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Merger debate must not obstruct Liverpool regeneration
Liverpool Daily Post | 28th January 2011

TODAY’S call for two of Liverpool’s most important economic agencies to merge reignites a debate that was the talk of the city for months.

Frank McKenna, ex-Labour politician and now chairman of lobby group Downtown Liverpool in Business, is calling for The Mersey Partnership and Liverpool Vision to merge.

Prominent businessman David Wade-Smith, the recently-installed business advisor to Liverpool’s council cabinet, says closer working between the two bodies is needed.

A merger was being strongly mooted when Labour first came to power in Liverpool last May, but this is not quite Groundhog Day. The world has moved on, with change afoot at both organisations.

Vision is in the throes of its reorganisation as an integral department of the city council, while TMP is working to improve its private sector support as its public sector backing comes under increasing pressure from the government spending squeeze.

Merging the two would be fraught with complications, with TMP having an inward investment and tourism remit for the whole city region, while Vision’s economic development brief is for the city of Liverpool alone.

Against that, bringing them together could avoid some of the cross-over between their roles and could potentially deliver welcome savings to the public purse.

It is to be hoped that this debate, however short or protracted it may prove to be, does not create an unwelcome distraction from the vital work of stimulating the continuing regeneration of the city region at a time of enormous challenge.