Having built up the family firm that welcomed him with open arms 40 years ago, Lord Haskins’ business pedigree cannot be questioned. Nor it appears can his judgement. The Irish-born lord, ennobled in 1998 and an agricultural expert called upon by Tony Blair when Britain was gripped by a fear of foot and mouth, once sat on the Labour benches.
That became untenable when it was revealed he had given £2,500 towards a Liberal Democrat candidate’s campaign in the Scottish Highlands back in 2005.
Going on to win the newly created seat of Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber at a canter was Danny Alexander, six years later now Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Backing the best, regardless of the stable, is rarely frowned upon in any walk of life.
But “rules are rules,” as Lord Haskins then accepted, becoming a highly regarded crossbencher. He wasn’t one to cry over spilt milk, and while it may have soured his party political CV, it underlined an eye for talent clearly recognised in the coalition hierarchy.
And a Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) is just that, a coalition. A mix of business brains and political will, with the unitary authorities coming together with two Labour and two Conservatives-led, one of each on either bank.
His role is to keep the Humber united for what could be the defining years that set out the long-term future for the region.
At being 74, “It is a good age to be starting something new,” Lord Haskins said, when asked the tricky question about such a challenge nearly a decade past most people’s idea of a good time to call it a day.
“If I can make any contribution because of my experience I will do. Although I am Irish I have lived in this area for 40 years, my wife was born in this area. We have strong, long-term roots in this area and anything I can do at my advanced age to help progress work I will.”
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As reported earlier this month, Lord Haskins said a priority was to engage with local banks to ensure they are lending to businesses, and to do all he can to preserve jobs and companies in the tough times ahead. He, together with the team at Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce – the LEP’s administrator – will also seek to maximise the opportunities offered by the awarded enterprise zone status, offering any support they can to the renewables sector, while supporting traditional core industries of ports, chemicals, food and agriculture.
“It is about, in these very, very perilous times, looking for that extra thing that can stimulate economic growth, economic stability and above all else, jobs,” he said, analysing the LEP role. “The priority is to keep what we have got. It is going to be difficult in the short term. It is going to get worse before it gets better, with the public sector cuts that are coming.
“They are inevitable, we are going to be having a tough time. Part of the job is to protect people from the downside of the economic situation.”
The commercial lenders of Hull, Grimsby and Scunthorpe are to be early calls.
“My immediate interest is the banks,” he said. “If finance is the engine oil of all activity, and that engine oil dries up, then we are not going anywhere. The banks are going through a difficult time, but we have got to get back to lending to small businesses.
“I am going to talk to the banks and see what the case is, and see if we can leverage the pressure. We need good businesses getting access to finance. If not from there where are they going to get it?”
Renewables, and offshore wind in particular, is seen as the saviour of the area, and an industry that could see both banks buck the deathly slow recovery of the 海角视频 as a whole.
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“We will do what we can to contribute to that, and there are lots of other people interested in it,” said Lord Haskins, clearly keen not to tread on others’ toes, and stating that the ‘big heavy duty stuff’ is already being done with Siemens, the first original equipment manufacturer to indicate a site they’d like to occupy on the Humber.
“Lots of work has been done by local authorities and business people themselves, and anything we can do to help we will do.
“It is certainly a very big part of the economic development and we will be doing all we can, locally and nationally as well, to make sure we are addressing the issue.”
But it appears Lord Haskins won’t allow one sector to dominate the LEP agenda, which will be a relief to many existing businesses.
“Renewables is the new idea, but we have strong traditional industries here, too. The chemical industry, the ports, we have the hinterland and a strong rural economy which is extremely important. We have the Scunthorpe steel situation still to be dealt with, too.“
The thing with the food sector, which I know a bit about, is to protect what we have. We must encourage the food production that is here and if possible get investment coming in. It is under a lot of stress at present time.
“Some of these industries have been there a long time and some are in varying degrees of difficulty. The job is as much to support existing business and industry going through difficult times, as it is to support new.”