What Capital One tells us about home-grown talent

Capital One’s job losses have been a real jolt to Nottingham’s confidence. But it’s not the first time this has happened.
Back in the early 1990s, Mansfield was still trying to pick itself up off the floor, dust itself down and get on with life.
No easy task when the death of the mining industry knocked the stuffing out of all it supported.
There was a glimmer of hope, though, when the district council succeeded in attracting an American car components company to the Oakham Business Park in 1996.
It was a huge inward investment win, bringing 550 jobs with it.
What we didn’t appreciate at the time was that European grants had played a part in luring Johnson Controls to Mansfield.
The unstable foundations on which Johnson’s presence were built became clear only six years later, when it decided to up sticks and shift production to the Czech Republic – again, with the help of some European money.
European handouts weren’t the only reason for the move (wage rates in Eastern Europe were much lower, and cost pressures in the car industry are relentless). It was also made possible because Johnson had no history in Mansfield, no social and cultural ties that would be difficult to disentangle.
The decision to leave Mansfield wasn’t even taken in the UK.
What’s happened at Capital One in the last week has reminded us of the risks inherent in playing host to foreign-owned or controlled businesses.
That doesn’t mean you should give them the cold-shoulder when they wander past with hundreds of jobs and millions in investment on offer.
It does mean the work that Nottingham City Council has been doing to produce growth strategies for the five key home-grown sectors of the economy – business & financial services, retail & leisure, bioscience, creative industries and the public sector – is crucially important.
Home-grown talent tends to stick around.