Over the past four months, Tom Riordan has been among those local government leaders who have stepped up and stepped forward.
Amid the turmoil unleashed by the pandemic, the chief executive of Leeds City Council has clearly set out the city’s needs and warned of the consequences of them not being met.
Riordan, who has been in the post for a decade, says the current financial pressure is as serious as it gets. “We have a £64m gap this financial year still and legally we have to set a balanced budget. If we don’t get further help from government that will lead to major problems in terms of public services and jobs in the city that will not wait until the end of the year,” Riordan explains.
He has been very welcoming of the support government has given to businesses and the council, but the harsh reality, he says, is that “it’s not quite done the trick”.
“We really need help in bridging that gap,” he says. “If we can do that, then we’ll stabilise our finances and be able to play the role that we know we should do to make Leeds the best city it can be.”
For Riordan, the extent to which Leeds – and other cities – will be changed by Covid-19 cannot be underestimated. At the forefront of his mind are the inequalities it has exposed like “a laser beam” and the unfairness in society that the Black Lives Matter campaign has brought out.
“Part of the next phase will be meaningfully addressing those issues in a way that will make a real difference to the people who are in that situation,” he says. “There’s a whole range of things that I think are going to change. I don’t think it will be a massive one-off, singular change. I think there’ll be a number of different things that will come in over a period of time. But things are going to be different.”
Finding a balance
One of those changes, he anticipates, will be how office space is occupied. Half of the council’s 15,000 staff are currently working from home. “We’ve just surveyed them all and about 80% want to have more of a balance between being in the office and being at home,” Riordan says. “I’m talking to big employers in the city and I think there will be a move to that approach,” he says.
He expects a partial shift away from the city centre and towards more people working either from home or closer to home in the city’s district centres.
“I think there’s going to be a correction needed in the office market that will probably be quite painful to start with in terms of the sort of new office build that happens,” he warns. “But I also think that in the longer term, there will be a thriving office market in the middle of Leeds. It will just be different. I think it will probably make city living come back – it was coming back on to the agenda in a big way anyway.”
The big question, of course, is whether Covid-19 is here to stay or whether a vaccine proves successful and the change is not as dramatic as it feels it will be at the moment.
‘A psychological shift’
Whatever happens, Riordan is convinced there will be a psychological shift for many of us. “I just think people will vote with their feet and people will choose to live their lives slightly differently. And maybe that’s not such a bad thing,” he says.
But he is equally convinced the reasons Leeds has attracted major trophy occupiers – such as Channel 4 and Sky Studios – in recent years have not changed.
“I think the bigger question is probably for London and whether people will need to be in an international transport hub,” Riordan says. “We will probably benefit from some of that change, just as maybe the smaller satellite towns and cities around places like Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham will be helped by this as well. So maybe there could be a ‘plus’ to this, which is a more balanced approach to the growth of our economy and society in a way that reflects what actually would be better for individuals,” Riordan says.
What’s more, he believes Leeds will emerge from the crisis as a greener city.
Back in May, the council accelerated a raft of emergency measures to prioritise roads for cyclists and pedestrians. “I think that won’t be a temporary thing,” Riordan says. “I think we will be looking for a better use of space, public space, and the ability for people to breathe more easily within the city centre.”
A shift to the district centres could help in this. “I think the whole issue of all of us rushing into city centres at certain times of the day, every day and rushing back home at certain times of the day, every day, is the thing that we’re all going to be re-evaluating,” Riordan explains.
Delivering a greener city is also part of ambitious plans to redevelop the South Bank area of Leeds, which the council aims to transform into a distinctive global destination for investment, sustainable living, learning, creativity and leisure.
“All of that is going to be taken forward – maybe in a slightly different way,” Riordan promises. “Much greener, more sustainable with better use of public space.” Lower-density development is up for consideration.
Leeds has achieved huge amounts thus far without the devolution enjoyed by other UK cities and regions. Riordan is clearly looking forward to the next phase, ushered in by chancellor Rishi Sunak when he confirmed in his budget that West Yorkshire would get its own elected mayor. This is expected to unlock £1.8bn in investment for the area, with Leeds very much set to share the benefit.
Something else Leeds has managed without – for 16 years – has been a place in the Premier League. But after manager Marcelo Bielsa led Leeds United to promotion last month, the city has been put firmly on the international map.
“However good we’ve been, without that Premiership football you just don’t have the reach that others do and Leeds has such history as a club and as a brand, that there are many Leeds United fans right across the world who will be watching the city even more closely,” Riordan says.
There should be plenty for them to see.
Watch the interview with Leeds City Council chief executive Tom Riordan here
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