Council firm set for £2.3m deal to create 1,500 jobs

The private company, Leeds and Partners, was set up last year to raise the city’s profile and help attract new businesses.

It is now due to receive £2.25m over three years to act on behalf of the Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), a collection of councils and business leaders working together to create jobs in the area.

Although companies usually have to compete for council work, in this case councillors are expected to approve the deal without offering the opportunity to other organisations and Leeds and Partners will be directly commissioned to handle the project to attract new investment to the Leeds City Region from other parts of the UK and abroad.

A council executive board report says competitive tendering would be “costly and time-consuming” and Leeds and Partners would be the only likely winner.

Stewart Golton, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrat group on the council, said: “It is regrettable that a full tender process wasn’t started when the decision was made to create the inward investment service a year ago.

“But Leeds needs jobs and we have the potential to attract inward investment as never before.

“Leeds and Partners is a proven outfit, that has developed a made to measure approach for the city and has already developed significant relationships with potential investors in the city region.”

Just over £1.7m of the money being given to the company for its work is likely to be provided in a loan-style arrangement by Leeds City Council. If the scheme gets

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