Council of the West Yorkshire Business Board - Wednesday 3 June 2026, 2:00pm - West Yorkshire Combined Authority Webcasting

Council of the West Yorkshire Business Board
Wednesday, 3rd June 2026 at 2:00pm 

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  1. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  2. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  3. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  4. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
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  1. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
  2. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
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  1. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
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  1. Ben Still, Chief Executive (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Ben Still, Chief Executive (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  3. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
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  1. Ryan Kaye
  2. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  3. Ryan Kaye
  4. Karl Oxford (Private Sector Representative)
  5. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  6. Mark Casci
  7. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  8. Barney Mynott, Advisory Representative (West Yorkshire Business Groups)
  9. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  10. Ryan Kaye
  11. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  12. Liz Whitefield
  13. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  14. Liz Whitefield
  15. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  16. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  17. Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair
  18. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  19. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
  20. Dr Martin Stow
  21. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  22. Kay Butterfield
  23. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
  24. Kay Butterfield
  25. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  26. Dr Martin Stow
  27. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  28. Mark Roberts
  29. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  30. Jason McCartney
  31. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  32. David Rolinson
  33. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  34. Beckie Hart (Business Representative)
  35. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  36. Mark Casci
  37. Shahban Aziz
  38. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  39. Shahban Aziz
  40. Ryan Kaye
  41. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  42. Karl Oxford (Private Sector Representative)
  43. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
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  1. Karl Oxford (Private Sector Representative)
  2. Victoria Garcia
  3. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  4. Victoria Garcia
  5. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  6. Fiona Conor
  7. Shahban Aziz
  8. Dr Jackie Mulligan
  9. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
  10. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  11. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
  12. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  13. Kay Butterfield
  14. Vincent Hodder
  15. Victoria Garcia
  16. Mark Casci
  17. Olivia Colling
  18. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  19. Olivia Colling
  20. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  21. Olivia Colling
  22. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  23. Olivia Colling
  24. Richard Paxman (Private Sector Representative)
  25. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  26. Olivia Colling
  27. Beckie Hart (Business Representative)
  28. Olivia Colling
  29. Beckie Hart (Business Representative)
  30. Fara Butt (Private Sector Representative)
  31. Vincent Hodder
  32. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  33. Fara Butt (Private Sector Representative)
  34. Vincent Hodder
  35. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
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  1. Sarah Bowes, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Ryan Kaye
  3. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  4. Sarah Tulip
  5. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  6. Sarah Tulip
  7. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  8. Edward Bellamy
  9. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  10. Edward Bellamy
  11. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  12. Ms. Natalie Sykes (Private Sector Representative)
  13. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  14. Sarah Bowes, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  15. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  16. Jason McCartney
  17. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  18. Alastair Morris
  19. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  20. Liz Whitefield
  21. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  22. Karl Oxford (Private Sector Representative)
  23. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  24. Dr Jackie Mulligan
  25. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  26. Ian Agnew
  27. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  28. Sarah Bowes, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  29. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  30. Sarah Bowes, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  31. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  32. Ryan Kaye
  33. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  34. Ms. Natalie Sykes (Private Sector Representative)
  35. Sarah Tulip
  36. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  37. Cllr Stephen Place
  38. Mandy Ridyard (Chair)
  39. Cllr Dan Sutherland
  40. Webcast Finished

Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 0:00:00
So welcome to the West Yorkshire Business Board. It's great to see everyone in this
room. I'd like to start with apologies for absence,
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 0:00:14
Miles. Apologies for absence, Chair. I've been received
from Nicky Chance -Thompson, Sarah Gregory, Richard Hall, Deb Hetherington, Asma Iqbal,
Lisa Johnson, Councillor Carl Johnson, Neil Kendall with Jason McCartney kindly attending
in his place, Councillor James Lewis, Sharon Matthew and Cully Thierry.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 0:00:38
Thank you very much Miles. Are there any declaration of discosable pecuniary interests, if I've
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 0:00:45
said that correctly? Or any exemptions from anyone in the room or Miles from Government
Services? Thank you. Okay, the notes of the private meeting are within the pack and so
I'd like to move now to the mayor's update.

5 Mayor's Update (Verbal)

Thank you, Mandy, and welcome everybody.
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:01:03
It's so fantastic to see everybody in this room and we've had apologies from half a dozen
people.
How are we going to fit them in, Mandy?
I don't know.
When they come next time.
And welcome to new leaders.
You're very welcome and I think what's been the power of the Business Board is collaboration,
cooperation and we've always said place over politics.
We're going to work together side by side to deliver for the people of West Yorkshire.
And I'm very excited about what we can deliver with our cluster action plan as well to deliver
on our growth plan.
So thank you very much for those returning members as well for your contribution over
the last few years.
In this update, I normally run through key activities, but I'm going to keep this high
level for this meeting and talk about just how it would be great to see these meetings
going forward.
And as I say, that collective is the way that we can really deliver for the public.
And I've just come from London where we were meeting.
There was an announcement at UK Reef on a 100 million pound fund for health tech in
our region, and I was meeting some of the company in London.
And I think it is the West Yorkshire way, the way that we collaborate and cooperate
that actually, in lots of combined authorities across the country, I think it makes us quite
magnetic for investment.
Obviously, we have our great strengths,
financial professional services, health and life sciences,
and I could go on.
But actually, the way that we've worked collectively,
I think does deliver those better outcomes.
And 100 ,000 businesses across West Yorkshire,
especially at times of difficulty,
and Mandy will go on to that about the headwinds
that we're all facing, I think they really value
that ability to work together.
And also, the diversity of the people around this table.
And I'm really hoping that over the next few years that we can really use your skills and
your experience to help us make better decisions going forward and really looking forward to
continuing that work with all of you.
UKReef, wow, nearly 17 ,000 delegates, quite something for those people.
I think I met a fair number of you down there.
It was quite a conference, and there were some great outcomes for us.
The Leeds Newtown, the Elland Road, all of that investment around there.
And of course, the investable propositions across Wakefield and Calderdale, Kirklees
and Bradford, making the case that we are definitely open for business.
Forty investable propositions, I think, made us one of the most exciting marquees.
we also have the best position on the water, I would say.
So I'm very proud of our impact at UK Reef, and long may that continue.
That MDZ, as I say, is a game changer for us, where we could build that 20 ,000 homes,
and also finding ways to work with Homes England, greater innovations,
greater partnership working to deliver those better outcomes.
So, I'm looking forward to working with all of you and to delivering on our ambitions.
And frankly, it's, I think, a testament to the hard work that you've put in that's got
us to this innovative place where we are one of the first, I think, the first business
board to have this cluster approach where there are specialists helping us deliver on
those expected outcomes from our growth plan. So, thank you for your commitment to the businesses
and the communities that we serve, we're here to deliver better outcomes for business.
So I'm going to leave it there for now, Chair, but looking forward to hearing from insights
around the room and unfortunately I will have to go earlier because I'm seeing a pathology
lab as an innovation that is quite off the scale and incredible using AI. So if I sneak
out, apologies and I hope you don't think I'm being rude. Back to you, Chair.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 0:05:08
Thanks very much Mayor. So before I provide my usual update I'd like to take a moment
to offer my sincere thanks personally to Jane, to Cully and Sharon who aren't here but for
the support and contribution they've made during their time on the board as they've
stepped down. It's generally appreciated during a time of changing realignment and I really
wish you all the best for the future Jane. And similarly Martin it's your last meeting
to because you're retiring, I believe.
Unbelievable.
I think it's unbelievable.
I'm not too young to retire.
But I'd like to thank you for your support.
So although you haven't had that long on the board, you've made a fantastic contribution,
so thank you for that.
I'm also delighted to welcome Mark, to welcome Shaban, Jackie, Vince, Olivia, and Sarah,
and some of the members who haven't been able to make it here today.
But thanks for joining us today.
The reason you're here is obviously to drive forward that cluster thinking and that cluster
delivery of the action plans.
We have some new elected members here today, so welcome to Councillor Place, welcome to
Councillor Sutherland, it's great that you've managed to make it here today and look forward
to working with you.
So since we last met on the 10th of March, I've been involved in lots of key events and
meetings, focused around the things in the wheel of enterprise which are in the local

6 Chair's Update (Verbal)

growth plan, focused around our cross -cutting themes and to focus on profile raising for
business in this region. But they're all fundamental to crucially to embed and develop those cluster
plans. When we're talking about engagements, the
Mayor's Council, which is some of the biggest businesses in West Yorkshire, so including
businesses like Burberry, like ASDA, Morrisons and others met early in May. And the focus
of that meeting was better business practises and building resilient, productive and inclusive
local economies and driving business growth. And one of the agreed actions from that meeting
was a working group focused on skills challenges and apprenticeship levy flexibility and exploring
stronger integration between schools, FE providers and employers. And so we're continuing
to relay that, those employer views to government and to explore opportunities for engagement
between the Mayor's Council and FE college principals. So I look forward to that work.
I've also attended a Northern Mayoral Business Board in Chamber Leads Roundtable with Tom
Reardon, which is really interesting. I think the work that we've been doing on this business
Board is seen as groundbreaking and we've now been asked to present the work that we're
doing to other business boards across the country and the approach we've taken. So I
think that's all credit to the people around this table who've been involved in bringing
this together. The key purpose of that meeting was to talk
not only about business boards but about the northern growth strategy and feed into that.
That document has been published shortly after that meeting and if you'd like to know more
about it then let us know and we'll share that with you.
I've also been to 10 Downing Street for a reception.
I work chairing the Yorkshire Board
for the Prison Probation Service
for getting ex -offenders into work.
And so we've been working on things like Connect to Work
and the employer feedback on how they can engage better
with prisons to help with that agenda.
So working with Lord Timpson and others
and the Deputy Prime Minister on trying to make sure that in Yorkshire we're doing as
much as we can to enable that. I'd like to thank FARA who attended the S -E -Y -H Social
Enterprise Awards at the end of March on our behalf. Social enterprises are a vital part
of our region's economy. They create jobs, tackle inequality and strengthen communities
while helping to trade sustainably. So it was brilliant that you could do that FARA.
And at the end of May, Carl, thank you for attending the Nigerian Community Leads Gala
Dinner on our behalf.
It's really important to make sure that as we do support the African and black community
in West Yorkshire, we start to foster those strong collaborations and connexions with
the community leaders to enable us to attract local businesses in the Nigerian community
to engage more with our business growth hub.
So thank you for representing us.
The mayor and I visited Dupuis Cintis at their orthopaedic development and manufacturing
site in Beeston. They are part of Johnson & Johnson and a global leader in the development
of orthopaedics and surgical equipment. So it was great to see first -hand what their
innovations are. And it was a good chance to pick up on some of the topics which we
discussed with them when we visited their Boston site in Massachusetts in November 2023.
and particularly around women in leadership.
They're our biggest health tech employer in the region,
so we were delighted that they also agreed
to join our mayor's council.
And there's certainly, if any of you get a chance,
the business was going to see.
You never know, at my age, at nearly 60,
I'm gonna need their help soon
with a hip replacement, probably.
Thank you to Becky for inviting us
to a international trade and geopolitics dinner
with your chief economist at the CBI.
I represented us there.
That was a really great session,
and we were briefed on the latest international trade
and geopolitical developments,
and what they mean for businesses in this region.
There was a great question and answer session,
and I fed back a lot of that
into the work that we're doing here.
It drew out lots of the practical implications
of current international policy and political risks,
especially around the EU and UK relationships,
and wider economic security issues
that matter to exporters especially and investors.
And it provided the opportunity I think for the CBI
to hear from people in this region
more about their challenges from businesses here.
Speaking of business sentiment,
a gentle reminder that the Pulse Survey for quarter two
has now been sent out to you all.
The deadline for responses is Monday the 8th of June.
So if you could all complete that
if you haven't already done so.
So it's really important that we keep a track of the stakeholder businesses in this room
and across the cluster groups so that we have data that we can track.
Now, if you're new to the group, I don't expect you to do it unless you can, but for the quarter
three one, it does become part of the terms of reference of the membership of this group.
So to minimise duplication on that survey, it is exactly the same survey as the chambers
send out.
It's just that you're tracked and anonymized.
So it's an important part of that.
So I'm trying to make sure that you don't have to do too much,
but you do make sure that you feed that in.
In terms of the cluster groups, I
hosted the West Yorkshire Manufacturing Advisory Board
at ASI Aerospace.
We did lots of work around the profile of manufacturing
and how important that is, and also the challenges
that are facing manufacturing at the moment.
And so the Manufacturing Advisory Board
is picking those up.
and I've been feeding some of those challenges into the Mayor and others on manufacturing
for our region.
Rich Hall, who isn't here today, kindly deputised for me at the Business Board Network meeting
in London with Lord Vallance and Blair McDougall, the Minister for Industrial Strategy and Small
Business.
They were keen to meet Business Board members and to receive direct and unfiltered views
around innovation work and it's important that we link that work into the work that
Mark and Liz are leading on.
Lord Balance is being close to the development of the LIF,
so that's the Local Innovation Partnership funding.
I think I've got that right.
So there was the chance to discuss that programme
at the meeting, but it's really important
that we link that in and we start to make sure
we form those connexions across everything that we do.
The mayor has spoken about UK refund access to place,
but I will talk about access to finance.
So yesterday we were at a SciTech event for stage founders and investors, bringing together
high quality early stage founders that are actively raising in the next 12 months with
investors from across the UK and further afield in collaboration with a growth company as
part of the Innovate UK funded Venture Forward programme.
A showcase of 70 plus early stage founders in this region from across, from this region
and across the north with 50 investors there.
So that was a great event, it was really busy.
And then finally, the Access to Innovation lever,
we had some great work done at the event
with the Mayor's Big Ideas Challenge for SMEs,
which took place in Bradford, the prizes were awarded.
But we were recognised for that work
that we did on that Mayor's Challenge
by Bloomberg Philanthropies.
So I went to Madrid to present to regions around the world
what we had done in that space.
That was amazing kudos for this region
and was really seen as groundbreaking.
It was really interesting to see some of the other work
that's going on around the world
and I fed that back into the offices here
so that we can learn as well as promote what we're doing.
And finally, I'd like to thank all of those
that sponsored Erin and I
for doing Race Across West Yorkshire,
a one day 12 hour event raising funds
for the Forget Me Not charity.
It was flipping hard work.
We had to paint a portrait of each other,
row a boat as well as cross all corners of the region
by train, plane and automobile, unfortunately not plane.
So you didn't get any currency out of it.
And bus.
And bus, definitely and bus, but no tram yet,
although there will be next time I do it hopefully.
But it was a great event and what was interesting is that from the LVEP, the director of the
what's it called, Bronte Parsonage, we thunderlipped and she picked us up, Rebecca, which was brilliant
because we got a chance to connect and we talked about the cluster action plans and
everything that we're doing here today.
So everything connects somewhere in life, doesn't it?
So thank you for that.
We'll now move on to the real stuff.
So governance arrangements and appointments, this is quite a dry section.
It's really important because this is around the governance of this group.
And I'd like to hand over to Felix to take us through it, please.
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:15:57
Thank you very much. It is not dry at all.
No.
As the Chair said, we do this at the beginning of the municipal year,
every year to make sure we've got our appointments and approvals in place for the board to be

