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Cashing in on Sheffield Bank
City Council reserves could be used to fund a local bank that would invest in innovative ideas and entrepreneurial businesses in Sheffield.
The initiative to launch a new 'Bank of Sheffield' is still at a very early stage, Sheffield City Council's Lib Dem Leader, Paul Scriven told a seminar on innovation, staged by the local office of accountants and business advisers Grant Thornton.
Coun Scriven told an audience, including local business chiefs and advisers, that using public sector assets and reserves would be in line with the Council's statutory duty to ensure the area's economic well-being.
But, it could need Parliament to pass new laws, if the scheme is to go ahead.
"It makes good business sense for us to use these monies to boost the local economy and jobs, but I don't know whether it will come to fruition and it may need primary legislation," said Coun Scriven.
If the initiative did get the go-ahead the Bank of Sheffield would probably be run by an existing institution with expertise in investing in high growth start-ups and entrepreneurial businesses that could use the Council cash to attract other funds.
Although Coun Scriven did not name any institution, there are already several operating in the area, among them, South Yorkshire Investment Fund.
Earlier in his presentation, Coun Scriven had joked that some of his audience might think that inviting the leader of a council to talk about innovation was like inviting the Captain of the Titanic to talk about navigation. But, he said, the Council was trying to develop a culture where people weren't blamed for taking risks, even if that sometimes ended in failure, and where the Council made the right interventions in terms of public investment to help businesses innovate.
"We are working across the city to raise the aspirations of communities and people, so that they dream higher and achieve higher; so that when children leave school and start work they can aim higher and be confident."
Coun Scriven cited the Council's investment in Sheffield's Digital Campus and the Electric Works, where the seminar was held, and the introduction of individual budgets for clients of its social services department as examples of council innovation.
The decision to take the lease on Electric Works meant that the city could continue with its aim of attracting high quality digital sector tenants to the building.
The Council had also changed the way it awarded contracts.
"We used to say this is what we want, this is how we want you to do it, give us a price. Now, we say this is what we want, you go and find an innovative way of delivering it," Coun Scriven added.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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