Brighton and Hove City Council leader Warren Morgan is setting out his post-Brexit vision for the area at a Labour Party conference fringe meeting this evening (Sunday 24 September).
Councillor Morgan is announcing a Leaders Business Summit at the invitation-only event at the Royal Pavilion, co-hosted by the Centre for Cities think-tank.
Here is the text of the speech that is to deliver …
Since I last welcomed you to the Centre for Cities reception here in the kitchens of the Royal Pavilion two years ago, much has changed in Brighton and Hove.
The i360 now towers over Brighton and Hove seafront, a 21st century version of the Victorian piers, bandstands, aquarium and promenades built to draw tourists to our seafront.
The city voted overwhelmingly – 70 per cent – to remain in the European Union, to stay a European city that is outward facing and open for business.
I will fight to the last to see the will of the people in Brighton and Hove made a political reality.
Brighton and Hove Albion were promoted to the Premier League, bringing in tens of millions into the local and city region economy.
The Eon Rampion wind farm has sprung up off our coast, representing a period of new technologies, new energy and new transport, heralding a changing economy with new ways of working.
All this offering challenges and opportunities in the modern economy which we are not yet coming to terms with, but which we must if we are both to compete and protect the rights of people working in it.
The general election saw Peter Kyle increase his majority by a record-breaking figure in Hove and Lloyd Russell-Moyle take the last remaining Conservative seat in the city with a comfortable win in Kemptown.
As much as in London, Bristol and the cities of the north west, Brighton and Hove has moved to Labour.
Our Labour-led administration on the city council has pressed ahead with innovative new schemes to improve daily life, build new homes and grow our economy – new ways to run services, grow our income and meet the challenges of social care.
Our mission is to get the basics right, protect the vulnerable and grow an economy for the many and not the few.
We do so against a combined opposition that can outvote us in the last remaining committee-run council, under-funding and service pressures that would have made my predecessors weep and in a political environment more unstable and uncertain than at any time in living memory.
The next two years will see the pace of change accelerate, and the challenges we face grow.
The Greater Brighton city region is expanding to include the thriving economy of Crawley, led by the excellent Councillor Peter Lamb who is here tonight, and the global transport hub of Gatwick Airport.
Together we will be stronger in facing those challenges and ready to exploit the opportunities of the industrial strategy and devolution to city regions.
Greater Brighton will become the heart of the “Southern Accelerator”, a rival to the Northern Powerhouse and the Midlands Engine, driving research and innovation in our universities, investment and growth in our digital and creative economies, a sustainable future for our financial services, tourism and visitor economy as Brexit draws closer.
We cannot rely on our proximity to the capital. As a region we must compete nationally, in Europe and across the globe in Japan and China, India and South America, Australasia and Africa, the Middle East and beyond for tourism, students, trade, investment and conventions.
Through our strong partnership with Standard Life we will in the coming decade replace the Brighton Centre with a new conference and event arena at Black Rock, one which will secure our future just as the Brighton Centre did 40 years ago.
The challenge for Brighton and Hove, as the Centre for Cities has pointed out, is as great as for any city region in Britain as we sever our bonds with the EU.
We will not allow this self-created hurricane, born in the turbulent waters of Tory division, to lay waste to our economy.
We will turn our faces to the coming storm. We will cast no one out. We will leave no one behind.
In the coming two years we will push ahead with ground-breaking health integration to ensure all our residents have access to GPs, screening and treatment.
Our innovative new joint venture – to deliver 1,000 new homes affordable at under 40 per cent of national living wage household income – will be given the go-ahead on Monday (25 September).
And – I am announcing here for the first time tonight – we will forge a new relationship with businesses in Brighton and Hove and across the city region, starting with the Leaders Business Summit which I will convene in the new year.
While we press ahead with building a new future for Brighton and Hove, we will continue to value and restore and preserve the heritage that made us what we are today, that made Brighton and Hove the unique place that it is, through work to restore our seafront and preserve our Royal Pavilion in trust for future generations.
That involves finding innovative new funding solutions and campaigns. Postcards and posters are around the tables promoting our Save Madeira Terraces crowdfunding campaign in association with Spacehive. Please donate pledge a donation if you can.
We are a thriving, dynamic and ambitious city, a young city with a proud heritage, a great place to live and work, a city with a bold and ambitious future ahead of us.
Brighton and Hove is the city I’m proud to lead, and pleased to welcome you to tonight.
