The vision to make Stoke-on-Trent a great working city is based on four strategic aims and was launched 12 months ago. It is supported by more than 200 businesses across the city, setting out a 'red carpet' approach to attracting and developing businesses.
The four Mandate for Change ‘pillars’ which go wider than the city council and its service are:
• Make Stoke-on-Trent the place to bring business
• Support and develop existing business
• Work with people to promote independence and healthy lives
• Make Stoke-on-Trent a great city to live in.
Council leader, Councillor Mohammed Pervez, said: “Our number one priority was and still is to create jobs.
“If we create jobs in Stoke-on-Trent then things will get better, it’s as simple as that. We have made savings
to invest in our Mandate for Change to stimulate the local economy to bring prosperity in the City and continue with our regeneration
agenda.
“We have been working with local businesses to create more jobs and we have been encouraging new business into the city
by offering our red carpet treatment to inward investment.
“We have bucked the national downward trend by creating around 4,000 jobs in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire.
“Since the launch of our Mandate for Change, we have achieved an enormous amount and there are plenty of encouraging
signs that together, we are moving the city in the right direction.
“However, the Mandate for Change isn’t just about what the Council is doing.
It is also about what local businesses, voluntary sector, residents, young people and our partners can do to make Stoke-on-Trent
a Great Working City by working in partnership with us to achieve our shared goals.”
More than 200 people attended the breakfast update at the King’s Hall. They heard during the 12 months since the Mandate for Change launched in July last year, work on the construction of the state of the art new city centre bus station is well underway and will be completed by the end of the year; key anchor tenants Marks & Spencer and VueCinema have been secured for the City Sentral shopping complex; and funding for all 18 Building Schools for the Future projects has been secured with work in progress on 16 sites which are in various stages of construction.
Council Chief Executive John van de Laarschot said: “We’ve got a fantastic city and we have started the ball rolling. We have the collective passion and commitment we just have to replicate that across all our communities.”
Speaking at the event, Ben Evans, aged 15, from Trentham High School said: “Once you get to know the meaning of the
Mandate for change you realise it’s brilliant.
“The biggest threat is failure but we have had discussions in our school about it and we trust and believe in it.
“Young people as the next generation will benefit from the changes which are happening.”
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For all media enquiries contact Ciara Hill in the Communications Department at Stoke-on-Trent City Council on 01782 232130.