Super City Company

Back to work today and the weekend's exertions made themselves felt. I was ready for my bed by 2pm!
I have put a motion down to the Economic Development Committee seeking the Administration's support for an idea put to me by a very senior economic development source.

Basically, the idea is to set up a kind of 'group structure' of all the Council's companies (maybe with the exception of TIE and Lothian Buses) and to both cohere their governance and unify their development in a single direction: taken together, the Council 'owned' companies represent many millions of investment in the city's economic development - in fact are our single biggest effort in developing the city's economy - but due to their incremental development, each operates relatively independently and is unable to unlock potentially huge private investment.

It is important that the Council maintains its ability to intervene - especially in a sluggish market - to take the risks the private sector won't (think Conference Centre, Opera House, brownfield development etc. etc.) - and I think the time has come to grasp the nettle and create a 'super city company' that is able to make the most of all the opportunities our Capital has to offer