Call me sad, but I  had a long Thursday watching the election result unfold (I’m sure I am not the only one) and it’s clear that people up and down the country have made it resoundingly clear that they want change. Change needs leadership, a vision that people can connect with, it needs goals that can focus action and it needs strategies and plans backed with the resources needed to deliver. To business people this may seem an obvious statement, it’s what we do and how we operate, it is however what our country has been lacking. We’ve had political sizzle in abundance without the sausage and substance needed to deliver.

I’m optimistic that our new government will start as they mean to go on, making it clear where the country is heading and developing the vision and strategy nationally that allows local areas to develop resourced and aligned local growth plans designed to deliver change at scale Our mission at RTC North is to support businesses to innovate, compete and grow. We believe that businesses are central to delivering the change people seek. It’s the day-to-day decisions that businesses make that deliver economic growth and productivity - decisions on where and what to invest in, their approach to recruiting, developing and retaining their staff, where they choose to trade, the problems they focus on solving - all these factors can lead to the economic growth and improvement lives that people have voted for. Embedding the role of business in vision and strategy is therefore critical.

We’ve proven practices that can deliver real and measurable change, businesses we’ve supported have made significant productivity gains, increasing turnover per employee by an average of £8.8k as only one example. This is important as it allows those businesses to invest more in their people and plans. Although we, and others, have delivered demonstrable impact it’s been against a backdrop of short-termism that hasn’t allowed for the sustained delivery and scale required to deliver real change. We now have the opportunity to build on what’s proven to work and to align it to the delivery of a long-term vision and strategy. We also need to recognise that the North of England continues to punch below its weight, and I therefore call on our new government to launch a renewed focus to unlock the potential of the North. It’s only through harnessing the collective might of the entire country that we will break the pattern of sluggish growth that’s plagued us for far too long.

We look forward to doing our bit by working with businesses and government nationally and locally to unleash the full economic might of the North of England. This is an exciting time, filled with hope and optimism, we have an opportunity to deliver change and now it’s up to us all to grasp it!