Last Monday night senior representatives from a number of the city’s most prominent businesses and organisations came together with Cllr Judith Blake, Leader of Leeds City Council, and Tom Riordan, Chief Executive, to discuss the ongoing devolution debate and its potential impact on the Leeds City Region.
Hosted by leading law firm, Shulmans, at its offices in Wellington Place, the issues discussed included what were the risks and benefits of devolution, what were the obstacles to a devolution deal being concluded for the Leeds City Region and how they could be overcome.
Attending were 15 senior representatives from leading businesses in the region.
Councillor Blake and Tom Riordan underlined their strong commitment to securing the right devolution deal for the Leeds City Region; the private sector guests shared their concerns that the region should be able to secure from devolution firm funding streams to enable it to prioritise and deliver key investment decisions in the region.
Councillor Judith Blake, Leader of Leeds City Council said: “Firstly, we would like to thank Shulmans for facilitating and hosting this highly topical event. Discussions like this will help shape and secure the best possible devolution deal for our region. That’s essential if we want to strengthen our economy, improve infrastructure and tackle some of the big challenges facing our communities.”
Andrew Latchmore, Partner for the Commercial Property Division at Shulmans, added: “It was a privilege to have so many of the city’s most influential leaders in one room, to discuss such an important issue; one which potentially has huge ramifications for the future of our region and beyond.
“We hope this event will represent the first of a series of discussions which will help inform and create a genuine and powerful partnership between the Council and the Private Sector going forwards.”
