a joined up service. This may be the only good thing to come from the government’s squeeze on the Town Halls. It was a point I put to Manchester Council leader Sir Richard Leese. He had been explaining to a conference in Manchester that “troubled families” often had thirteen different people contacting them in the past. Now management restructuring and greater cooperation with other agencies would mean one person would be put in charge of a case.

 

It begged the question why hadn’t it been done before? His reply was revealing. Until now public sector bodies had been reluctant to cooperate. The budget pressures facing them all had changed that.

 

So credit Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles with one point, but little else. The man is a disgrace. The relish with which he is stripping councils of millions of pounds and suggesting that savings on providing mineral water at meetings will solve the problem is fatuous. His attack on authorities like Manchester for holding £120m in reserves is frankly dishonest. He knows that this money cannot be spent on the revenue budget.

 

Things are so bad in Liverpool that Mayor Joe Anderson has called for divine inspiration. This week he hosted a summit with the Bishop of Liverpool to protest at government demands that the city reduce its spending by 52% over four years. Mayor Joe has been attacked for forecasting civil unrest if this goes on. The criticism is probably right because the last thing his city needs is rioting but there is a burning sense of injustice among civic leaders from Liverpool to Leeds that the local government financial settlement appears to favour southern councils at the expense of the north.

 

Be that as it may, new thinking is required. Cheshire West and Chester Council saw this crisis coming and on Wednesday night in Winsford they began a series of public consultation meetings (which I am chairing) on their budget plans. They include their “Altogether Better” programme which aims to reduce duplication between agencies operating in their patch.

 

Apart from the general cuts, Wirral Council has suffered historic internal management failures not helped by political instability. There is a proposal on the table to scrap the election of a third of councillors every year and go for an all out election every four years. Sources indicate it may not be approved which is a shame. It would end the confusing system that applies across the metropolitan areas of West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside. It would be better if Leeds, Bury, Wirral etc. had one big election every four years when the future control of the council would be at stake. It would also save money for other services which is what this crisis is all about.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BBC!

Before we plunge into the little local difficulty of Newsnight, let’s reflect that 90 years ago about 11,000 people were crowded round their crystal sets listening to the first output of the British Broadcasting Company.

 

Within a few years the BBC was resisting intense pressure to take the side of the government in the General Strike of 1926. Its correspondents risked life and limb to report the Second World War. After the conflict its radio and television services defined what public service broadcasting was all about when competition from commercial broadcasting arrived. It has been sustained by the licence fee, a method of funding under constant attack, but still supported by the British people.

 

Its natural history programmes, dramas and documentaries are of the highest quality and much of its investigative journalism has been of the same standard. There has rightly been a lot of criticism of the failure to investigate Jimmy Savile and the serious libel of Lord McAlpine, but it was not so long ago that the BBC exposed the abuse of elderly people in the Winterbourne View Care Home.

 

So let’s realise what is going on at the moment. The BBC’s commercial enemies are having a field day and some right wing Tories have raised the spectre of funding the BBC by public subscription. Let’s have a whip round for a programme showing us polar bear cubs in their den in the heart of an Arctic winter.

 

The important question at the moment isn’t “wither the BBC?”, but why does the Corporation, every few years, plunge itself into a major crisis over its journalism?

 

A lot of people have questioned the structure of the BBC that left the Director General exposed, first to the Commons Select Committee over Savile and then to John Humphrys over McAlpine. George Entwhistle was certainly let down by those who should have kept him informed but I think he just wasn’t up to the job. One of the requirements of being Director General is an ability to prepare for media interviews and give as good as you get.

 

Some weeks ago I expressed surprise that Entwhistle had conducted a public trial of the editor of Newsnight, Peter Rippon at the Commons Media Select Committee. He was asked ridiculous questions like, “how many paedophiles are there at the BBC”. Entwistle should have said he’d set up inquiries into that and the MP should stop show boating. Instead he looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights.

 

Same again after the second Newsnight programme, only this time it was Humphrys kebabing his own boss. The next DG needs to be a man or woman made of sterner stuff. Sadly it looks like a mostly male field now that Caroline Thomson, the BBC’s former chief operating officer has ruled herself out of a second run for the job. My choice would be Tony Hall, the former BBC Director of News.

