FRANK MCKENNA’S LIVERPOOL BUSINESS AWARDS SPEECH 2010

July 30th, 2010 by Frank McKenna

Good evening ladies & gentlemen and welcome to the spectacular setting of the Sefton Park Palm House for the 6th annual Liverpool business Oscars, brought to you by DLIB in association with the NWDA and Business Lnk.

It is great that we have a full house once again for tonight’s event, which is also supported by CBG insurance group, Grant Thornton, Paver Smith, NSG, Ollie & Darsh, NONAME kitchens, Ph.Creative and Panorama kitchens.
The strong line up of nominees that we have for this evening’s awards demonstrates that despite the turbulence experienced in the economy during the past eighteen months, we still have some great businesses across our city who are doing great things.

When this awards dinner comes around, it’s always a good time for me to reflect on the progress downtown Liverpool as an organisation has made in the preceding twelve months.

In the past year we have continued to organise some of the biggest and best events around, including the first Liverpool leaders debate between Warren Bradley and Joe Anderson, our third annual business week, which included contributions from leading decision makers, entrepreneurs and academics, and of course, our now legendary sexy networking evenings.

But what has also happened during the past year, very markedly, is that the business club with attitude has become the business club with influence.

We won our campaign to stop the council introducing evening car parking charges in the city centre.

With the help of two of our members, Iliad and aurora communications, we alerted the council and partner agencies to the opportunities for the city around the re-location of civil service jobs from London.

And, since the new labour administration took control of the town hall in may, a range of policies that Downtown Liverpool have consistently been promoting for several years have been implemented.

The city has a full time political leader; a business representative will be appointed to sit on the cabinet in the autumn; and a review of the various agencies that govern the city has been started. I‘m also confident that we will see a more efficient procurement process introduced, and much smarter planning arrangements in place before too long.

Of course the political colour of our government in Westminster has changed too. And I think is vitally important that, whatever difficult decisions are made in the next five years around public expenditure, and like all other places Liverpool will feel the consequences, we cannot go back to a situation that sees our city isolated from central government.

Early indications are encouraging, and it was good to see the prime minister in town on Monday to launch his big society initiative.

We have to build on this, and Joe Anderson and his team should aim to be David Cameron’s favourite labour council!

The new govt agenda around economic development and local economic partnership’s is also a major challenge for greater Liverpool.

We in the private sector need to work together to get our local authority partners in the public sector to work together if we are not to fall behind competitor city regions.

Collaboration and co-operation across the business and political spectrum is the way forward, and downtown Liverpool is determined to play a constructive role in making that happen.

We will be arguing not for a reconfiguration and accommodation of existing agencies and structures, but a new way of working.

We should free ourselves from the constraints of artificial geographical boundaries. We are twinned with New York and Shanghai for god’s sake, so why not forge stronger links with the Isle of Man, Cheshire and North Wales to help drive forward our regional economy?

There are many good people and personalities involved in the many agencies that currently govern our city, but the structures are too bureaucratic, too messy, too public sector driven and totally irrelevant to the new govts agenda.

A new approach has to be adopted that has a place for those talented individuals that are currently running and managing those agencies, but the strategy and delivery mechanisms must be more flexible, more focussed and private sector led.

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WHY LIVERPOOL SHOULD AIM TO BE THE TORIES FAVOURITE LABOUR CITY

July 23rd, 2010 by Frank McKenna

The Prime Minister David Cameron and a number of his cabinet colleagues were in town on Monday to launch the Conservatives ‘Big Society’ initiative.

Liverpool, along with three other places, have been chosen as ‘pilot’ areas for this project, which will be partly financed by the ‘Big Society Bank’ .

A group of around 100 of the great and the good were invited to discuss what amounts to a social inclusion project, encouraging greater community involvement in a range of things, whilst also acknowledging the merits of the voluntary and social enterprise sectors. Old cynics like me may suggest that we have seen it all before, but actually that would be to totally miss the point.

The ‘Big Society’ may or may not deliver in the way that Cameron clearly believes it can do. But, the fact that he chose Liverpool as the location to launch one of his big themes is hugely significant for our city.

Not too long ago, a Conservative Prime Minister genuinely saw Liverpool as ‘the enemy within’.  The regeneration and transformation the city has enjoyed since those dark days of the 80’s has positively impacted not only on our physical environment, but on the city’s image too. For a Tory PM to choose Liverpool for this visit has to be seen by all of us as an opportunity. An opportunity to have a constructive and ongoing dialogue with the government in Westminster. And an opportunity for the local council to become Cameron’s favourite Labour Council. 

