‘We can compete on a similar scale with Manchester. We’ve got lots going for us. It is a fantastic turnaround’
Nottingham City Council deputy Cllr Ethan Radford, leader Cllr Neghat Khan, and chief executive Sajeeda Rose(Image: LDRS)
Business, education and council leaders say they want to begin shouting louder about Nottingham and its successes after a “fantastic turnaround” in the city council ’s financial fortunes.
Nottingham City Council’s deputy leader, Cllr Ethan Radford, says the city and wider East Midlands region have been enveloped in a “strange phenomenon where we are a bit like the Bermuda Triangle” – having missed out on funding and investment opportunities for decades.
But with the city’s financial woes now beginning to improve, leaders from various sectors say it should now start to be “less reticent and a bit more confident”.
The Labour-run council’s former finance director declared the authority effectively bankrupt in November 2023, and three Government-appointed officials are now overseeing improvements.
However the council’s leadership now says its latest budget for 2026/27 -which begins April 1 next year – is “clear proof we are now a financially stable council”.
It is currently forecasting an underspend of £1m, which means it will have this amount left over once all expenditure on its day-to-day services is accounted for, and should be able to set the budget without the use of any emergency support measures.
At a meeting with key stakeholders – such as Nottinghamshire Police, the two universities, and business leaders from firms including Experian – the council’s leadership was praised for the turnaround.
Many sector leaders said the city should now begin to shout louder about its successes. The meeting was held at the Council House on Tuesday (October 28).
Professor Jeremy Gregory, pro-vice-chancellor, Faculty of Arts, at the University of Nottingham, said: “I worked for 15 years in Manchester.
“I think we are right, we can compete on a similar scale with Manchester. We’ve got lots going for us. They were very good at shouting about how brilliant they were, even when those of us who lived there knew it wasn’t always true.
“It is a fantastic turnaround. It would be good to get those stories out into the wider world, so people start talking about Nottingham and thinking about Nottingham in a different way. We all want that reputation.”
Similarly, Stuart Young, executive director for East Midlands Councils, said: “Manchester, and some of the other cities, have egos the size of a battleship. Sometimes we just need to be less reticent and a bit more confident.
“We could start to be a bit more bolshy like some of the other cities we always hear about.”
Speaking after the stakeholder event, which was attended by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), the council’s leadership said the city was now in a better position to be taken seriously.
“First and foremost we need to be taken seriously,” Cllr Radford said.
“If you want to sell a product, and we want to sell the city, then the people we are selling it to need to trust what you are saying and take you seriously in that.
“A large part of that has been the improvement journey, getting our house in order, and sorting our finances out. A lot of the discussions today – and then the budget we are proposing next year – goes a long way in demonstrating that we are in a position to be taken seriously again.
“There is a strange phenomenon in the East Midlands where we are a bit like the Bermuda Triangle – we often miss out on government funding, media interest, and quite a lot of things in the Midlands because we are that awkward little bit that isn’t quite south and isn’t quite north.
“It is quite difficult for quite a core city like us, placed in such a central part of the country, to be able to catch people’s attention. We have got the opportunity to do that now.”
Council leader Cllr Neghat Khan added: “Something that has come out of that meeting is collaboration. You can’t just expect Nottingham City Council to do this alone. Stakeholders have a part to play in that, and how do we join up that messaging?
“The more [funding and investment] we can secure, the more it gives people confidence that Nottingham is actually delivering, and confidence that we are delivering what we say we will deliver.”
