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IF Liverpool is to have any chance to grow and prosper, then it desperately needs to be freed from the straitjackets placed on it by a ridiculous number of government institutions and agencies currently hampering development in this city.
Nobody can question that Liverpool has enjoyed a physical regeneration and economic renaissance to be proud of during the past five years. It is equally indisputable that the public sector, and principally the City Council, was the driver of that upturn in fortune.
But now that that renewal has been achieved, it is time for big government to stand back and allow the fruits of their labour to be developed by a business community with the entrepreneurial talent and resources to invest in the Liverpool economy.
DLiB launched its ‘Liverpool One’ campaign for a cut in the number of agencies governing this city – currently numbering more than 20 - last November.
Too many cooks are spoiling the broth and have led to humiliating U-turns on football stadia, the Fourth Grace and Merseytram.
Influential figures including Sir David Henshaw, Mike Storey and Steve Broomhead have all supported ‘Liverpool One,’ or at least its main objective. But a year on, there is still no sign that a culling of the quangos is taking place. Indeed, most businesses will say that red tape and bureaucracy is on the rise.
It needn’t be so. While intervention was essential in our years of economic underperformance, the interference, top-down management and ‘traditional’ public sector involvement is fast becoming more of a hindrance than a help.
The EU money that has been sloshing around Merseyside via the Objective One programme for more than ten years will soon disappear. The Capital of Culture will come and go. If Liverpool is to be a premier European city come 2009, then private investment needs to outweigh public subsidy.
That means more private sector involvement in the decision making process and an enabling, rather than controlling, public sector.
The sooner we start that transition, the better – for business and for the city.