7 Governance Arrangements & Appointments

able to do its work. You've had the purpose with appendices. I won't go through everything
in that level of detail. I'm hoping we've all been able to read it, but it's important
that I just take the key points in turn and we can establish that. At the end, I will
Ben Still, Chief Executive (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:16:35
pause if there are any comments or questions and then hopefully we'll be able to finish
that item. So I also combine the purpose bit of the report with the
recommendations bit and hopefully we walk through it. The first is an ask of
this board to note that the chair, Mandu Rediard, who is also the mayor's
business advisor, will continue in her role as chair of this business board for
Ben Still, Chief Executive (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:17:04
this municipal year. We also asking you to note the appointment or seeking asking you to appoint
agree to the appointment of Asma Iqbal who unfortunately can't be here today.
She is our current Deputy Chair to continue in that role. We asking if you would agree
for Mandy then to be nominated from this board to sit on the Combined Authority board and for
Asma Iqbal to be the substitute member for when Mandy cannot attend.
The fourth point is asking that you confirm the proposed membership and other changes as reported
last time in the September meeting and that is what Mandy has walked through right now with
the new structure we have and the co -chairs and the arrangements that we've got membership that
we have got here today. The fifth point is asking that you confirm the continuing appointment
of the private sector representatives as set out in appendix one. As I said at the top,
I will not walk through all the names on there. Most of you are around the table. If you want
to confirm, you can please look at that right now. Then asking that you confirm that you
of the terms of office of the private sector representatives. This is set out in Section
3 .17 of the paper and it names the private sector representatives that we are talking
about. For each of them, their terms are coming to an end and for all of them, we are seeking
an extension for one for four of them we seek an extension for one year and for
two of them for two years Farah and for Erin so that is set out in 3 .1 7 this
allows us we evolve and the board goes through this transition period for us to
retain the experience and the expertise that has been built over the period for
to benefit from that as this board takes shape.
So hopefully that meets with your approval.
We then asking for you to confirm the appointment of the co -opted members of the Business Board.
Again, this is set out in Appendix 1.
Last two, we are asking your approval to nominate Mandy to sit to represent this board on the
TF and Transport for the North board.
We have to do that every year to have a representative there so this region is represented at that
board and the conversations that are had there.
And as Natalie has already said, up to this point Natalie Sykes has been representing
the board when Mandy has been unable to attend and we are asking for that arrangement to
continue if you agree.
And finally, Mandy has already mentioned the Business Board Network.
This is a group that brings together the chairs or representatives of all the business boards
in the country.
We pay a subscription to it and together that group then represents our views to government.
It's also a good forum to be able to share and exchange ideas.
We are asking if you would agree for Mandy to continue to be the representative on that board for us, for you and for Asma Iqbal the Deputy Chair to represent you when Mandy cannot attend.
So that is what this paper is seeking to do. I'll pause now if there are any questions or comments. If not, I'll hand back to the Chair to confirm that you are happy with those recommendations. Thank you.
Are there no comments?
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 0:21:13
So does everybody agree to all of those changes?
Yes.
Marvellous.
Shall we move on to the next item?
Super.
So the next item is item eight.

