LEP chair hails Liverpool’s ‘outstanding’ economic prospects

Investment in businesses and innovation assets across the Liverpool City Region is continuing at a substantial pace despite the wider economic and political uncertainties facing Brexit Britain, according to the interim chair of the Liverpool LEP.

Addressing an audience of senior decision makers at the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership’s annual dinner, Asif Hamid offered an upbeat assessment of the region’s economic prospects and explained that public- and private-sector collaboration is at an all-time high.

Speaking at the event, which was held on Thursday (September 22) at the World Museum Liverpool, the LEP’s interim chair said: “The prospects for our City Region are outstanding. We need to capitalise on our assets and opportunities and we will do that by working together with a shared ambition and clear focus.

“The LEP has a vital role to play in facilitating that collaboration and ensuring that business informs and drives the City Region’s growth and we invite all of our members, partners and the whole City Region business community in all of its rich diversity to work with us to inform and develop an Action Plan to realise those prospects.”

He continued: “The City Region, all of us, needs to be promoting these unique opportunities with a consistent message that Liverpool City Region is open for business.

“And though it’s no surprise to me that our City Region has the highest proportion of high growth businesses in the UK outside London and our aim as a LEP is to increase that proportion further.”

Further, Mr Hamid’s message was backed up by representatives of French multinational Alstom, consumer goods giant Unilever and Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, who each shared their investment plans and vision for the City Region’s future.

Mike Hulme, the MD of Alstom, spoke about the company’s £20m technology centre in Halton and how the scheme will create a state-of-the-art facility and create jobs.

The vice president of open innovation at Unilever, Jon Hague, said the company – which has its main UK research and development facility on the Wirral – believes the City Region is a dynamic place to do business. He also highlighted the company’s commitment to the area by talking about the firm’s new £24m Advanced Manufacturing Centre.

Lastly, the clinical director of innovation at Alder Hey Hospital, consultant paediatric surgeon Iain Hennessey, explained that a collaboration with the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Hartree Centre and tech giant IBM is using advances in artificial intelligence to create the UK’s first ‘living hospital’ – a project that could transform working healthcare practices not just in Liverpool, but globally.

Speaking further, Mr Hamid said: “We in this room, by working together, can help to change the lives of the people who live and work in this amazing and exciting City Region and build a brighter future for our whole community. Let’s do it!”