Square Mile's £225bn plan to boost economy can benefit Leeds and Yorkshire, says City of London boss

Meeting The Yorkshire Post at the offices of Yorkshire Building Society following a roundtable with local business and political leaders, Hayward says the aim of the national tour is to help create a more unified and stronger voice for the country’s financial and professional services sector.

He says: "The City of London Corporation has as our USP responsibility to be the convening force for the United Kingdom financial and professional services sector. It is a sector which contributes 2.5m jobs in UK, of which two-thirds are outside London.

"Leeds has over 30 national and international banks, 150 accountancy firms and the fintech [financial technology] sector which is also of huge interest to us.

"The conversation and the reason for being here is to talk about how can we as a sector combine together to drive economic growth across the UK. Whoever wins the election on July 4, we see the biggest challenge as getting economic growth into a UK economic that has had precious little growth over 15, 16 years.

"We know there is not a lot of money in Treasury so the private sector and the financial services sector is asking what can we do to drive that growth. Those are the conversations I have been having.

"My role involves travelling 65 days a year around the world promoting the City of London and the United Kingdom as a global financial centre. The regions play a key part in this. Having a joined up message between the regions and the City of London is of fundamental importance.”

Last autumn, the City of London Corporation published a report called Vision for Economic Growth setting out a series of policy measures which it argued could add £225bn to the economy.

Hayward says its key recommendations would not require new legislation to be implemented and should come at no cost to the public purse.

“I say to politicians, ‘What’s not to like?’ We’re talking about the growth that can come from the digital economy, growth from the net zero agenda and the need to attract more inward investment.

"I am constantly making a call to Government to flip our trade policy to recognise the services sector today is much bigger than the manufacturing sector. The reality is we export today more management consultancy services than we do cars. But our trade policy doesn’t reflect that.”

In the area of foreign direct investment, last year’s report suggested the creation of a ‘UK knowledge and support hub’ with the potential of bringing in an extra £700m and 5,000 more jobs by 2030.

Hayward says: “We believe you need to create a public-private sector partnership organisation which offers a gold concierge service to inward investors. At the moment, we rely on trade envoys and frankly websites as to how you invest in the UK. But if you look at some of our competitors post-Brexit, if you look at Ireland or Paris they have a concierge operation.”

Hayward, a former senior Conservative councillor whose City role is politically independent, says he is “hopeful” the idea will be included in forthcoming party manifestos.

"It could be a relatively quick win for any Government as I believe we can start to get substantially increased FDI in the UK in relatively short measure. It could really generate some early economic growth.”

Hayward is also keen to see whoever makes up the next Government progress the Mansion House Compact plan already supported by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and major pension funds.

It involves funds putting five per cent of defined contribution pensions into a pot which we would like to see grow to over £50bn to invest in high-growth British businesses and non-listed equities.

He says: "Here in Leeds there is no doubt that fintech and legal tech is a significant growth area. One of the challenges of growing those sectors is that we’re very good at start-ups but not so good at scale-ups. So how do you get these growing businesses ultimately listing on the London Stock Exchange and not going across the Pond?

"The Mansion House Compact would ensure the capital flows in this country because we’ve got deep pockets and long arms when it comes to that. We need to access that capital much more to retain and grow our own businesses and keep them in this country."

With the London Stock Exchange currently facing well-documented struggles to attract and retain listed firms, Hayward says the Compact could play an important role in encouraging suitable companies in places like Yorkshire to list in London and benefit both places.

"Not every business wants to list and be quoted and attract the additional finance that can bring, but for those businesses that do we have got to make it easy for them to do it in this country. We want to keep those jobs, those tax receipts and those businesses in this country.”

He says of his visit to Yorkshire: "I’m ashamed to admit the last time I was in Leeds was 15 years ago. The city has changed dramatically. It has grown and feels very vibrant. There is a burgeoning professional financial services sector.

"What I took from the roundtable is the wish to work much closer together between the City of London and Leeds and when I’m travelling the world, I’m not just selling London but selling Leeds and Birmingham and Manchester and Edinburgh and Belfast and the whole United Kingdom.

"I genuinely want to work in partnership with Leeds, with West Yorkshire and other regional centres as well. We are stronger together than we are competing apart. We share a sector with lots of potential growth. We will realise that growth when we act and speak as one voice.”