ALBERT SQUARE CHOP HOUSE, MANCHESTER

If you are familiar with Sam’s Chop House in Leeds or the similar operation in Manchester, then you will be pleased to note that a new addition to the Victorian Chop House Company’s range of eateries has just opened.

 

Situated just across from the Town Hall, is the newly opened Albert Square Chop House. Ambience is almost as important as good food for me in restaurants and this establishment has both.

 

The Memorial Hall building dates from 1866 and more recently was the Square Albert pub. The £3.5m refit has been tastefully done, preserving the best features of the Venetian Gothic-style building. In addition to the restaurant there is a private dining boardroom and 100 capacity function room, all handy facilities in the heart of the city.

 

On the day I was there I was able to sample a fine range of British dishes with mostly locally sourced food and some excellent wines.

CALAMITY CAMERON NEEDS TO GET A GRIP

 

 

 

What a start to the Tory conference! A £40 million bill for the taxpayer over the bungled West Coast rail franchise process.

 

The government’s reputation was badly damaged by the budget u turns on things like the pasty tax. Now having asserted that the rail franchise process had been properly carried out, we find out that serious mistakes were made. Civil servants screwed up but the government’s assurances puts ministers in the frame too.

 

When administrations get a reputation for incompetence, it is very difficult to win back the trust of the voters. Tories won’t need reminding about the events of twenty years ago when Chancellor Norman Lamont had to exit the Exchange Rate Mechanism.

 

What makes the West Coast rail shambles so damaging is that news of it was announced by the government around midnight on the day that Labour leader Ed Miliband had made his acclaimed keynote speech at the Labour conference in Manchester. It included a devastating attack on what he called an incompetent, hopeless shower of a government. Then, hey presto, along comes the rail franchise train crash.

 

It was already going to be a difficult conference for the Conservatives. The Tory Right are almost in open revolt against David Cameron. He failed to deliver full victory in 2010 and right wing backbenchers are suspicious that the Prime Minister is using his Lib Dem Coalition partners as an excuse for not delivering proper Conservative policies.

 

Cameron and his Chancellor George Osborne need to calm representatives in Birmingham who only see continued economic recession and probable election defeat as they look towards 2013. The county council elections next year are important for the Tories. The shires are their territory, but for how long? An ex North West Tory MP told me this week that he was certain Labour will take Lancashire next May.

 

STRAW MEN ON THE MOVE?

 

The Labour conference in Manchester went off smoothly but that didn’t mean that all was sweetness and light among the comrades.

 

Blackburn MP Jack Straw’s memoires have not gone down well with the rank and file. Many I spoke to questioned what was the point of Jack rubbishing the reputation of the long dead John Smith. He lead the party briefly in the early 1990’s before his sudden sad death. What did we gain by learning from Jack Straw that he liked a drink?

 

Straw reveals how he was encouraged to challenge Gordon Brown when it became clear that the party was heading for defeat under his leadership. However he lacked the courage to do it and joins a number of other Labour figures who also allowed the unopposed coronation of Brown in 2007 when Tony Blair retired.

 

Straw has been a brilliant MP for Blackburn. He is very proud of his constituency and the word in Manchester was that he intends to fight again in 2015. If that happens a question arises over the future of his son Will Straw. An up and coming figure in the party, it has been suggested to me that Will might contest the neighbouring Tory held seat of Rossendale and Darwen. It would be interesting if he won because relations between the communities of Blackburn and Darwen are, to put it politely, “interesting”.

 

Whilst we are on the subject of Labour candidates in Lancashire, how about Alistair Campbell for Burnley?

From remarks he made in Manchester he clearly fancies becoming an MP. His passion for Burnley football club is well known and the Lib Dem MP Gordon Birtwhistle is bound to be vulnerable in 2015.

 

My final thoughts on Labour’s conference in Manchester must focus on Ed Miliband. It was a good speech but I still think there is a certain awkwardness in his presentation style.

 

After two years though he has developed the confidence to make the final break with Tony Blair’s New Labour. He said it was too silent about those with responsibilities at the top and too timid about the accountability of those with power.

 

He’s right about that but New Labour did deliver three election victories.

 

Follow me at www.jimhancock.co.uk