Are we investing enough in selling Merseyside?

Apr 9 2008 by Alex Turner, Liverpool Daily Post

COLIN HILTON, chief executive of Liverpool City Council, insists TMP must prove itself before it receives further funding increases. Mr Hilton said: “Clearly last autumn we’d all put a much lower figure in, we recognise we need to grow that more. For us the sales team is an important part of the front face of attracting investment.

“Before it didn’t have sufficient investment to gain critical mass. Now it has the opportunity to show that it can be successful.

“Once they can show it is a success, we can think of additional investment from the public sector and from business.”

The inward investment team will now have a budget of £1.5m for 2008-09. More than one-third of this, 38%, is from local authorities with additional funding coming from grants and TMP’s membership.

But, in a surprising development, despite the earlier assertions that the additional money was needed for an increased sales team, there is not yet a firm plan for how the £1.89m will be spent.

Mr Basnett said: “We will work through a business planning process with our partners and we will continue to work through that and roll-out the plan.

“We are in the process of developing a plan, it’s a collaborative process. We need to go through a sensible and proper consultation.

“We have agreed broad principles but I want to share the details with our partners first.”

Despite the lack of clarity regarding what the money will be used for, Liverpool city region’s local authorities are supportive of the agency’s work.

Knowsley Council’s head of economic development, David Moore, said: “We have always worked closely with them as the sub-regional partnership has developed.

“We are very comfortable with TMP’s service. We work with them on inward investment and supporting existing companies. We have one of the investor development team in with my own staff to help businesses stay in the borough and on Merseyside.”

He encouraged TMP to spend the additional money on increasing its sales team to ensure Merseyside’s recent progress continues.

“Merseyside has got some good growth figures but we still have an awful lot more to do,” he said.

“We have done well in inward investment but we need to do more, we need to keep on encouraging growth.

“The sensible way is to have a sub-regional sales team representing Merseyside nationally and internationally. The new sales team has started developing leads and we are satisfied with the way that’s working.”

Halton Borough Council is also pleased with its partnership with TMP.

Dick Tregea, the council’s strategic director for the environment, said: “The benefits are that TMP is going to be very focused on this and is going to be looking at key target sectors in the knowledge economy that will be very beneficial.

“The target areas are some of the areas where we have a significant interest.

"The resource that TMP can put in ratchets up the effort that can be made.”

A business plan is expected to be finalised this month that will provide greater certainty to the agency’s strategy for increasing the inward investment into Liverpool city region as it takes greater responsibility.

But there is an acceptance that this agreement is just one step towards its goals.

“The additional funding is a start,” said Mr Hilton. “The Mersey Partnership has got to now take the view that if it can demonstrate success it will make a case for expanding itself.”

alext.turner@dailypost.co.uk