8 Economic Update

It's our economic update.
So this is where we start to really get under the data of the region.
It's to highlight key developments in the West Yorkshire economy which are relevant
to our work.
The slide's been circulated in advance and I'd like to invite Peter really to step up
and take us through some of the headlines of that data.
We won't go through everything because we always take the papers as read.
So Peter, I'll pass over to you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chair.
Ryan Kaye - 0:21:58
So as the Chair mentioned, the purpose of this item is to provide no review of developments
in the economic environment that are likely to have a bearing on the work of the board.
And it also presents an opportunity for private sector members in particular to reflect on
the evidence and provide further feedback around the issues they face and the support
that is required for business.
For reference, there's a slide that falls under a gender item 8 on page 15 of your packet
of papers, but there was also some additional content that was circulated to you yesterday,
Which I'll come on to presently but there's a hard copy of all the slides on your table
As the chair mentioned I'm not proposing to work through each of the slides
Although happy to take questions on any of the content, but just to briefly summarise the main pack
The latest national economic data points towards quite modestly positive picture in terms of economic growth
Inflation also fell in April. All of this was due to
exceptional circumstances in terms of changes to the energy price cap.
On the other hand, there is some evidence of moderate employment decline at national
level led by the wholesale, retail and hospitality sectors.
I guess the major caveat to all this is that the timing of the data means that it doesn't
fully reflect the Middle East conflict or the impact of the Middle East conflict.
We set out in the slides that this is expected to have significant impacts and implications
for the UK economy and for the region. The PAC also contains analysis of the
first set of results from the Business Pulse Survey relating to quarter one of
2026, before the Middle East crisis and as the chair mentioned this is basically
a subset of the Chamber's quarterly economic survey that specifically
targets members of the Business Board and the Mayor's Business Council. I think
the true value of this survey will be seen when we've constructed a time
Series and we can see how sentiment is evolving over time, but there are some key points to note
In that
First of all the baseline results from the business bull survey do show do show much more positive
sentiment than the wider quarterly economic survey some members of the business board and the
And the mayor's business council are more positive in their view of the economic outlook
Nonetheless, a range of issues are raised.
For example, prospects for workforce growth are subdued and high labour costs are highlighted
as a particular concern.
Just to note on the business pool survey, with the assistance of the Chamber, we're
looking to include additional questions in the survey in future, such as a question to
assess the impact to dates of artificial intelligence on businesses.
So, in addition to the material contained in the pack
that was originally circulated, the chair suggested
that we should do a broader stock take
of the region's economic position against a range
of indicators so that we can then review progress
against these indicators on an ongoing basis.
And so, some additional slides were circulated yesterday.
And again, you have hard copies in your pack on your tables.
So, in developing this, and if you could move
to the next slide please Julie.
I've selected some of the indicators, the key indicators,
which are included in the West Yorkshire Business Board
dashboard and I've presented them in this table
to provide a broad overview of performance.
I think you probably have to look at your hard copies
rather than the screen for this and I think it's three
slides from the back of that pack.
We can also share the metadata for these indicators.
Moving forward, we're open to suggestions regarding
changes in addition to the indicators that we use.
But to explain the analysis, for each indicator we flagged whether West Yorkshire is above
or below the national average, and then we've highlighted whether the gap with the national
average is narrowing or widening.
If we're below the national average, then the narrowing of the gap is a good thing and
vice versa.
We've also provided the latest estimate for each indicator, plus the latest year -on -year
change figures and I'm going to cover a handful of indicators that are most central to the
local growth plan in detail separately in a subsequent couple of slides.
But first of all, looking at the overall picture in broad terms presented by these indicators,
you see that the region performs below the national average against many, several of
the indicators.
This is typically because of long -standing structural factors which are often related,
but in a number of cases where we face these kinds of deficits, there is some evidence
of the gap narrowing in the last year, which means West Yorkshire is improving its relative
position.
So, as well as a macro indicator of gross value added and productivity, this is also
the case for pay, business density and skills.
So, we're narrowing the gap in those areas.
There are also instances where West Yorkshire is performing below the national average,
but the gap is widening, that gap is growing.
Key examples are exports and R &D expenditure, which are both central to productivity growth.
In both cases, the gap with the national position is substantial and the challenges are partly
structural.
So it's worth noting on the export side that the overall figures conceal a stronger position
for service exports, particularly non -European markets.
In the case of the R &D spend, the underperformance
reflects low representation of R &D intensive industries
in the region.
Turning to indicators where West Yorkshire outperforms
the national average, apprenticeship
starts as an example where structural factors are also
at play.
So the vocational skills route has traditionally
been very strong in the region, although since the pandemic
there's been a stagnation in apprenticeship take -up both nationally and regionally. In
contrast the number of foreign direct investment projects attracted into the area is something
that can vary markedly from year to year. In the latest year of 2024 -25 the region secured
more than its fair share of projects and associated jobs and also grew its number of projects
faster than nationally. What I'm going to do now, if you can move to the next slide
please Julie, is to focus in slightly more detail on the central indicators
within the local growth plan which reflect the key ambitions of the plan.
So the central economic challenge identified by the local growth plan is
an output or GBA gap of 11 billion pounds in West Yorkshire compared with
UK average. This is how much bigger the regional economy should be based on its population
size. And the gap consists of two elements. Fewer people are in employment, plus there's
a lack of productivity among the people who are in employment. The productivity element
is the biggest contributor to the overall gap. To close the gap with the UK average,
productivity and employment need to grow faster than the UK
average over a sustained period.
We've got limited data to just performance to date,
because the latest figures for GVA and productivity
are going up to 2023.
And 2023 was a difficult year in growth terms,
because of the impact of the energy crisis.
But if we look at a slightly extended period between 2019
and 2023, we can see that West Yorkshire has outperformed
the national average at the required rate set out in the local growth plan.
The main driver of this was productivity growth, which has been consistently higher in West
Yorkshire than nationally between 2009 and 2023, although in 2023 productivity grew without
a significant expansion in the economy.
Next slide, please, Julie.
And turning to some of the other indicators, the region performed less well in terms of
the number of people in employment.
So the gap with the UK average hasn't narrowed here.
Turning to skills, alongside capital investment skills are highlighted as a principal driver
of productivity growth in the local growth plan.
Recent data isn't available for investment, but our position has improved with regard
to skills, at least in terms of qualifications, which are our proxy measure for skills.
The gap on high -level qualifications has narrowed significantly, whilst the region has almost
achieved parity in terms of reducing the proportion of people with no or low qualifications.
So that concludes my overview.
Back to you, Chair.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 0:30:57
Thanks very much, Peter, and I'm going to open it up to the floor now if anybody's got
any comments.
However, one of the things you will notice is that the data is old, and that's because
it's ONS data primarily that we're using.
I think I'm right on that, Peter.
But obviously in business, we use live data.
I mean, in my business, I use data to the second,
not to two years ago.
And so one of the things we need to start to think about
is certainly in that front sheet that you saw, the table,
which is a great document, unfortunately,
the data isn't as live as we'd like it to be,
is what lead metrics we can use
to start to give us more up -to -date readings
on those figures.
So what the latest fixed data is from the ONS,
but what lead metric could we scan,
for example job postings, to give us something
that is a little bit more trend based.
So I'll now open it up to comments,
but that might be one of the things that you're thinking
as you're looking at that data,
how can we be more current?
And it's certainly something that's a live conversation,
and it's something that we as a group need to think about.
Each, if those are the right metrics in that top table,
then what are the lag metrics, what are the lead metrics,
certainly that's what we use in manufacturing,
to make sure that we are predicting where that ONS data will be in a year's time.
Okay. Karl.
Ryan Kaye - 0:32:21
Thanks, Chair. Just clarification, Peter.
When you mentioned there were some structural challenges,
Karl Oxford (Private Sector Representative) - 0:32:28
and I think in reference to exports and our position below average and the widening gap,
Just define what structural means and also if it doesn't
mean, you know, infrastructure, for example,
like the support from the DBT, Department for Business
and Trade, you know, where does infrastructure play a
role in the challenges that we now have on some of these
data perspectives and, you know,
Mark that's open to you as well, you know,
in terms of, because, you know,
The data is one thing it arms us with some valuable information.
It's what we now do to respond to some of the key opportunities within that data.
I'll come back to you and I'll take a couple if that's OK.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 0:33:11
Thanks, Chair.
And just to say I completely share that sentiment about the speed of the data being accumulated.
We're in field work now for the latest QES.
Concludes on Monday, as you mentioned.
Mark Casci - 0:33:25
We've had a fantastic response rate this time around for, I think, quite obvious reasons
what's happening in the world, but I do share that frustration that it is quite slow and
it's not particularly live.
We are looking at that nationally as a Chamber of Commerce through BCC because myself and
other people have just been complaining about this for such a long time that I think they've
finally given up and realised they need to speed it up.
My question for Peter is, can you use for things like job postings, can you use Lightcast
for that?
And is it responsive?
responsive because we did have one at the start of when we started local skills improvement plan
We don't use it anymore, but I wonder if we could revisit that maybe
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 0:34:03
And Barney I'll come to you and they'll come back to Peter to respond on those three points if that's okay
My problem was I
Barney Mynott, Advisory Representative (West Yorkshire Business Groups) - 0:34:14
Wonder if there's a value in trying to match up some of the policies or things we're doing
To these different areas of indicators. So it comes with my life because rather than just watching it happen
we're actually thinking about how we're contributing to it,
how we're affecting it.
Otherwise, it's just a bit like cricket on the sea facts,
isn't it?
A reference for the kids there.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 0:34:31
So Barney, we're on ticker tape in my case.
So on that, I completely agree.
And one of the things I want to get
from the chairs of the cluster plans,
for example, the cluster groups, is what their key activities
are in the short term that match,
that we then map to some of the metrics that we've got
and to the lead metrics.
So how we then join that together will be the next stage.
But I think we're getting there,
but it's a really good point.
Peter, can I get you to respond on?
So in response to Carl's question, first of all,
so when I talk about structural factors,
I'm talking more about industry structure,
the sort of nature of the activities
Ryan Kaye - 0:35:12
that take place in the region.
In terms of the role of infrastructure,
I guess we can point to the huge investment that we're making in areas like mass transit and
We've also got an infrastructure strategy under development
So obviously that's all critical to the you know to future productivity and an economic performance
So that plays a central role I would say on
On my question about like us so we have got an indicator in there about looking at job postings
as a kind of leading indicator where we're looking at the ratio of job postings to employment,
which is quite a useful indicator of labour market vibrancy, and that is taken from Lidecast.
So I think in the past we have used other indicators related to job postings to get
an indication of what's happening. It is a useful leading indicator.
There are other areas where we could,
where we do have more current data.
I think the brief today was to summarise
the sort of key things into one page,
because we do have a lot of data, a lot of indicators.
And in fact, on the West Yorkshire Business Board dashboard,
just to come to your point, Barney,
that's actually structured around the wheel of enterprise
that Mandy set out, so we do,
it does align with policy in that sense,
but it's difficult to get all that onto one page.
But I think we can further develop the range of indicators
that we look at regularly, but I think we need to have
a limited number as our core indicators,
otherwise we don't have the bandwidth
to kind of look at them in a meeting, I guess,
would be the argument.
I think how we get SLICR at doing this
and how we get it to be more current
will be one of the key actions
that we need to take from this,
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 0:37:07
and then how we then dice and splice that across the clusters will be really important
too. I've got Liz and then Jane.
I'm really just going to echo sentiments here. On the one hand, it's like have we got the
Liz Whitefield - 0:37:20
right indicators and I can understand the data sourcing. I think if we could focus on
the indicators today would be useful. I find the data points for me as a decision maker
in a business adds very little value because of the currency and as part of the innovation
board. So I think it's great as a group for us to kind of focus on the left hand column
and are they the right things. I think that's a question we need to ask. But for me the
numbers are just, they're distracting because of the age and I realise you're working with
what you've got and it's statistically valid but I do think it's not particularly helpful
in the sense of helping us to kind of steer and prioritise and particularly with the work
we're doing around innovation board, outcomes, KPIs, how they link to the clusters is such
fundamental, it's almost like where we start. So I just echo
in the sentiment I think we need to, I find that table really
distracting, I'm sorry.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 0:38:10
So, we'll all have different, are you finding it distracting
because of the data or because of the table?
It's not, it's, so I think there's a whole, I mean I think
Liz Whitefield - 0:38:19
it's really important for us to have indicators and measures
for regional investment and growth and what we're doing here.
I think that the data points, the currency of it is not helpful for some of those in terms of where we're at.
And that's just something we have to get better at. So it's the latest data immediately.
It's just like, so what's the validity of that?
So bear in mind, I read you our business economic update, which is very current and very here and now,
and the business polls, and then we're looking at that data point and everything.
