Liverpool lags behind in investment battle

Aug 22 2007 by Tony McDonough, Liverpool Daily Post

LIVERPOOL remains a long way behind Manchester in its efforts to attract foreign investment, new figures reveal.

The number of foreign direct investments (FDIs) into the North West increased by 25% in 2006 to 40, according to a study by accountants Ernst & Young.

Its Euro Investment Monitor shows eight FDIs out of the 40 came to Merseyside, up from five the year before, with six of those coming into Liverpool – up from three in 2005.

Greater Manchester saw 22 FDIs during 2006 – a big increase on the 13 in 2005 – with the city of Manchester itself winning 16, up from 10 the year before.

However, Merseyside’s main inward investment agency – The Mersey Partnership (TMP) – insisted its own figures, based on Government data, showed that when smaller projects than dealt with in the Ernst & Young study were taken into account, Merseyside was the beneficiary of 27 FDI projects during the year.

Both sets of data – TMP’s and Ernst & Young’s – show Merseyside’s share of the total FDI into the North West is 20%.

FDIs into Merseyside during 2006 include an expansion by shipping company Maersk and by TV shopping giant QVC at its Knowsley headquarters.

Nigel Wilcock, regional development director at Ernst & Young, said: “Liverpool attracted 75% of the inward investment on Merseyside in 2006.

“However, the city is competing heavily with other large regional centres such as Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow to win investment.” The figures also show that 25% of inward investment into Merseyside in 2006 was from the financial and business services firms.

TMP’s director of operations, Mark Basnett, said: “What we’re interested in is attracting more high- quality sustainable investment to Merseyside and the North West.

“We have plans in place to significantly uplift this performance.

“We have recruited a new sales team and are currently developing detailed plans with stakeholders for our investment promotion and sales activity.”

Steven Broomhead, chief executive of the Northwest Development Agency, also claimed the Ernst & Young figures were “very conservative”.

He added: “Comparisons with other cities outside of our region show how well Liverpool has performed. For example, Liverpool is way ahead of Leeds, which is very encouraging.

“However, we can’t be complacent, we know that there is more to do to attract more investment to Merseyside. This is the reason why we have encouraged The Mersey Partnership to develop a co-ordinated inward investment plan for the sub- region.”

tonymcdonough@dailypost.co.uk