Nigel Wilson

And even a fraction of some of the funding that goes into the civil service, even a fraction of that would transform the economic output of the North East.

We had Sir Nigel Wilson on the podcast a few episodes back, and he said that one of the challenges for the public sector in reaching its full potential is that whenever it tries to innovate or it has an idea for something, it scurries off to Westminster for money when in reality what it should be doing is getting a private sector partner in the room from the inception of the idea.

Absolutely.

Is that a fair criticism?