It feels like we're taking a step back, if that makes sense, because this other stuff is really powerful.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 0:38:53
So these are the lag metrics, what we need are the lead metrics, I think that will be
the better point.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 0:39:01
Which is kind of the question I was going to ask on the basis of Liz.
Jane Atkinson, Deputy Chair - 0:39:09
I read this and I thought the business pulse was a really good sort of benchmark and it
was really quite exciting because it was positive, but there was only 21 respondents and actually
that could be your leading indicators, that could be really, so what is the plan to get
this out and get more people to respond and can you align them to these indicators so
that you can use it as like leading indicators?
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 0:39:28
So we have a wider group which is what the chambers do and it's great to hear Mark say
that there have been a lot of respondents this quarter which is great. The one that
you're looking at is also the alignment of this group and what will be the wider business
board including the clusters and so it's our job to get people, so that's everybody around
this table to make sure that we get as much data for those data points as possible. So
if we're only getting 21 data points, part of the fact is that this is new. But actually
it's not 21 for the whole group, it's 21 that are in the tagged group, I think, if
I'm right Peter? Yeah, which is the clusters and the mayor's council. So it will be about
100, but it's 21 so far, so it's the first time we've done it. It's our job to get
more respondents for the Chamber survey,
and also to make sure that everybody
that's in the cluster groups responds every time
so that we get, you know, we hit 100.
So, and that's our job, you know,
that if we don't get the data,
then we only have to look at ourselves
because we're not giving the data.
So our homework is also our answer.
Okay.
I've got Tracy, then Martin, then Vince.
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:40:52
I share everybody's deep frustration with the lag in this data because so much is different
today than 2023.
So deeply frustrating.
For me what would be very helpful is to understand that this is national data so it takes in
London and the South East.
I think it might be useful as well to have comparators like Manchester because Leeds
for example, is the third fastest growing city outside of London and Manchester. So
where do we compare with Manchester or Liverpool? Or we could pick another region. I think that
would be probably more useful because some of those numbers are so deeply depressing
and we might as well all go home. But I think relatively to the north, I think we need to
keep that clarity. But also for me is the data analytics. So the Coldedale and Wakefield,
biggest falls in employment since peak values in 24. All of this live stuff is so powerful.
What's the analytical interpretation of why that's happened? I think that would also be
useful as a board for us to not just see the data but have the opportunity to really discuss
why these things are happening, what interventions could we implement to address that.
Dr Martin Stow - 0:42:07
I guess my comment around this is I've worked in a lot of businesses where they spend a
lot of time collecting data and the data can be used to compare yourself to benchmarking
yourself with other businesses within the sector.
But for me, this is about how is this data being used to shape decisions that we're making
as a combined authority, both from a policy perspective,
but also funding and investment.
So I guess my question is really around,
what are the critical metrics?
Yes, I agree totally that these need to be leading
as opposed to lagging, they need to be more up to date.
But how is this being used and how is this data set
and the translation of this being used more broadly
within the combined authority to make decisions
about funding and policy?
And also, Martin, how are we using it
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 0:42:55
to make sure that we're pulling that together to put our business board view to officers
in the command authority as well, because we put a different slant on that.
I'm going to come to Vince and then Jason and then Mark and then Dave.
Thank you, Chair. I think enough has been said about the age of the data and that's fine.
Kay Butterfield - 0:43:18
The focus for me, even if the data is old, is what's the so -what that comes out of the
data that we do have? We can complain about it as much as we want, but this is the data
that we have. What do we learn from that process? And there's a couple of things in particular
that from a structural economy perspective cause me a little bit of concern. That's particularly
around exports and R &D spend.
Now, when you think about exports and you think about our economic structure, we have
a very services -heavy economy, a very strong creative economy.
These are not going to drive necessarily large amounts of physical export.
But what it does talk about is that there are elements of our economy which are typically
elements that do provide good jobs at an entry level and provide career opportunity in terms
So manufacturing has always driven that.
And if we drive more in terms of the export cluster,
that's going to have a beneficial effect in terms
of fixing some of the employment and some
of the apprenticeship stats and other pieces that are coming
through in the data as well.
But when you consider the next largest part,
one of the key focuses of our regional economy
as being health technology, other technology startups,
and you look at the R &D spend which is coming through.
Now again, this is 24 data, so it's a little bit newer
but still a little bit out of date.
But health technology was still a key sector
for this economy in 22, 23, and 24.
And if we're not getting R &D spend going into
those high -tech industries, then we will not be able
to keep pace going forward.
And so while the data is old, it still calls out to us to say
these need to be areas of focus.
Drive, particularly manufacturing, to get exports.
That's how we get additional value into the UK economy.
But the second element of that is how do we ensure that we are
supporting the developing tech industries in our region and
ensuring they have access to funding to be able to invest in
R &D because that is the future of our economy.
May I just respond directly to that? We have been making the case as Northern Mayors the
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:45:40
structural imbalance in investment in R &D in the Golden Triangle and universities in
the south. We are making that case and you'll have heard the announcement, I think it was
a couple of days ago, that the innovation monies is now going to be fully devolved to
and the strategic authorities.
30 million will be going into our settlement for us to be able to use it how we want to
use it rather than jumping through hoops given to us by the centre.
So I'm hoping that will see an impact because you're absolutely right.
R &D is where you get the spin -outs in your businesses and where you get growth.
That's great news, Tracey, thank you.
Kay Butterfield - 0:46:20
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 0:46:22
Dr Martin Stow - 0:46:28
There's a broad issue nationally around R &D spending because the trend is being going
downwards and the question is how do you reverse that because it needs significant intervention
to be able to reverse that.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 0:46:37
Jason, before I come to you, I'm going to bring Mark ahead because we're talking innovation
and it would be mad not to come to Mark next.
Mark Roberts - 0:46:47
Thank you, Chair, and I agree with the lead and lag, but there is use in the data as it
because the big picture points to we have a growth and productivity problem
and if you look at growth one of the things I love about this region there
are only 435 high growth businesses well we need to be speaking to all of them
and we need to be networking with all of them and connecting them and making sure
they're completing the pulse survey and I think there's a real opportunity to
connect some of this data into the activities that we're doing so I just
wanted to add a big plus one to that point. It's a really good point Mark and
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 0:47:18
and also connecting that into their innovation spend
and how that looks compared to the rest
will be really critical in driving that.
So good point, Jason.
Jason McCartney - 0:47:32
I was just gonna say please use the export data
to bang the drum for investment in the Department
for Business and Trade Trade Advisors team.
So up until a couple of months ago,
we actually had their dedicated named Trade Advisor,
international trade advisor, Annie Bradley.
So I could ring her up at a moment's notice
to get support from the DBT teams around the world.
So in February, I went to Chile, Santiago, to Anglo -American
to look at putting one of our conveying systems
into the biggest copper mine in the world.
So Annie put me in touch with the Department of Business
and Trade team in our embassy there.
But that support has now gone online.
So Annie has been taken away from the frontline support.
So all I would ask is please use that data and bang the drum for having that face -to -face
the phone call availability of that direct international trade advisor support
So that we can get access to the support around the world in export more
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 0:48:36
It's nothing you're exactly right making sure that
Businesses can find the information that they need or get the contact that they need to help them to do that
is really important as well as the networks and the
Matchmaking between other businesses that have already been there and have done it already so that we can learn so yes
I'll take your point on that. I think it was you next day
Thank you
David Rolinson - 0:49:00
To me the business sentiment looking forward is key and it's really interesting
Isn't it that we as a pulse are more confident than the region and that's probably because we're more in the know
And I also was at UK Reef and felt that confidence,
but everybody was looking over the shoulder.
So, in my board, we use a whole series of business sentiment
national matrices as purchase managers in the indices.
I just wonder whether there's a call to provide additional
sources of information to contextualise that so that
we can actually all see what the national picture is and then
how we perform regionally.
But I agree, what's coming out of this is how do we spread
the word, how do we address that confidence, how do we get more people to see the confidence
that we've clearly got sat around this table?
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 0:49:53
I think some of it is knowledge and some of it is growth mindset and the businesses that
are giving their time freely here have probably got a growth mindset and we need to try and
make sure that we find all those businesses that have a growth mindset, the 435 and the
part of the challenge. I think also there seems to be a point here around maybe having
a conversation outside of a meeting for the sort of, you know, those that want to be involved
in finding the right data sources to help give us those lead metrics. Becky.
Thanks, Chair. Just a couple of things really. I think when the Bank of England were looking
Beckie Hart (Business Representative) - 0:50:36
at business rates in the Ukraine crisis, they didn't pay enough attention to anecdotal evidence.
I think that's probably something that they want to make sure they get right this time around and also I think it would be really useful
to use it in conjunction with
Because the anecdotal evidence is much much more relevant
It's we're hearing it all the time and from businesses and I think to part Barney's point about
Policy and how you can match some of these up with policy and that's absolutely key. So
business paid I've got the numbers here
at three hundred and forty four point eight billion pounds in tax last year
that's gone up twelve point seven percent on the year before of which
NYX accounts for thirty one percent of it it's massive and that will be driving
some of these certainly some of the anecdotal evidence because obviously
this is very very new data which is a little bit older but you do I'm worried
on some of them it might go worse before it gets better unless there are interventions
in that sense.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 0:51:40
Thanks Becky. Mark I'll come to you and then if there's no other comments we'll move to
the next section.
Mark Casci - 0:51:47
I just want to say I completely agree with Becky about the anecdotes. In the QES both
the one that we do more broadly and the business book there is an option to add in any thoughts,
feelings, observations, criticism, rants, whatever you want to call it because the QES
is just numbers, it doesn't reflect people's experiences. And it's actually one of the
more valuable bits of the report when I write it, because it brings a human voice to it,
which is otherwise missing in the data. So, yeah, we can definitely help them with that.
Shabam?
Just a quick one. You know, recently we've seen a lot about the needs, the people who
Shahban Aziz - 0:52:21
are not in employment, education or training. There's over a million now between 18 and
which is going to rise to 1 .25 million.
Looking at this data where we have a lot of people,
I think it's above national average of people
with low or no qualifications.
Are we particularly exposed to that in West Yorkshire?
And is that a metric that we can compare to perhaps
as maybe a more current one to see where we are
perhaps in future?
Peter.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 0:52:53
So in terms of needs, we have the principal group,
Shahban Aziz - 0:52:55
which is the statutory group of 16 and 17 -year -olds
Ryan Kaye - 0:52:58
that the local authorities are mandated to assist.
And the size of that group is to some extent determined
by the approach of the local authorities
in terms of getting them into education and training
and employment opportunities.
The broader sort of need group up to age 24
is quite difficult to measure at local level
because at national level, the million figure
that you refer to, it's a survey based figure
and the data isn't reliable at local level,
but we understand from colleagues
at Department for Education that that data's
gonna be improved, that improved data's
gonna become available from national insurance
and other administrative sources,
so we'll get a better picture of what the true need,
the true scale of the need issue is in West Yorkshire.
When we look at related indicators like claim of unemployment
we can see that the claimant rate for young people
is higher than nationally, particularly in Bradford,
so that suggests that we do have a more significant problem
in West Yorkshire than nationally.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 0:54:10
And I guess even though we can't define exactly the figure,
we do know that there's a challenge regardless.
And so how we connect talent to skills and work
is going to be some, or to entrepreneurial opportunities or to other opportunities is
going to be something that is really important for a whole host of other indicators, but
also most businesses are complaining they can't find the skills and there's a disconnect
there somewhere isn't there, so we need to look at that, but maybe at another time it's
certainly something that's on the agenda.
Karl it's the very last one.
Yeah.
And also, you talk about skills and, but we also,
aspiration is key, not just for young people,
Karl Oxford (Private Sector Representative) - 0:54:57
but the kind of branding and the messaging
that we project ourselves.
And the anecdotes are very important, Mark.
Tracy is our ambassador when it comes to that.
when it comes to that kind of perception of our future.
But I think just like you have done this fantastic
kind of concise statement of our intentions
and our context going forward, I think we need to,
because on that wider environmental stuff,
and business confidence is key,
and the whole way that people are viewing the country
at the moment with a lot of this social unrest is also key.
If we can get messaging out there that our region is
positioned with aspiration, with potential,
and hope for the future, I think that's key for the future.
So we need to kind of have that, not just
in tracing yourselves and going figureheads going forward,
but the way that we message from these data collection things
that we do.
We have like a simple kind of reference point
that people can look to and say, yeah,
we have hope for a future for our region despite what else might be going on around the country.
If that would make sense.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 0:56:19
Thank you Carl, you're asking me for another graphic and I was up till God knows what I
was doing that one for you last night so I noted on my homework.
OK, I'll move us on there to the next item on the agenda.