In a meeting I was involved in last week, over the Building Schools for the Future cuts Liverpool has suffered, I was struck by how pragmatic the new civic leadership is in terms of wanting to address such issues in a business-like fashion, and include other stakeholders from across the community in finding solutions to the problem, and in opening a conversation with the government. If Joe Anderson and his team can continue to address forthcoming difficulties in the same way, it is conceivable that Liverpool will have a much more harmonious relationship with the coalition government than some had feared.

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WHY DLIB SUPPORTS THE BID

July 16th, 2010 by Frank McKenna

The first seven weeks of the new coalition government has confirmed what many of us already suspected – if public sector cash is king, the king has most certainly left the building.

As countless head teachers, members of the armed forces and even City bankers will tell you, the present administration is trying to pick up every penny that isn’t nailed down and Mr Osborne is apparently revelling in a fine impression of Ebenezer Scrooge.

Whether the government’s response to a crippling level of debt inherited by its predecessors is a measured necessity or reactionary folly is an argument for another day, but what we do know for certain is that austerity is now an unwelcome reality and one that we as a business community must deal with robustly.

Liverpool has enjoyed impressive levels of physical, economic and social change over the past decade and, while the private sector must be praised for its collaboration and vision, we also cannot hide from the fact that a fair portion of that success has been courtesy of significant funding from central and European government and continued growth in public sector investment.

If we are to realise further growth and capitalise on the city’s burgeoning international reputation, we must ensure that any vacuum left by government downsizing is filled by substantial, enduring investment from private enterprise.

The commercial district has been a key foundation of the city’s growth curve and is certainly not alone in the need to protect its long term future. The clearest solution to lasting prosperity in the commercial district is an application for Business Improvement District (BID) status, something of which we at Downtown are fully in support.

BID status brings with it not only substantial funding for maintenance and improvements – somewhere in excess of £600,000 per year – but also a collective spirit, building upon the foundations of much of Liverpool CDP’s work and invariably proving a vital component for future expansion.

More than 800 landlords and tenants will be balloted on the proposal, which will ask them to accept a levy equivalent to one per cent of business rates. Their time to stand up and be counted will come at a final ballot in spring 2011, before which time my fellow BID ambassadors and I will spend as much time as necessary persuading members of the benefits of BID status. 

One per cent may sound a substantial ask in difficult economic times, but it must be considered in the context of the wider picture. If businesses wish to operate in a vibrant, attractive commercial location, then the funding to make that environment a reality must be sourced from somewhere. We have already seen the government freeze council tax levies, so immediately we see a dangerous trend developing toward under-investment and possible stagnation.

For many members who have actively participated in the work of the partnership up to this point, the levy would actually represent a reduction on their voluntary spend, while for the remainder of businesses in the district, the application for BID status represents a real opportunity to become involved and effect positive change to the benefit of themselves and their neighbouring businesses.

As austerity measures take their grip across Europe, we must pull together tighter than ever before to ensure that Liverpool and the commercial district remain ahead of the game.

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FIVE MINUTES WITH FRANK MCKENNA

July 7th, 2010 by Frank McKenna

Frank McKenna has never exactly been shy about being the public face of the Downtown in Business brand, which he founded in Liverpool in 2004 and now boasts operations in Preston and Manchester (the latter launched earlier this year). His weekly, “Thank Frank it’s Friday” email missives, “Frankie Says” blog and Tarantino-inspired advertisements are cases in point.

But no-one who has met him could believe he takes it all seriously. Not too seriously, anyway.

His father was a Bootle bus driver and trade unionist who moved his family out to Skelmersdale when Frank was seven years old. And McKenna says it was his father who nurtured his interested in politics from an early age – an interest that saw him become a career politician in the Labour party.

“But I was never, even at an early age, what you might consider to be radical politically,” he tells EN. “I was always fairly centrist and bought right into the New Labour project.”

Having started out as a welfare rights advisor in the mid-1980s, later becoming a community development officer, McKenna was elected to Lancashire County Council in 1989 at the age of 26.

In 1992 he became agent, then parliamentary assistant, for Colin Pickthall, MP for West Lancashire from 1992-2005. And in 1997 he became deputy leader of Lancashire County Council. Then, in 2000, it all came crashing down.

“Myself and a colleague were accused of overspending on an election campaign,” he explains. “There was never a suggestion that any financial gain had been made. However, the charge was ‘electoral fraud’.

“It boiled down to the fact that we were accused of producing too many leaflets in the 1997 election campaign.”

McKenna blames the affair on the old Labour guard trying to undermine his position and points out that when the case went to court following a threeyear investigation the judge threw it out on day one.

During the three-year period between accusation and trial, McKenna says he was unable to continue with any political activity – so he set up as a public affairs consultant.

He says Downtown Liverpool in Business grew out of a service he offered to help businesses connect with Merseyside’s cat’s cradle of agencies and quangos.

