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John Forkin is managing director of Marketing Derby, a public-private sector-backed organisation that works to attract new investment to Derby and Derbyshire. Here, he explains why the East Midlands needs a more coordinated approach if it is to leverage more investment from the new government.

On Monday, December 16, 2019, Andy Street, the elected mayor for the West Midlands, visited 10 Downing Street, taking with him a long shopping list.

Mr Street, once managing director of the John Lewis Partnership, is very familiar with the importance of Christmas as a retail season.

However, this trip was no normal London December day out - it was to talk numbers far greater than that of any department store.

His target was the new Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, who, only a few days earlier, had achieved a landslide victory in the General Election, and in doing so ended the uncertainties attached to a hung parliament.

With a majority of 80, Mr Johnson is in a position to do much as he pleases for the next five years and, in the first few hours of government, he talked about the need to increase investment into the regions, “levelling-up” historic differences, with a special focus on the “Midlands and the North”.

The numbers at stake are mammoth – there is to be £80 billion invested in additional capital infrastructure alone – not to mention pipeline projects such as HS2, as well as the much-despised regional funding formulae with its perceived loaded dice.

For decades, the government funding winners have been London and the South-East and the losers generally in the Midlands and the North.