9 Cluster Group Updates (Verbal)

But I think we've got some key items that officers will have taken away from this and
will come out in the minutes of this meeting and again I would like to put in a meeting,
Julie, if you can do that on the data points and the sort of data that we think is essential.
We can't do that in this meeting. We haven't got enough time. We'll be in the weeds.
But I think for those of you that are interested, we'll put a session in and you can drop into that if you'd like to and help.
So, cluster group update.
We mentioned earlier that we had a number of clusters
and how we were structured and updates from the cluster groups will be given at every meeting.
But obviously, we only have a finite amount of time,
and we've got a large number of clusters.
So to allow each cluster group sufficient time
to provide a meaningful update, we're
only going to do two to three each meeting.
And that means that we'll cover them all within the cycle.
So we heard from the Manufacturing Advisory Board
and the Health and Life Sciences cluster groups last time.
There'll still be updates, but the one
that will be live at the meeting today
will be the Green Economy Steering Group
and the Creative Industries cluster group,
as well as the LVET.
So I'll hand over to Victoria first, if that's OK, Victoria.
Well, hi, guys.
Karl Oxford (Private Sector Representative) - 0:57:48
So in terms of the green economy,
basically we aim to position West Yorkshire
Victoria Garcia - 0:57:57
as a national leader in climate innovation.
That is the goal.
So, so far, we've only had two meetings.
And what we are already working on is on raising the awareness of what we are doing as a team
or a group and what our intentions are.
Also as part of our work, we've mapped, or we are mapping, the green tech ecosystem in
the region, so particularly focusing on investor -founders connexions.
So that, for example, implies mentioning things like CLIMB or Regeneration Earth or even the
Green Tech Gathering.
Finally, because our goal is to develop the West Georgia green economy, we are now working
on identifying what infrastructure or resources the region should be offering to founders
or individuals in order to encourage them to either grow their company or to set them
up so that there is some innovation here.
That will be the very short update, but now I'm going to comment on the data that you
mentioned before, because to me it's amazing data and it is perfect for the purpose of
of this meeting, it is really interesting that in 2024,
we have more business births than the average.
However, the high growth businesses
and the business density is below average a year later,
which basically shows, and this is the problem
that I wanna tackle in the group,
it shows that even though business get started,
they do not have the infrastructure
and the support that they need to grow.
And this data is perfect because it is what it shows.
I don't think it's lacked at all.
Growth in a region, we could be looking at the data
in 2017 and I'm quite sure it would not be
much of a difference there.
So that's the update for the green economic system.
Thank you Victoria.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:00:05
Access to place, especially labs or other areas
as well as access to finance and investment
to the two first bits of our Maslow's hierarchy
of enterprise, whatever you want to call it, that I think are essential and mapping that
out for your cluster will really help to pull that together and then we can put all of the
actions from all of the clusters, the key actions on our smorgasbord of what we're going
to deliver this year.
Victoria Garcia - 1:00:33
Yeah, so I will use this data and it's not just a matter of investment, it's to know
how to deploy that investment.
Once we get it out of the golden triangle, what are we investing on so that founders
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:00:49
can innovate. Thank you Victoria. I'll come to the creative industries next and it's
Fiona Conor - 1:00:56
Siobhan and Jackie I think. Thank you chair. So we've had our first meeting of our board
Shahban Aziz - 1:00:59
which was with a focus on the business growth hub and how applicable they are to our five
priority areas so that's fashion and textiles, games, immersive live experience, music and
screen and that first meeting went very well it was in this room and it was very
well attended. Lots of excitement, lots of collaboration and the excitement was
not least because we had the mayor attend as well and for all the work that
was done by the head of creative industries Helen Phoebe from the
combined authority and we're gonna continue that so the next meeting that
we have will have a focus on skills and West Yorkshire as a region of learning
and creativity so we're going with that thematic approach within it and then
I'll hand over to Jackie for a quick update as well.
And we thought we'd do it as a two -hander
to show how aligned we are as co -chairs.
Dr Jackie Mulligan - 1:01:48
OK, so what I would say is, I mean, in Leeds,
last week we had 47 new games being created and shown off.
There was incredible IP going on in all of the sectors
we're talking about.
And so the approval of the You Can Make It Here
additional funds, including $1 million for an IP fund,
is really welcomed.
and we'll be working through at the moment the best deployment to that.
We're already having conversations in our cluster around public private finance
and making it as recyclable as possible something can reinvest especially when
you see those stats in business startup and business growth but the other thing
is we have this fantastic cluster of universities so we need to be looking at
how can we retain that talent in West Yorkshire and also you know the mayor
once again championing the regional West Yorkshire and the creative industries
already enabled direct engagement with the Chancellor on lowering the screen
tax threshold which means many productions that go overseas can instead
be made in the UK and in the West Yorkshire we've got a fantastic track record of
making great movies and TV but also great games and everything else so we're
very excited about the creative industries cluster and going forward.
Thank you both, that was brilliant. And Tracy, music stuff from yesterday.
Yeah, yesterday we launched at South by Southwest the first iteration of Great North Creative
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 1:03:09
and that is the Great North Music Export Office. And just the very fact of bringing together
mayors across the North, we've already got amazing outcomes. There's some of our musicians,
we've got tours to Osaka, we're talking about exports here, tours to Osaka, tours in Germany,
record deals EMI North. The first signing is Nadine Shah, who is a Moku Prize winner from South Shields,
but coming together greater than the sum of our parts. And I was at a DVT Investors Summit last
night and met Reliance, who are a textile designer who are looking for a northern base, and I was able
say we're the home of textiles, fashion, Mati Bovin, a really well renowned global designer,
I didn't know him but I'm not down with the kids, and he has brought together Leeds Arts
University and Liverpool as a cluster already, and also games across the whole of West Yorkshire.
I mean Angry Birds was created in Wakefield.
We do have a quiet sector that we need to definitely elevate and sing and dance about.
So I think the fact that we are now being seen in West Yorkshire as the place to go
for understanding the opportunities of the creative industries.
I sit on the Creative Industries Council with government.
And I think that puts us in a pole position.
And just for everyone's knowledge, we are also, as the Great North, mayors going to
India in the autumn, making the most of the free trade agreement.
And we will be having part of that pitch where it's obviously going to be manufacturing space
or financial professional services, lots of our clusters, but the creative industries
will also be in the forefront of that.
Thank you, and it was good to see yesterday you mentioned award -winning so Adolescence
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:05:14
was made in this region at Production Park if you don't know what Production Park is
definitely go and see it. It's where you'll bump into Lady Gaga or the guy who created
Adolescence can't remember his name now on a Saturday. Stephen Graham. Stephen Graham
that's the one. It's where all the stars hang out but they were awarded degree awarding
powers, I think, this week. So another great example of why skills, which is your next
meeting, I think, Siobhan, is really important in this space. And I think Helen's fantastic,
Helen Phebe's fantastic leadership, as well as your own, will be really instrumental in
terms of pushing this forward.
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 1:05:55
If I may, Chair, just to say that that degree awarding powers is quite a game changer for
Wakefield because they haven't got a university and there has been a question mark about how
how do we ensure that the young people of Wakefield
have the opportunity, if they wish,
to get a degree without having to travel,
necessarily, obviously Leeds is 10 minutes away on the train
but that opportunity for a degree awarding powers
at Production Park, an ex -mining town
in the five towns in Wakefield,
I think has proved that the agglomeration of talents
and the determination of a private business
that started off as a scaffolding business,
have now been able to really deliver
for the people of Wakefield.
Thank you.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:06:42
And on that really upbeat note, I'm
going to hand over to Vincent and Olivia on the LVEP
for hopefully to keep the spirits up.
Yeah, I certainly hope so.
It's probably worth explaining a little bit about what
Kay Butterfield - 1:06:55
the LVEP actually is.
The Local Visitor Economic Partnership,
It's a strategic partnership across all of the the five key council areas and the West Yorkshire combined authority
combined with
the hotel providers the attractions in our region
Vincent Hodder - 1:07:12
As well as transport providers I sit on the elvip as part of the airport trying to bring people into the region
But this is this is government and industry working together to try and focus
efforts in how do we collaborate with each other to drive greater success for
West Yorkshire. And when you think about this particular segment of our regional
economy it's a really significant contributor. Overall the visitor economy
makes up about 10 % of the West Yorkshire total economy, it employs about 54 ,000
people, but not only is it a sector which is an important element, important pillar
of what the regional economy is, it's also one of the fastest growing sectors of our
regional economy.
If you, again, the data is slightly lagged, we're still waiting on 2025 data, but if you
look at the growth rates from 2022 to 2024, and Mandy mentioned in her opening comments
that the 8 % growth in visitor numbers that the regional economy has been able to drive
over that period of time, but the other numbers are actually even more impressive.
of the economic impact of the visitor economy
has actually increased by 22 % between 2022 and 2024.
And when you think about what we've just been talking about
in terms of the overall growth of the economy
in this region, what you see is that a very significant
proportion of the outgrowth of our region
relative to the rest of the UK is actually being driven
by our visitor economy.
And so that is a huge part of what we are trying to drive.
Despite that, it's a really challenging time
for participants in the industry.
In terms of the, that's been mentioned already,
the increases in national insurance and other taxation
is putting, and the external effects of things like
the war in the Middle East having a real chilling effect
in terms of consumer sentiment and people wanting to get out and do things.
So it's creating in the current world a difficult environment.
But structurally, this is still a critically important part of where we're driving.
And bringing together those groups in this strategic partnership is a really important
part, which is why Tracy as the mayor actually chairs the LVEP directly, and it's a great
opportunity.
but what I might do is pass it across to Olivia to talk about not just what we are, but actually
some of the work that we've been doing and what the focus is going forward.
Thank you, yes.
So the LVAP is obviously trying to ensure that the visitor economy is recognised not
just as a tourism activity but as a core contributor to inclusive growth, jobs, investment, cultural
vibrancy and the attractiveness of West Yorkshire as a place to live, work and visit.
So the work that we've actually been doing, so we created a destination management plan
which we launched a little over a year ago,
and we're now very much working to deliver
Victoria Garcia - 1:10:16
that destination management plan to support the quality
and competitiveness of our region's offer.
Mark Casci - 1:10:22
We've developed a visitor proposition and a tone of voice
so that there's continuity about how we collectively promote
Olivia Colling - 1:10:28
the region, back to your point about
how we present ourselves.
We have an outstanding visitor offer
and we really want better storytelling around the culture,
the heritage, the landscape,
and particularly the screen tourism
here in West Yorkshire. We've identified target audience segments to continue to
achieve the growth that we've outlined. We've been developing PR campaigns based
on that visitor proposition to raise the profile of the West Yorkshire building
you know new media packs and what the ELBEC really allows us to do is a very
close alignment with Visit England which has enabled much better access to data
across, you know, so we can measure ourselves across where the rest of the visitor destinations
are across the country and to welcome really high profile press trips, which we are getting
quite successful at and we're moving those people around the region. We've set up some
subgroups, so we have a screen tourism subgroup led by Screen Yorkshire, which again aligns
very much with Visit Britain's flagship international marketing campaign, which this year harnesses
that draw of screen tourism, encouraging more people to explore beyond the capital of the UK.
And as part of that work we've created a toolkit and we're offering webinars to help businesses
be film ready. We've also got a travel trade development programme, so again this is helping
businesses with tailored support to become travel trade ready and helping us think about developing
bookable products and itineraries to encourage movement across the region, encourage longer
dwell time, which of course encourages people to spend more in hotels, in restaurants, in
public transport, as well as the visitor destinations like the Hepworth.
And as part of that work we're exploring how we create a regional visitor pass.
We've been doing some consultation with potential overnight visitor levy.
We are supporting the combined authority in shaping the design and implementation of what
that might look like, how it represents the sector and maximises economic impact, ensuring
that revenues are invested in ways that drive visitor economy growth, improve the infrastructure
and enhance our competitiveness.
And then finally we have created a new free to access membership scheme for businesses
in West Yorkshire.
there will be an industry -facing website that will host this membership, but it gives opportunities
to have access to the data and the insights that we're getting. It provides training and
skills development. There's all sorts of webinars you can sign up to. There's obviously opportunities
for networking and collaboration to take part in that travel trade and international activity
that I mentioned, and obviously the whole press infrastructure that comes with that.
And obviously all of this work will just help us continue to achieve the visitor economy growth
Prioritising activity that increases the overnight higher value visits
Wow
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:13:31
Except for the fact that things like withering Heights really make a difference
Apparently Rebecca was telling me when when we some of the lift to Erin and I that
There's an awful lot of teenagers that are very disappointed, as was I, that Jacob Elodie
wasn't actually in Howarth.
However, Jane Eyre is about to be filmed there as well, I think, for a BBC adaptation.
So there's a lot more going on than just that, but it is amazing how much our region really
has to do.
So the combination of Northern Ballet with Gentleman Jack and the tie -up, I think, with
is all of those sorts of things as well as all of the other work that's going on are
really, really engaging. Has anybody got any questions on the work of the clusters?
Just a quick one, just the toolkit that you mentioned, it would be really interesting
Olivia Colling - 1:14:22
to see where that is. Where's that house?
It's all in development at the moment, so we've only been a group in existence for
about a year. As I say, we're creating a new website where all of these things will
sit but if you are interested then there is a membership scheme that you can sign up to
now. So I don't know, perhaps we can circulate details afterwards?
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:14:46
That would be great and if you can forward them on to Julie she'll make sure that everybody
gets a copy of it and then you can join in or not depending on what your interests are.
But the crossovers between our clusters are really important. So for example in the creative
industries if I'll go back to Production Park they do manufacturing. Textiles for example
also do 3D structures and smart textiles for aerospace and other areas.
So there's lots of crossovers between our clusters and how we work together will be really important and farrow.
Olivia Colling - 1:15:19
And just one more thing, I think the storytelling thing came out from nearly all the structure, all the clusters,
and that's certainly something that we're doing in manufacturing as well.
How do we tell that storey about Yorkshire's manufacturing heritage?
That's something that perhaps we could all collaborate on at some point.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:15:33
Richard I'll come to you on this and Ed on the work that you're doing on health
Olivia Colling - 1:15:43
tech and telling that storey. I'd love to give a really decent update on that
piece but we aren't quite there yet but we are engaging with an organisation to
support us a little bit in that storytelling and Ed and I will be
hopefully meeting with that person soon, which was an action I hadn't picked up from our
Richard Paxman (Private Sector Representative) - 1:16:03
last meeting. It was only two weeks ago. But yeah, there's so much going on in health
tech and I think we touch on it every now and again, but we don't capture it and it
will be Ed and I's job to make a better job of that, but also the heritage of health
tech and life sciences in the region is important. So sorry that's not...
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:16:22
No, that's great and what I would say is that when you do something great, please share
it with Julie who can then share it on your behalf with everyone else in the team because
the learnings and the crossovers between the clusters will be emphasised and accelerated
if we start to share the good practise. There's some great work going on in the manufacturing
advisory board, for example Erin's leading on some stuff to do with innovation that's
crossing over with the innovation board and the joining of those dots is absolutely part
of what we need to be about and it doesn't only happen at these meetings, they're only
three times a year.
Any other questions?
I think that's a great big hand up there from Becky.
Olivia Colling - 1:17:02
So this is really interesting.
On the green stuff, we've just done a report on the value of the green economy.
Western North Yorkshire came out as a hotspot in the whole country, so I'll share that.
because Data City did the actual data and so it's not using sick codes at all
Beckie Hart (Business Representative) - 1:17:21
to think it's really really important. On culture stuff I know that Hull and East Yorkshire
have just done the value of culture to the economy and the contribution and
it moves it from being just a nice to have so from a business perspective if
you're thinking about how you get more involved in the culture sector I think
that's a really good piece of work and I can imagine it's much bigger here than
it will be there.
And then on the visitor economy, are you seeing,
or is it from an anecdotal perspective,
we're getting quite a lot of people reporting
that decisions are being made between driving for work
and driving for leisure,
with obviously leisure missing out as a result.
And I was just wondering if you'd sort of hear anything
on that, but I guess it's possibly too early to tell,
but it's not going to appear in any data as such,
but it's certainly coming through from members and stuff.
Anecdotally from the Hetbeth Wakefield's perspective,
and I think similarly at the Sculpture Park,
this year we've seen a very much stagnation of visits
and decreased spend because people just don't have
Olivia Colling - 1:18:27
the money to spend on nice -to -haves.
We have, since we reopened after COVID,
we've been seeing 10 % growth each year in terms of footfall,
and this year we're really seeing it flatlining.
So from the visitor attraction perspective, I would say it's particularly challenging this year.
I don't know, Vince, whether from a more travel perspective, you've got a different view.
Beckie Hart (Business Representative) - 1:18:56
No, we're seeing exactly the same thing that we're seeing at the moment.
Fara Butt (Private Sector Representative) - 1:18:58
Certain airlines are withdrawing capacity from not just from the airport, but from the UK more generally.
Vincent Hodder - 1:19:09
That's particularly those that are exposed to Turkey, Cyprus,
closer to the Middle East.
Speaking to Wayne, one of our colleagues
on the LVIP who heads up the hotels and visitor association
for West Yorkshire, the hotels are really
seeing the same thing.
There's a reduction demand for room nights.
Quite positive in terms of the meetings, actually.
So there is sort of local activity still going on,
but it's the room nights and the visitors coming
from outside that are really struggling,
and they're also being hit on the cost side as well,
as I mentioned by the taxes.
So it is, we are going through a period of great difficulty
in terms of the visitor economy, in terms of provision,
but structurally and what the trend of this element
of our economy is, it is strong from a structural sense,
it's just having a difficult time at the moment.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:20:06
However, on the flights, I think the Civil Aviation Authority
reported 61 million passengers, which is an increase
in the first quarter of this year. We're in an area I know now really well.
In the first quarter, I think it's the second quarter that's going to be the challenge, isn't it?
So, we shall see. I think also the
fact that people are not booking as soon as they might have done in the past
because of what's going on is not helping with the confidence in the sector.
So the data that was in the Middle East section of the economy, data that Peter presented
is we'll see how that bears out over the next six months I think and further afield.
Fara Butt (Private Sector Representative) - 1:20:47
Just to share context, so over the school holiday period, we, LBA had its highest ever
level of passengers over a May school holiday period, had 125 ,000 passengers.
because we normally wouldn't expect to see that until the summer holidays over the August
period.
Vincent Hodder - 1:21:06
But the load factor, the percentage of seats that were full, had fallen 5 % from prior year.
So the airlines had invested in additional capacity to drive growth, but the level of
demand fell significantly below what they were expecting to see.
Thanks, Vince.
Any other comments?
I'll move on to the next item.
Okay, so the next item is a growth hub.

