30 years of Bondholders: Future Humber gearing up for new challenges in milestone year

CELEBRATION: Hull’s @TheDock outdoor venue at the regenerated Fruit Market hosted Future Humber Bondholders’ 30th anniversary event

By Rick Lyon, Co-Editor

The UK’s first bondholder organisation is celebrating 30 years of placemaking, having played a vital role in establishing the Humber as the UK’s ‘Energy Estuary’.

Back in 1994, Hull was facing an identity issue, with its economic model on past maritime might in need of an overhaul.

Perceptions were poor, education standards slated and attracting talent to a proud but bruised business community was proving desperately challenging.

Coming to the fore to stop the slide was what has become Future Humber Bondholders, driven by a deep-seated desire from and for the public and private sector to champion the place and its opportunity.

Initially focused on the city but widening across the river on which trade was built and industry aligned, stakes in the region were firmed up and collectively financed, to ensure passion, purpose and pioneering spirit were proudly on display.

From playing a pivotal role in securing City of Culture success, highlighting Hull’s digital sector head start with early adoption of full fibre broadband, to grasping the decarbonisation agenda, Future Humber’s members have been there.

As the spotlight has shone brightly on world-leading renewable projects, it has ensured the unstinting efforts to take the region’s industrial cluster from the most polluting to best equipped to hit net zero – providing the most impact for UK Plc – has been elevated with a series of annual summits.

Leading the charge to plant such positivity 30 years ago was current Lord Lieutenant of the East Riding, Jim Dick OBE, one of six key figures to step forward from the public and private sector as the founding members, and the first to take the chair. 

INFLUENTIAL: Past chairs, from left, Jim Dick, Peter Aarosin, Anita Pace and Andrew Parkinson, with current chair Bill Walker, second right

Then a senior executive at Hull-founded global healthcare brand Smith+Nephew, welcoming talent to the region had become a significant issue.

“The aim was to try and change the image of Hull,” he recalled. “I was a young managing director in Smith+Nephew, and we were struggling to recruit. It was easier to get people to move internationally than it was within the UK.

“The university conducted some research, surveyed people across the country, and it came back that there was either no real image or a negative one.”

Self-esteem was seen as key, so too how to finance it. Jim was instrumental in the formation of the funding model, with regeneration money short to cover emerging ambition.

“I thought if we could tap up the top ten companies for £5,000 each – all companies suffering the same problems as we were – that would give us an initial £30,000,” he said.

Conscious he alone may not succeed, he joined forces with then Bishop of Hull, Rt Rev James Jones KBE. And he quickly found that leading a cast of entrepreneurial city folk at the top of their respective games was key.

“If you want to enact change in a community, the time to do it is when you are at the height of your career. Lots of people stood up to be counted and helped get the debate going.”

In return, insight was given back into what was happening in the city, with Bondholder Breakfasts quickly becoming “must-attend” calendar highlights.

The physical fabric of the city was seen as vital when it came to aspiration, with top ten city status the aim. And the look of The Deep aquarium and the MKM Stadium were enhanced, with effort put in to make them extraordinary.

The brand went from Hull CityImage to CityBuild, reflecting the journey.

“People associate physical building and cranes with a city progressing,” said Jim. “The Deep was one of the most successful millennium projects, and people started to believe in the place.”

A conference-standard hotel, indoor arena and further retail and leisure destinations have followed. Major regeneration. The buzz is back. 

Several members – now representing some 62,000 local employees – played a key role in financing the successful City of Culture bid in 2017, and it has consistently unified voices behind the biggest issues. 

Hull is now home to Siemens Gamesa’s record-breaking wind turbine blade plant, one of the few manufacturing bases for the industry in the UK, while neighbouring Grimsby is the world’s largest hub for operations and maintenance of the sprawling near North Sea farms.

“I am proud that so many people have been involved, and it has continued to evolve in many directions but with the same objective, to improve the economic wellbeing of the region,” Jim said. “It is testament to all that it is still here and still having an impact.

