Nottingham and the beach party

Howls of outrage have followed revelations that Nottingham City Council spent thousands on a beach party at an international property show in Cannes. But Business Correspondent RICHARD BAKER wonders if the city spent enough

There is a rich irony in the fuss made about the money Nottingham City Council spent on entertaining property investors at a conference in the South of France.

Judging by the comments underneath the story we carried about it on our website, most people thought it was little more than a junket at taxpayers' expense, a waste of money, and clear evidence that the council has got its priorities wrong.

Several readers made a similar point: shouldn't Nottingham City Council be trying to improve the lot of people in Nottingham, not rich professionals in the South of France?

Well, here's the irony: that, the council will argue, is exactly what it was doing.

I can see its point.

I'll also say something I suspect some people at the council think but can't say: the belief that Nottingham can somehow pull up the drawbridge and solve its own problems is one of the reasons why some of those problems remain unsolved.

I'll repeat a comment once made to me by a very highly-placed chief executive when he first came to work in the city: "I've never come across a city that is so inward-looking."

What he was getting at was a belief in some quarters that Nottingham could carry on its own sweet way and didn't have to go and sell itself anywhere else.

It does - and it's got an awful lot of catching up to do.

Let me give you an example. We have three big regeneration zones in Nottingham - Eastside, Southside and Waterside. They are massive, multi-billion pound opportunities to bring in new businesses, new jobs, new homes - to grow the city and its wealth, health and prosperity.

While the current state of the UK economy means we are unlikely to nab an Inland Revenue or a Capital One anytime soon, there's no question that a substantial part of the success of these regeneration zones depends on inward investment - money coming from outside.

And inward investment does not come to you. You have to go and find it. You won't be the only city beating a path to the door of a business or organisation looking for a new home - so you have to go and sell yourself.

Nottingham has never been very good at this in the past (I wonder why), and the truth is that its presence at the MIPIM conference in Cannes remains a tentative one.

The £180,000 spent in the name of Nottingham is, frankly, peanuts compared the money spent by some cities and regions.

Why do they do it? Same reason as Nottingham - they know that in the international property game you have to get your name out there, show them what you've got and demonstrate that you're serious.

That's not to say that the council has covered itself in glory here. If this is a worthwhile event, then it should have been upfront about the cost before it even went. Similarly, if the two occasions it has been there are already bringing results it should be a bit less backwards at coming forwards.

Ordinary people who don't have a feel for the way this part of the commercial world works might look beyond the cost of a far away beach party if they did.

May be we all have to widen our horizons a bit here.

If you want the city's regeneration zones to be a success, remember this: there isn't a snowball's chance in hell of that happening if you sit in the Market Square and wait for a billionaire investor to sail past.