10 West Yorkshire Business Growth Hub Launch

Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:21:31
Now just to mention
to our two elected members that I'll come to you at the end to just ask for some reflections on
on what you've seen today, if that's okay.
But I thought I'd give you a heads up before I do that because you might not be expecting me to put you on the spot.
But I'd love to hear your views right at the end on, you know, your reflections on today's meeting.
So the growth hub.
One of the things when times are challenging,
which we are hearing from businesses,
is that that is often when the most innovation happens,
and it's often when the most engagement from business
happens, and the growth hub is now going to be our major
business engagement going forward,
because businesses will be looking for support, advice,
and to find out more about what they could do if they are
challenged or if they think they might be challenged in the future.
The West Yorkshire Business Growth Hub is now going to be rolled out to the public this
month so really what we want to do is make sure that we get this out as far and wide
as possible for those businesses who do want to engage because they've got opportunities
or because they've got challenges have got a place to go.
This is about a team West Yorkshire approach, it's not about the combined authority providing
all the answers, that would be impossible. It's about partnership working across everything
that's to do with business. I'm going to hand over to Sarah to tell us a little bit more.
Thank you, Chair. So Rachel and my colleagues are going to talk in detail about some of
the collateral that we've developed to be able to launch the new Business Growth Hub,
but I wanted to provide a bit more context on what the actual Business Growth Hub is
Sarah Bowes, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:23:13
and where it's come from and how this board has been instrumental actually in its many
and helping to develop where we are today.
So we've had a growth hub in the region since 2015,
which was there to help businesses to find the support they needed to help them to grow.
I needed to achieve some great things, but as we've seen today,
the data still shows there's a massive challenge in terms of the region growth productivity.
And so we as a region need to rise to that challenge.
So last year we undertook a review of the growth hub to ensure it was still fit for purpose
and able to deliver the ambitions of the new local growth plan.
and those ambitions around growing our priority sectors and enabling all our businesses to
succeed.
So the result of this extensive review was a new and improved model, a model that brings
together a complex landscape of business support into a coherent network with the ambition
of making it much more easy for businesses to access the support they need at the right
time of their business journey to start, scale and innovate.
It's essentially about addressing that innovation failure and access to networks and support
aligning very strongly with the wheel of enterprise.
The big shift in this is the system approach to it.
It's no longer about the CA offer or what the CA can do,
it's about us playing the most appropriate role in working with our partners in the system
to make sure businesses can access the support,
whether that's our business rep groups, universities, banks and a wider system.
And so developing strong partnerships and affiliate arrangements
with the business support ecosystem is key to that.
We've had lots of conversations with all these partners,
Innovate UK, British Business Bank, universities, banks,
business rep groups to develop that system of a connected responsive system where the
referral points are there, the pathways are there and the nodes are effective and work
really, really effectively. So we're going to be launching this at CLIMB this year which
is in the beginning of July and we wanted to use this opportunity to share the plans
for the launch to invite input from board members on any additional opportunities really
to add value to the rollout campaign and really importantly we want you all as ambassadors
and champions for this big moment because this is a big shift in how we're approaching
things and doing things and this board like I say has been instrumental in its many guises
in helping to shape where we are today. So on that note I will pass on to Rachel to share
some of the great stuff. Thanks Sarah. Hi everyone I'm Rachel Barnard. I head up the
Ryan Kaye - 1:25:27
marketing campaigns and engagement team and my team works really closely with Sarah's
and we've been developing our new comes to marketing approach to support the new model
for business growth. As Sarah said, that approach marks a shift in how we try and engage with
businesses, focusing much more on creating the demand for business support so that partners
are better able to market their individual support offers, recruit for programmes and
so on. That's an evolution from how we've done it in the past. The previous promotion
was focused on individual schemes and that became confusing and complex for business
owners as well and was doing little to create market demand and as a consequence of that
where the ownership sat of business support as well was confused. So we're going to share
with you a number of slides just to give you an overview of where we've got to on the campaign
and the collateral that we're using going forward. There's a couple of links to appendices
in your packs as well but for this we'll focus on Appendix 1. So
everything I'm going to just run through here is developed and based on evidence
we've completed market research, testing, exploration with the messaging and the
imagery and we've previously invited yourselves to give feedback to that so
thank you for those who have input into this. The focal point of course for
the website and you'll be familiar with the development of that and the reveal that took
place early in 2026. We have created a number of toolkits which are available to yourselves
and also available to your colleagues as well, covering language, how we want to explain
the new Growth Hub as well, how we want to position content and there's various pieces
of technical information in here too. So just real quick, so just real quick hand through
phase one. If you can just go to the next slide please. The purpose of our campaign
is to initially fill that very top part of a funnel to really stimulate that demand,
really begin with awareness, drive awareness. Our phase one awareness begins later this month.
That's based on three objectives, increasing the recognition of the business growth hub amongst
West Yorkshire businesses, explaining the partnership model and driving traffic to the website.
The initial rollout which is shown on the next slide includes a suite of materials, flyers,
event dressing, social media, content and digital ads and you can see the concepts later on in the
So that's our initial phase of all of our awareness. Our next phase from September through
to December which is on slide 6, that is our more up -weighted, targeted advertising both
on and offline and then longer term we want to reach every business in the region starting
by targeting 50 ,000 a year. We'll do that with a focus on behaviour change campaigns,
working with our partners to embed advocacy and sharing the benefits too.
Then on the next slide or page 11 you can see the campaign visuals
work in progress. Next one please. So this is our eye catching design and message
it we've kept the design simple the arrow device within the creative creates
momentum, motion and growth. This one came out most positively amongst our testing
and through the imagery and the content that goes alongside it will
prioritise people in all of our comms and use authentic lived experiences to
tell real storeys. If you click on to the next slide Julie, there's a number of
other examples there and again we will share and then if we go into slide 15
The only one to spend a little bit of time on was just how you can help.
Of course it's been said already, we'd really appreciate your advocacy and engagement to amplify the launch wherever possible.
That could be when you talk about business support in the region, when you work with us,
or just simply share the content that we put out on the LinkedIn account where structure, business and skills.
Your teams can also use the marketing toolkit we've prepared.
Everything is written in there, it's basically copy and paste into your own accounts with
the images in there, share that amongst your own teams and reinforce messages wherever
you can. You can also get in touch once you have had a look through there. If you think
there are any opportunities we might have missed as well, any gaps you spot, any opportunities
of how we might feed into some of those storeys going forward, please do get in touch. I'll
leave it there but happy to answer any questions or follow up individually once you've had
Let's have a look through those kits.
Thanks, Sarah and Rachel.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:30:34
So one of the things that this room has asked for previously
is to make sure that we've got the right communication so
that we can all be ambassadors for the work
that we've been part of.
And we now want to roll out so that more and more businesses
are involved.
And so really what this is is to show everyone the thinking,
but also to give them the assets and the tone
and the direction of travel so that you've
got the information you need to be the best ambassador you can for the businesses in your
sector or the businesses in your districts. So I'll come to you Sarah because it's unusual
for you to be so quiet. So how would you work with this in the digital cluster that you're
chairing?
Specifically, so we're obviously quite new as a group and have just sort of finalised
and actually haven't had our first meeting.
So we're looking forward to that in a couple of weeks time.
Sarah Tulip - 1:31:29
But I think the first thing that always comes to mind
is that everybody around this table is super busy,
that nobody has one title, that nobody,
you know, if you're here,
you're probably doing other things as well.
And I've always personally struggled that people will say,
you know, we're gonna send out assets
and, you know, it comes in a big bag.
Actually, it's having those very clear asks
that right now we're doing this campaign,
we just want everybody to do this one thing.
And I think if people are asked to do,
we're all asked to do one thing,
it's very simple, very straightforward,
then it will happen.
And from my perspective,
that's the best way to get a group of people like this
all to do exactly the same thing,
is like just that very one specific thing at a time.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:32:14
So rather than group think, it's group promote.
Yeah.
And the one thing.
Because if all of these people in this room
all say the same thing in the networks that they have,
The magnification of that would be unbelievable,
Sarah Tulip - 1:32:28
but you have to be really tight, specific in what you want,
and then it should travel amazingly.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:32:35
That's a great idea, and Rachel,
maybe that's something with Julie's help,
we can get out to do one thing at a time,
but do it well and all together to get that noise.
Ed.
I don't always ask for comments,
Edward Bellamy - 1:32:52
I'm just going to come to you and say what you do in your cluster.
It's a really good question.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:32:57
The appendix three to the, this is the first appendix,
the third appendix which provides really constructive and helpful guidance around
Edward Bellamy - 1:33:11
how to gain press release commentary, invitation to meetings, round tables,
I think it will be tremendously helpful particularly to our cluster,
especially in the growth and scale up teams,
we've got things to announce.
That level of connectivity, that level of event
that will enable that, not just connectivity with each other,
but start creating a bit more of a stage to promote
and will be extremely positive.
Thanks very much.
So it's about having all the information there,
but also having one thing to promote at a time,
so we create a lot of noise, like a wave, a tsunami,
I'm just looking at two of the sectors and I know it's just year by year first quarter
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:33:57
which align with the LVET as well as the advanced manufacturing sector.
So we seem to have lost about 70 ,000 jobs year on year, yet we've got two high growth
sectors and I appreciate the L -Beth isn't just about accommodation and food service.
But is there a go -to place? Because there could be a huge opportunity here because there's
clearly the opportunity to export, we can see that there's a widening gap. We know that
with something like the Ravensthorpe freight terminal, I know from operating five years
a palletised network that the freight coming up is always much greater than what we're
sending down. So we know we've got capacity to export, to manufacture and export. Is there
Ms. Natalie Sykes (Private Sector Representative) - 1:34:51
something with this business growth hub that can help signpost those two areas? Because
it's an opportunity. It must be an opportunity. We've got capacity and they're high growth
sectors in the industrial strategy. So again it's about how do we link that into the growth
hub so that it's an easy signpost go to, you know you've got the skills, you've got the
experience, you can pull on the workforce because clearly it was there and now it's
gone. So how do we bring that alive and use the capacity we do have in the infrastructure
to export? Thanks Natalie, before I come to Carl I'll
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:35:29
to serve to respond on that. Thank you. So you're absolutely right and the phrase that
Sarah Bowes, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:35:34
Mandy used earlier around connecting the dots is absolutely fundamental to this
and making sure there is no wrong door and we've got a connected system and
