Chair presses Devo agenda at Leicestershire Leadership Forum

East Midlands Chamber Chair, Kevin Harris, used a wide-ranging panel discussion to stress the economic necessity of a devolution deal for Leicester and Leicestershire.

Speaking on a panel for the Leicestershire Leadership Forum gathering at Leicester Tigers, Kevin described current blockages to growth and what can be done about them. Host Dev Raikundalia - Managing Partner at Hall Chadwick - chaired the session and spoke through growth opportunities in Leicester and Leicestershire.

Alongside Kevin on the panel were Paul Faulkner DL, Vice Chair of the Midlands for Barclays, and Andy Reed OBE, Director of Sage Impact and Chair of the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership.

Kevin used the discussion to consider the issue of devolution in Leicester and Leicestershire. The region currently has no Mayoral Combined Authority - unlike neighbouring areas such as EMCCA and the West Midlands.

He told the audience that Devolution had suddenly become a hot topic - driven in part by the likely arrival of Andy Burnham as Prime Minister, having previously served as Mayor of Greater Manchester and who is already talking about the benefit of regional devolution.

Kevin described how East Midlands Chamber had been pressing for regional devolution for many years. He said that devolution means real money for businesses - as seen with the funding already flowing into devolved areas like the West Midlands and Greater Manchester.

The Chamber Chair warned that the funding gap between Leicester and Leicestershire, and devolved regions already runs to hundreds of pounds per employee in terms of skills and infrastructure funding.

Kevin also said that areas without a seat at the table risk falling further behind. He warned that around five years' worth of devolution deals for other areas are already stacked up in Whitehall -and that Leicester and Leicestershire is yet to even reach the back of the queue.

Rather than asking the audience to engage through the lens of party politics, Kevin urged businesses to raise the issue directly with local MPs and councillors.