“Why shouldn’t it go for another 30 years? The need is still there. It doesn’t matter how good we are, cities and regions have to compete.”  

PLACEMAKING: The Bondholders’ 30th anniversary celebrations

Smith+Nephew is now investing £100m in a state-of-the-art new base for its advanced wound division at a rapidly growing business park just a few miles down a road – a road itself in the midst of one of the biggest civil engineering projects ever seen to ensure city and port flow better.

Bondholder membership retained, like so many others in the city. Nikki West, senior vice president for corporate services and global talent at Smith+Nephew, now sits on the board. She said: “Our long-standing relationship with Bondholders goes hand-in-hand with our long tenure in the city – over 170 years now.

“Hull and the region are extremely important to our organisation. While we are a multinational global company, it all started here. Bondholders is really important for us as a business, and critical in terms of our place in the community. It gives us a great opportunity to be involved, beyond what we can do on our own – it allows us to be part of the bigger picture.”

“Excellent” events and networks for graduates to senior directors, with leanings towards sustainability and health, are seen as vital.

“This appeals to people coming to the region,” Nikki said. “For talent coming in, being part of a strong network beyond the company they work for is a really important part of life. It not only helps attract, but retain that talent, as they develop roots.”

Future Humber, custodian of the Bondholder scheme, is intent on ensuring consistent, co-ordinated messaging of the new Humber place narrative as devolution deals are driven forward for the region. The close associations with Humber Freeport and Humber Energy Board are fundamental to this.

Dominic Gibbons is managing director of Hull-based Wykeland Group, a property development and investment company behind major schemes for regeneration and enterprise in the area. 

“Devolution is coming forward for both the North and South banks and I see a really important role to keep the Humber together in the next few years,” he said.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE: The Future Humber Bondholders organisation has helped establish the region as the ‘Energy Estuary’

“Bondholders has been a constant. It has grown in size and importance. The business community stepping up to take some responsibility for marketing of our region is terrific, you can’t just look at councils and say it is on them. It is great it is both public and private sector, and there is funding from both.”

Reflecting on what has provided such strength across the 30 years, he added: “The people behind it. There has been a succession of excellent chairs who have given it the longevity, so too the people running it. Managing director Diana Taylor has done an excellent job over the last seven years, keeping the narrative going.”

And there is a strong feeling some of the most important years are just ahead as it advocates the Humber as an international leader in clean growth and net zero carbon.

“For the Energy Estuary push, if we are going to capture the benefits that we can see for our region, this is our chance,” said Jo Barnes, managing director of Hull-headquartered Sewell Estates, a construction-led business with a significant development stake in a key Humber Freeport location.

“Investment opportunities are at a scale never seen before, and we have 30 years of heritage of businesses chucking cash in to promote the region – we’re not going from a standing start. We have the foundations in place, the brand, the story, a community that is not self-serving, one that has shown real peripheral vision. I think it is really powerful.”

When she first arrived in Hull a quarter of a century ago, she was part of the local authority regeneration team to which Bondholders was attached.

“I found it phenomenal then, and find it phenomenal now, how in a lot of places there is a big reliance on the public sector. They make the difference in promoting development and growth. In the Humber, every single Bondholder I had the pleasure to meet made their contribution without any expectation that they would get anything back personally. It was all about promoting the area, and I think that is wonderful. It is a collective responsibility, that’s how people see it. It shows the belief people have in the region, to go through recessions, through Covid, people felt the responsibility.

“It became an ethical move, the right thing to do, and was all about lifting the area up, the area benefiting from a higher profile and prosperity.”

Employing more than 100 staff in Hull is Matt Dass, founder of Eon Visual Media and managing director of Springfield Solutions.

“Being from Hull, and having businesses in Hull, we were passionate about how we could spread the word about what was going on in the Humber region. It is our voice in terms of attracting investment, not just for business, but linking with arts and culture, and tourism.

“It is about ambition, flooding that support into a central place, from where we can channel it. I’ve been proud to be part of it and long may it continue. We continue to give it our full support.”