that relies on information and connexions and people and partnerships
and so we are putting in place some infrastructure behind this to make sure
we've got exactly that in place so as information flows to join the supply and
demand and the challenges and issues with the with the opportunities
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:36:00
absolutely but if any ideas could I chat about that? That would be great. Karl before I come to you, Jason you
talked about the amount of export that you do how do you think this will help?
Yeah I just had a quick look on the website on my my phone actually we did
Jason McCartney - 1:36:12
an event with the Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce at the Accu Stadium in
Huddersfield about a month ago and we got together about 35 exporters there's
a really good pet food company from Cleck Eaton that does dried pet food around Europe.
And I just spoke about the support that I had leveraged from the Department for Business
and Trade. There was also grants available to help cover travel costs and things like
that. But so many businesses don't know about it. So I get my information from a number
of different sources. So from websites, Rachel Thirlbeck, who's the growth manager at Kirklees,
There's a newsletter every Friday afternoon, and then there's about 10 sections, but you
have to read through it to see that there's a digital enterprise support grant to help
with technological investment.
Some of it is match funding, some of it is actual grants.
So I love the idea of doing this, but we need to make sure it is a one -stop shop for all
the potential growth support for businesses and exporters so that people have confidence
in it and they actually get something out of it as well and then we can all sound post
people to it. So there is a lot of support out there but it's all in itty bitty sort
of different places to try and pull it all together.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:37:32
And that's a really good point because probably the people in this room are more engaged than
maybe every business is and so we have probably found the labyrinth and found our way through
it, but making sure the sources that we use are
pointed at Sarah's team through Julie will help
make sure that we can bring more opportunity onto that
growth hub.
Alastair, were you about to say anything?
I am coming to you, Carl, so don't worry.
I just want to keep this conversation flowing.
I did your drawing for you.
On that, I just wanted to add I think that's a
Alastair Morris - 1:38:08
really important part of the messaging.
There's a risk that it comes across as another
new bit of support and particularly for SMEs there's so many of us in the
region and it's just a bit overwhelming the people trying to sell support to us
actually like you can have this and I think we really need to communicate that
this solves that problem it's not another thing that you've got to engage
with and understand how it works it's the thing that helps you with all of
those other sources of help that one -stop -shop message is so important
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:38:40
Colm, hang on. Perfect time. No, hang on. You know how much I love you. Liz, you made a comment then.
I was, and I think that's a difficult ask because we can't stop people from trying to sort of engage with the sector.
Liz Whitefield - 1:38:57
So I think unless we create some whizzy AI tool that's going to literally suck, you know, go out and search for all these different data sources,
I think it's impossible to say there'll be one single source of truth. I think what we've put out something that's a big challenge
And I think on an innovation perspective on the innovation board perspective. I think this is going to be an incredibly important vehicle
We're right now in the middle of like the lip of getting the lips of the nation out out and getting that done
That's been our priority. But as we develop the innovation plan
Aligned to the clusters and look to seek
Businesses to put forward
Submissions and opportunities that we can build into innovation plan
I think that's going to be a great tool for us to communicate.
And not necessarily just the website, but using social media
and LinkedIn to get out to businesses.
So that was me, I was just...
Thank you, Liz.
I really want to hear what Carl's got to say.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:39:44
Oh, I'll be building into it.
I am not saying anything now.
There you are, Carl.
No, no, very quickly, I've asked Barney to stay just one second,
just because it segued just perfectly with what Alistair was saying,
Karl Oxford (Private Sector Representative) - 1:39:56
because it isn't a different type of support.
It is the way we support which is different.
The reason it is so different is because we have to be mindful that a lot of people are
not used to the way that support is provided now more virtually.
That more face -to -face, that direct connexion support, some of us lean back to areas where
people are still stuck in that place.
And so Sarah is completely right.
If we can ensure the messaging is clear, simple,
and the way in which we provide support,
because we need to change in the way that we communicate
this type of support.
Because this kind of more virtual stuff
is leaving a lot of people behind,
and we are not maximising the potential of those
who need that support.
I can't emphasise that enough.
And I think, Barney, you would agree with me, and also yourself
as federation and you saw Mark as people who run business federations.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:41:03
Thank you Carl, good point and I hope Barney you enjoyed it. I'll come to Jackie and then
the meeting finishes at 4 .30 today and we've extended it from now on in because of the
size of the group. So Jackie.
So I'm going to be brief. Just in terms of that make sure your programme and support
Dr Jackie Mulligan - 1:41:19
offers are properly represented. So you know, Game Republic runs events for the games industry.
how do we, we could become part of that. That's fantastic because I think bringing the public
and private sector groups together, we have endless feedback from developers, they cannot
navigate the system so that's great. Please come to us and ask us.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:41:48
Becky, oh no we've got two business support groups left, so that's good. Sorry, Ian, sorry,
I didn't know what you're saying.
I thought it was Chinese whispers.
Yeah, just it was mentioned earlier
about the local growth managers that we
Ian Agnew - 1:42:02
have around the region who are fighting.
This is not replacing them, is it?
Is this supporting them as a tool?
So we have a thing.
I work with Jill Watson and Kirk Lees, who's
absolutely amazing and has posted us to so much stuff.
So I hope they've not been mentioned in this review.
I don't know if this is your placement.
And the second point would just be the amount of times you go to a signposting hub and you click on something and it's out of date, it's closed,
that opportunity is gone, it's really depressing.
So it's about keeping it fresh and live and up to date and that's obviously a lot of work as well, isn't it?
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:42:43
And we need to act as secret shoppers, nice secret shop everything because I think it's
really important.
A secret shop Manchester's, Grace, just to see what they've got on offer too because
I think it's really interesting to secret shop a number of places to make sure that
we are relevant and comparatively and that we are up to date.
Sarah, that point about growth managers.
Sorry, I missed the earlier point.
It's a bit quiet over there.
It was about growth managers and this isn't replacing them, is it?
Sarah Bowes, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:43:10
No, no, no, absolutely not.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:43:12
So this is strengthening.
Sarah Bowes, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:43:13
The previous growth of relationship
was very much CA and LA led.
I'm going to your point exactly about,
and this is about the whole ecosystem.
So we're not absolutely getting rid of, you know, we are.
We've got a different relationship
with local authorities to make sure they've
got the support in place to play their role.
And this is an important role to play.
But this is about bringing in wider partners
to make sure we've got the full breadth of support available
so that businesses don't get lost
and they get the right support at the right time.
And then on the website, absolutely.
This is the underpinning bit of this new model. We have to get that right
So any any any issues or concerns or when you look at it?
It's not let us know because we need to make sure it's absolutely spot -on. Yeah
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:43:51
Thanks, sir. On that note. I'm gonna bring us on to
The the penultimate or the the final thing before we go to a OB
So clown 26 in UK reef
Many of you joined myself and the mayor at UK reef in May
We will have a quick update on the key takeaways from that.
And then we will move on to Climb 26 which is coming to our region.
It is another fantastic event.
So a quick update on what is coming on that.
So Rachel, over to you.
Thank you, Mandy.
So UK Reef, it has been mentioned a number of times already today but for anyone unfamiliar,
Ryan Kaye - 1:44:30
it is the UK Real Estate Investment Forum, a major conference and event that takes place
in Leeds annually every May.
It attracts up to 17 ,000 delegates this year
from regional, national, and international property
and investment community, as well as a sizeable proportion
of intermediaries, public sector,
and government representatives.
It's owned and delivered by a West Yorkshire -based SME.
We've been responsible for the West Yorkshire presence
since it started five years ago,
and we're now the destination partner.
As the mayor said, it's always a packed event,
good attendance, exciting sessions,
and experiences and this year we really built on continued to build on our
proposition where opportunity lives. We used our pavilion on the waterfront as a
real hub for the week where all our main content took place and we were
capitalising on that prominent space showcasing our opportunities and our
businesses. We've much appreciated support from businesses too, support from
Haribo and Paxman in particular but also thanks to Coca -Cola, Northern Bloc,
Seabrooks, Dartwood, Sound Leisure, Lottie Shores, Regal Foods among others, Local Events
Solutions, Company Equinox. We were able to give visitors a real West Yorkshire experience as well.
Thank you to those who took part in our panels and round tables or spent time in the pavilion.
I know a number of you were there. Our presence was received really positively. We've had very
strong feedback and that impact that we got across in terms of what we can do with devolved funding,
local decision making, the scale of our nationally significant investment opportunities and our
ability to demonstrate our track record of accelerating delivery through strong partnerships
really came to the fore. That was all brought to life of course through panel sessions,
round tables, curated meetings and creative programming as well. So we gave a real West
Yorkshire wake up to anybody that lived at Leeds Dock with performances each morning.
We also used the programme to communicate strengths and opportunities including the
announcement of the intention to create a more development zone in Leeds Southbank and
we showcased key clusters including food and drink, health and lab space, culture and creative
industries and we engaged with the developer community.
In terms of results we're still in the process of gathering feedback from the delegation,
of course that takes a while to piece things together and look at what the leads are coming
from the relationships that have been forged and deepened as well and there'll
be an update to come on that. In terms of the marketing and comms stats that we
have collated so far, we know we had over 2 ,000 visitors to the Pavilion
throughout three days, 700 on the first day that's by far in a way the busiest
day, 11 % increase in individuals and a 24 % increase in the
number of businesses visiting us and we've got the breakdown of the sectors
etc that all sits below it. We enhanced the marketing campaign and we reached over 3 million
people. We were targeting delegates travelling up to Leeds from Kings Cross, Piccadilly in
Victoria in Manchester, York Station and advertising in Leeds Bradford Airport. We had digital
screens on the arterial routes into the city at the Park and Ride centres and we also funded
a shuttle bus as well so there was no escaping us when we got into the city which was fantastic.
The team secured 73 pieces of media coverage, that's our biggest week of the media reach this year, which is fantastic.
And we also built on media partnerships with key trade titles, including Property Week, Estates Gazette, and we also promoted the opportunity to stay outside of Leeds as well and encourage people to stay for longer whilst they were in town.
We also used UK Reap to promote our transport investment and the new Weaver
Network and we positioned a new Weaver Network branded bus on City Square for
the duration to promote our investment and signpost people down to Leadstock
and we launched a new campaign entitled A Region on the Move just to start to
tell that storey of transport investment. As I say further work's been taken
to collect the outcomes across from the delegation. If anyone was there and has
any outcomes or thoughts they would like to share. I'm happy to pick those up and have
some separate conversations but for now we're also turning to 2027, securing our
space, our place and making that the biggest and best yet which is always our goal.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:48:57
Thank you Rachel and it's fair to say that the marketing team did a fantastic
job if you went there and saw that our pavilion, it was brilliant and also you
know I had friends in London who were talking about it because they saw it at