It was, he says, seen at that stage as purely a lobbying organisation: “It was never my intention to have a business networking club. It was only through people approaching me and saying, ‘Why don’t you do an event?’ ‘Why don’t you arrange business-to-business introductions?’ And that side of the business evolved, and is now probably 70 per cent of the business.”

From its foundation in 2004 the Downtown brand now has offshoots in Preston and Manchester – and a small presence in Lancaster. McKenna says he has ambitions to move into other northern cities, and that Leeds would be an obvious next step.

But, as the organisation has grown and become dominated by events that rely on sponsorship from the likes of the North West Regional Development Agency, has the “Business Club With Attitude” lost its anti-establishment edge and just become about the cocktails and “Sexy Networking”? How can McKenna successfully lobby his sponsors?

“It’s important to recognise that you don’t do a deal with the devil in that respect,” he replies. “We have never had Steve Broomhead (NWDA chief executive) try to influence any of the policy initiatives or issues that we articulate.

“And if he tried he knows we wouldn’t take any notice. They sponsor us because they can reach businesses they wouldn’t otherwise be able to reach [that’s your one plug –ed].

“As far as lobbying is concerned, you mature and hone your skills. In the first couple of years, and particularly given that we were in a city that was always quite politically fraught, we had to shout quite loudly just to be heard.”

He says Liverpool city council, under Mike Storey, wasn’t exactly supportive at first but that when Warren Bradley took the helm in 2005 relations became much more cordial.

“Warren Bradley approached us and said, ‘Can we have a conversation?’ and from that moment on it’s been a much more mature relationship. But we’re still robust. We probably say the harsher things about council policy and decisions to them directly now, because we can. We don’t have to use the pages of the Echo anymore because we’re part of the inner sanctum, if you like.

“But I hope people don’t have the impression that we’ve gone soft, because we haven’t.”

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THE COALITIONS FIRST BIG MISTAKE

July 2nd, 2010 by Frank McKenna

Less than two months in and the new coalition government has made its first major mistake in the area of economic development, strategic planning and business support.

The announcement that Regional Development Agencies (RDA’s) are to be abolished and replaced by Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP’s) has largely been lost in the noise around the VAT hike, 25% cuts to public expenditure and impending tax increases. However, the collateral damage of the decision on RDA’s, motivated more by political dogma than political pragmatism, will be enormous.

It is fair to say that RDA’s across the country have had mixed reviews. But the performance of the Northwest Development Agency (NWDA), and its reputation among the regions business community, is excellent. Indeed, this was confirmed by an independent report carried out by Ekosgen and Lambert Smith Hampton, published this week, that found that the NWDA’S return on overseas investment is on target to be £30 for every £1 spent by 2013. Between April 2006 and March 2009, the NWDA invested £3.5 million in overseas projects that have so far generated more than £56 million in GVA. The report goes on to suggest that the figure will be £104 million in three years when all the foreign direct investment activity has fully matured.

In the run up to the election, Conservative spokesmen consistently promised that there would be wide scale consultation before any decision was taken on the future of the NWDA. I’m afraid that is one pledge that has been broken.

The claim that this new arrangement will mean more decisions being taken at a local level does not bear much scrutiny. Many of the powers and responsibilities currently held by the NWDA; business support, Inward investment, Innovation and managing Venture Capital funds; will not be devolved to Liverpool, Manchester and Preston but, rather, centralised in the corridors of Whitehall, administered by faceless civil servants many of whom think that people up north wear cloth caps and keep whippets!

And even where responsibilities are to be transferred to LEPs, who within the business community can honestly say that we have confidence in the capacity of local authorities to think strategically, agree on policy and deliver initiatives that will help drive our economy forward?

Manchester can take great comfort in the governance structure that is the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA). It is a model that is rightly held up as a blueprint of good practice, and here we have a group of local councils and private sector partners that are comfortable in co-operating and expert in co-ordinating. Even here though, the political leadership cautioned against the abolition of the NWDA.

It is elsewhere in the region, however, that is of major concern. One would hope that the new leader of Liverpool City Council Joe Anderson, in his additional role as Leader of the Liverpool City Region Partnership, will be able to quickly pull together a strategy and framework among a group of local authorities who have found it difficult in the past to agree what day it is. The Mersey Tram scheme and the proposed Everton FC move to Kirkby are high profile projects that fell by the wayside and head a long list of public spats among the Merseyside political fraternity.

And what of Preston? At loggerheads over the Tithebarn project with neighbouring authorities; operating within a two-tier government structure and in a county that boasts more local councils than most of us care to remember . The idea that this bunch will be responsible for economic development in the future is, frankly, a frightening prospect. One can only hope that the districts will let Lancashire County Council simply get on with it, but I already hear rumours of not two but THREE LEP’s in the red rose county.

Of course we have to deal with the cards we are dealt; but this is a poor hand and one that may yet come back to bite the coalition government on the proverbial.

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