It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.
It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years.
Here we speak to Marc Abrams, senior office partner at KPMG UK’s Nottingham office.
I think my predictions are more new year wishes! Talking to businesses around the East Midlands inadequate transport connections in the region consistently comes up as a topic of conversation, so my wish is that we see some progress on this in 2024. Discussing this with colleagues elsewhere in the country, the further you are away from London, the more that the inequality in major infrastructure spend is felt.
During all the ‘storm’ of the cancellation of HS2 north of Birmingham in the Autumn and the political ‘rebuttals’ coming out of the West Midlands and Greater Manchester, it felt as if the East Midlands was silent on this. Irrespective of the rights and wrongs of HS2, my other wish is that the East Midlands region finds a voice and an identity, so it can get itself in the heart of these and other national debates and secures the much-needed investment for the region. East Midlands devolution clearly presents an opportunity and I hope our political leaders seize the opportunity to create a similar impact of their mayoral equivalents in other regions.
