Pushing our high-growth sectors

The Leeds Economic Vision continues to gain momentum as we focus on accelerating growth in our three leading sectors - Finance and Professional Services; Health; and Digital and Tech. Our recent feature in the Yorkshire Business Magazine (pg.31) puts a spotlight on Leeds' Digital Sector and explores how tech is driving growth across our whole economy.

A key part of our work is attracting inward investment, and at the end of January, we held a Leeds in London roundtable at the Google HQ in London bringing together over 30 senior leaders from financial institutions, major companies, investors and strategic partners including The City of London and FinTech North. This partnership enables us to strengthen our relationship with London and develop a shared agenda for growth, with this session having a specific focus on the Financial Sector and the Northern Square Mile.

Following this, at the beginning of February a further roundtable was held in Leeds, this time with local high-growth businesses. The discussion focused on how the city and region can better support firms to stay and scale in Leeds, including tackling challenges such as access to finance and business support. Work is now underway to develop a long-term model for engaging with these businesses and driving collective action.

There is much more to come as we continue putting the Economic Vision into practice — so stay tuned for further updates.