station which was amazing. We also launched a hundred million or a hundred
million pound health tech fund was launched at that event from an Inwood
investor which is fantastic for the cluster and for the region. I mean yeah
they've come here because this is the place for health but also because they
know about us so all of those things work together to promote business in
in this region.
And one of the panels I was chairing,
which was on health, sorry, which was on food and drink,
where I found out that Coca Cola's second biggest factory
in the world is in West Yorkshire.
And it was only, it was the biggest factory in the world
in West Yorkshire until Mexico City pipped us
as the post a few months ago.
So we start to, when we start to get those facts out,
we start to get some pride in what we have here
and maybe start to inspire a little bit more optimism despite some of the challenges that we're facing at the moment.
When we're talking about challenges we're facing at the moment, it always comes down to money,
and so Climb24 and investment will be really important, and Andrew I'll pass over to you for an update on that.
Again, if we can keep it brief that would be great.
Thanks, Jeff. A little cameo just to quickly update, and it will be really brief.
Ms. Natalie Sykes (Private Sector Representative) - 1:50:27
It follows on nicely from UK Reef in the sense of it's our next big kind of flagship event
that we'll be putting our efforts into.
A little bit of background, Climb's many of you will know, many of you attended in previous
years, I think this will be its third year, so it's a fledgling conference still, but
it's made a real impact in the short time that it's been happening in Leeds.
So it's a flagship annual business growth event, it's delivered by Leeds based investor
ladder, so again it's a local company delivering that, and it's expected to bring together
several thousand delegates to Leadstock in July.
That's running over two days, the first and second of July.
It's a major opportunity, really,
for us to showcase West Yorkshire's strengths,
help connect businesses with investors,
and drive access to finance at a scale
that we would otherwise struggle to reach.
The event aligns really closely with our priorities,
particularly around raising financial literacy
and awareness, the work we do to support investment readiness,
attract private capital, and help business
to convert their ambition to growth. It showcases the region as a really
supportive place to do business and provides us with that opportunity to
really connect with those major investors and growth -minded businesses.
So, chair you just mentioned the health tech fund, that's the type of people who
are in and around at this event and they're the ones where we're trying to make our
connexions to grow those areas. It also showcases obviously the
region is a really supportive place in which to do business and provides opportunities
for those people. There's an array of offers in there really from panel sessions to master
classes to meet investor sessions, all of which really provides a strong opportunity
for businesses who are looking to make those introductions, network and learn how they
can grow their businesses. This year, it's come as no surprise to me, it's already been
mentioned by Sarah, but we're also using Climb as a bit of a platform to promote and highlight
the new business growth hub offer so we're really putting a lot of effort into doing
that across our exhibition standards which we'll host over the two days but also through
a range of meetings, time on stage, panel sessions and speakers etc really looking at
how we can promote that full ecosystem that we've talked about. So I suppose overall clients
are very much about helping us to create the right conditions for business in the region,
helping to secure investment, build those relationships and help businesses scale successfully.
So we'll be ramping up cons over the next, over the coming weeks.
And really I suppose we'd really welcome board members' support in spreading that word.
We're happy to provide materials and etc to do that and help people to do that.
And we can share that if you just reach out. So that's it. Thanks, Jen.
Sarah Tulip - 1:53:26
It's just a past experience from UKReef that I thought was really useful, that one of the
things I'm involved with at the moment is quite a weighty infrastructure piece of investment,
which is several hundred million worth of investment.
And so it's very unlikely that we would find that in the region.
And there were a number of key organisations and funds that we had spent quite a lot of
time emailing, reaching out to, trying to get in touch with. That event is the first
time that, well, apart from who it is, that they are in the region, those investors, they're
senior, senior stakeholders within those investments that really can make decisions. And off the
back of that, in two and a half weeks' time, I've got a full day of meeting with three
of the biggest infrastructure investors in the world, UK. And it's just amazing that
an event like that is able to bring that calibre out of London and into Leeds. And I think
that showcases as well that we're talking about getting more investment into the region,
that they've been here and they're seeing the calibre of businesses here. So for me
it feels like a really amazing opener for future things.
That's a great way to finish that off Sarah, so thank you. And not only that, it also drives
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 1:54:34
the visitor economy. So we're winning all around. Super. I'm going to come now to Councillor
Place and Councillor Sutherland to get some reflections from you really on today's meeting
as it's your first one. I'll start with you, Councillor Place.
Thanks very much. I'm delighted to be here. I'm going to obviously take an awful lot of
things away with me because it's my first time, etc. So it's been truly great, especially
Cllr Stephen Place - 1:55:05
the Business Board. Bradford, without being too political, has been standing still in
Tredy Hall, Tredy and Walt, as it were, for about 20 years now. It's a pretty poor second
cousin to this wonderful city. And even Huddersfield is out passing it now in various ways.
We have a three -part plan. The first one is business. Obviously the people here know very
that without business, a city won't go anywhere.
And we really, really need to increase our business
community, we need to make it more attractive.
And we put some packages together that would encourage
people to come and see us, talk to us,
and look at what we can offer.
There's a massive mixture going on between new
and the old heritage and history of Bradford,
which the architecture is wonderful.
We have a bookshop which is world renowned now,
Walter stones inside the old corn market and so as much to build on but so business is our first
laser focus as it were to try and develop and grow the city I went to Rica it was wonderful and what
You carry. Sorry what what what came from that was the amount of investment that hopefully is coming our way
There's a 300 acre park in Bradford that's going to be developed 5 ,000 new houses
shops and the Mastran Transit plus the link up with the Northern Powerhouse Rail, fantastic.
And I got on the train and I was back home and I was really really excited.
It was great for Bradford, wonderful.
And then I started thinking, hang on a minute Steve, what about the people that voted you in here?
and all around the edge of Bradford there are very large council estates that are absolutely
not quite sinkholes but they're not doing very well, let's put it that way, they've
had very little investment, they've had very little, much to look forward to really for
quite some time. So that's the second part of our plan and that's to engage with the
the town councils, the community groups, the volunteer groups, etc.
and try and devolve some of their decision, our decision making down to them.
Instead of us telling them what's good for them and what they can have,
we want them to tell us what they need and what's best for them and their children.
And so that's the second part.
The third part is building on that, is the community as a whole,
because it's such a diverse cultural city.
building on the back of City of Culture, what can we do to keep that momentum going,
that thought pattern going, coming up to the 25th anniversary of the Bradford riots,
we never ever want to obviously return to those dark days again.
And so there's much to do and to keep the community going, we've got some wonderful festivals,
we've lost three in the last 20 years, we're talking next week and we're going to hopefully bring back the Mila to Bradford,
which was a massive celebration of all the cultures
of Bradford in Manningham Park.
It was moved then to Peel Park,
where it became a little bit more sinister
and the visitor numbers dropped off in Mansay.
So we're gonna put that back into Manningham Park
and get the meal going.
We've got Saltire Festival in Saltire,
which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Not many people know about it.
That's not good enough, because I lived there.
It's wonderful.
And the Saltire Festival is two weeks of arts and crafts
and celebration in Hockney and the art galleries and everything.
And everybody opens their gardens up and everything.
So that's lovely.
And then we used to have a thing called Bingley Live in Myrtle
Park.
And that culminated with Mr. Gallagher coming
with his high -flying birds.
And I think that's what did it, because they got too big,
too quick, trying to pay people like that to come and sing
for the people of Bradford.
And we just couldn't afford it.
And so it slipped.
And so we need to bring that back again,
start from where it started and build it up and build it up.
So that's the three plans for Bradford
and we will be coming back to see you.
I did a video and I said basically
Bradford's open for business
and Bradford is open for business everybody.
So please come and see us, my door is always open.
And I'm doing a breakfast meeting on Friday morning
to 30 businessmen in Bradford at the grammar school.
I'm really looking forward to that
because we just really need to send that message out.
And yeah, so those are three parts of the plan.
It's only my second week.
So we've got to walk before we can run, and I appreciate that.
But so far, touchwood is so good.
It's going all right.
Thank you.
Nice to face it.
Nice to meet you.
Liz and Brad.
It has a business in Bradford.
It's great to see how it's developed over the last few
and to find that hopefully it will be going
from strength to strength with some of the plans
that you have.
Mandy Ridyard (Chair) - 2:00:05
It's a fantastic place to have a business.
So I am really welcoming you being here.
And the fact that you are talking to your communities
and getting their opinions is something
that we've been doing in the business board
for a long time and I think the work that we've been doing
shows that.
So I think that's definitely a great direction of travel.
Councillor Sutherland.
Thank you. It's been quite nice to be able to spend a meeting listening in council leadership,
usually spending most of the meeting talking. So it's been quite nice to have that change.
Cllr Dan Sutherland - 2:00:42
Calderdale's also open for business, not to pinch your line. But we are now run by people
with tremendous business experience, which is a significant shift to what we've had previously.
People who've been chief executive PLCs, healthcare companies, construction companies,
senior people from the police, the military.
So there's a really talented group of people who were there
to deliver effectively locally, but also to engage
with any businesses who wish to.
In terms of my reflections, I mean,
I picked up on the data being out of date,
and I must say that we get that on a local level quite a bit,
and it is one of those real challenges.
I mean, pothole comparisons is one for us,
which is a perennial issue.
But then I think it might have been,
Barney, you mentioned about how you plot it
against the actual policies that we've brought in,
which for me is the so what, because in my 16 years in elected sort of policy and government,
I found that often when the output is negative, it's correlation and when it's positive,
it's causation. But actually I want to really know what effect are we actually having,
what are the levers that we can actually play with here. So on a local authority level,
we do have some levers around land planning, local infrastructure that we could be working
with people around the table and much wider to support with. The combined
authority obviously has some massive areas in terms of skills, the settlement,
the settlement monies which can continue to grow and continue to expand into new
areas, but also health. I'm really conscious about the productivity angle
and sickness absence remains a major issue in terms of productivity and how
are we impacting on that and I know there are schemes but very often they
stop start, stop start and what we really need are consistent schemes that
business can engage with. So they're not having to constantly find out about the
next new thing. They've got a consistent public sector offer that they can engage
with. And also what we do in terms of at the national level, so which come by
authority as a significant voice at the national level. I've heard several people
today mention the National Insurance contributions which I know have been a
pain for many businesses as it is in mine, but also we've gotten the new
Employment Rights Act coming through and new new provisions are coming through
there where yes the national government will be doing its own sort of measure
of the impact, but actually it's really useful to know how that's impacting us more precisely
locally in West Yorkshire and in the five distinct authorities and how do we have that
conversation as a collective with government about some of the areas where they could improve
on their areas or at least listen to a bit of pressure from ourselves around the table
to change.
So that's me.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.