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LEP Perspective – Leeds City Region

Roger Marsh, Chair of the NPIF Strategic Oversight Board and Chair of Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership talks about NPIF and why Leeds City Region is optimistic about the future.

As we celebrate the second year of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, the Leeds City Region has its own reasons to be optimistic about the future.

Since 2017, our City Region has seen £18million of investment from the NPIF with more than 80 deals completed so far which have resulted in tangible, positive impacts on peoples’ lives.

This investment has been crucial to supporting our most dynamic and ambitious SMEs which are the driving force behind our local economic success story.

One such firm is BabaBing, a manufacturer of childcare products including changing bags and high chair. Theirs is an inspirational story – after being established by three brothers in spare bedroom in 2005, BabaBing now works with national retailers including John Lewis. A £125,000 investment is helping to support the development of a new pushchair range and the creation of additional jobs.

Hughes Bakers is a family company that was established in Shipley more than 90 years ago. From its humble beginnings, Hughes now supplies leading retailers including Asda and Morrisons. They secured a £600K investment to allow them to increase on-site capacity and create 12 jobs.

Another success story is Attaccom, a Mirfield-based provider of off-site construction, in which elements of a building are fabricated in a factory to enable faster and more efficient building developments. A £250,000 loan has provided additional working capital to fulfil the company’s product orders, as well as creating new jobs.

Together with other inward investment, the funding from NPIF is helping to drive forward Leeds City Region’s ambitions of helping businesses grow and developing the skills, energy and digital infrastructure to create jobs and prosperity for all.

2019 promises to be an exciting year for Leeds City Region as Channel 4 opens its new national HQ. This will create more than 300 new jobs over the next few years but the benefits are already being felt as creative and production firms relocate to take advantage of the move.

As we look across the Pennines to the success Salford has made of its Media City development, the possibilities for the future are extremely encouraging.

The Leeds City Region’s future was built on a strong legacy of innovation and industry, and a track record of marrying together economic success and social progress. We were at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution, home to industrialists from Titus Salt to Joseph Rowntree who all embodied the enterprising zeal of this age, helping lay the foundations of the original Northern Powerhouse and supporting the people of our city region out of poverty and into a skilled workforce.

Despite the uncertain times, it is vital that the City Regions of the North work together for the future we want, learning lessons from the past to ensure we create a vibrant, strong economy that works for everyone.

The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund project is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 and the European Investment Bank.

Editors Notes