£1bn Chinese investment in Sheffield

[S1 1DJ]

Obviously not, providing we're not selling the family silver!

 

I think giving the council a free hand to fritter away a £1bn investment on their pet projects might be though!

 

Think that's normally the Tories job to sell off the silver at "mates rates" ☺

 

---------- Post added 21-07-2016 at 11:23 ----------

 

Now that is a good result for the Council. Well done!

 

Indeed, hopefully a more prominent Chinese business community like Manchester has in a few years.

[Eater Sundae]

Well done, SCC.

 

Also, well done, Sheffield Universities for attracting Chinese and other overseas students.

 

It's great to see some good news.

[Vague_Boy]

...but I'm sure this money is not going to be some sort of charitable gift.

Bravo. Amazing insight.

 

Who an earth said anything about a charitable gift?

 

investment

ɪnˈvɛs(t)m(ə)nt/

noun

noun: investment; plural noun: investments

 

1.

the action or process of investing money for profit.

 

If I was investing a billion pounds in anything... I'd also be wanting something tangible in return.

Yes, that's called "business". It's what makes the world go round.

[scottf]

Those students seem lovely, they integrate well and never cause any problems.

 

They integrate well? By what measure are you judging that- from what i can tell they keep entirely to themselves and only eat and drink in a very few chinese based/themed shops and restaurants.

[Revel]

They integrate well? By what measure are you judging that- from what i can tell they keep entirely to themselves and only eat and drink in a very few chinese based/themed shops and restaurants.

 

I lived with a Chinese student in my halls. She was very polite, and yes, kept herself to herself.

 

What's your point?

[Mr Bloke]

Bravo. Amazing insight.

 

Who an earth said anything about a charitable gift?

Thank you!

 

I was just pointing out for the benefit of the more gullible amongst us that you don't get owt for nowt!

[Blackbeard]

They integrate well? By what measure are you judging that- from what i can tell they keep entirely to themselves and only eat and drink in a very few chinese based/themed shops and restaurants.

 

Have you ever seen the "average" Brit overseas?

[AndrewC]

... what's in it for them?

 

And some people think Brexit is going to be bad news...

 

So let's put this on the table now shall we;

 

You're quite right - what is in it for them? Easy, Profits.

 

When we got EU grants, did we ever have to the pay them back a dividend on profits etc? Did it leave half of Sheffield belonging to the EU? The EU, essentially took money from the Govt. then redistributed it to places like Sheffield which the Govt would otherwise have never concentrated investment on, if left to their own devices. Once we've left the EU, you can be sure we won't see that anymore. Instead we'll be relying on this type of investment.

 

But the trouble with that is, I think we can be sure that the Chinese will expect a bit more of a fiscal return on their investment than the EU ever did.

 

Oh, and these deals have been in the works for 18 months, which means they were a possibility before Brexit was ever a thing; we could have had our cake and eaten too!

 

(MrBloke - realise this post sounds like I'm having a go at you - I am not! Just picking up on your point)

Edited July 21, 2016 by AndrewC

[Mr Bloke]

So let's put this on the table now shall we;

 

You're quite right - what is in it for them? Easy, Profits.

 

When we got EU grants, did we ever have to the pay them back a dividend on profits etc? Did it leave half of Sheffield belonging to the EU? The EU, essentially took money from the Govt. then redistributed it to places like Sheffield which the Govt would otherwise have never concentrated investment on, if left to their own devices. Once we've left the EU, you can be sure we won't see that anymore. Instead we'll be relying on this type of investment.

 

But the trouble with that is, I think we can be sure that the Chinese will expect a bit more of a fiscal return on their investment than the EU ever did.

 

Oh, and these deals have been in the works for 18 months, which means they were a possibility before Brexit was ever a thing; we could have had our cake and eaten too!

 

(MrBloke - realise this post sounds like I'm having a go at you - I am not! Just picking up on your point)

No I realise that, I'm agreeing with you, really!

 

The same people who welcome Brexit are possibly the same people who are welcoming this (probably much worse?) deal.

 

It's worrying though that (if as reported) the council are being let loose to do as they please with such a large budget, given their previous track record (pun possibly intended ), and I think there must be some as yet undisclosed benefits to the Chinese company (other than just monetary) if they've agreed to that.

 

It appears that they're about to give the council £1 billion to do what they want with...

 

... but unlike some on here, I don't believe that for one minute!

 

I'm also not too sure if the EU grants would have kept coming once the Chinese deal was finalised, as there would presumably be far more worse off areas that could then benefit from these grants...

 

... so I don't think we could have had our cake and eaten it!

 

Anyway, that's it - I'm done!

[Revel]

So let's put this on the table now shall we;

 

You're quite right - what is in it for them? Easy, Profits.

 

When we got EU grants, did we ever have to the pay them back a dividend on profits etc? Did it leave half of Sheffield belonging to the EU? The EU, essentially took money from the Govt. then redistributed it to places like Sheffield which the Govt would otherwise have never concentrated investment on, if left to their own devices. Once we've left the EU, you can be sure we won't see that anymore. Instead we'll be relying on this type of investment.

 

But the trouble with that is, I think we can be sure that the Chinese will expect a bit more of a fiscal return on their investment than the EU ever did.

 

Oh, and these deals have been in the works for 18 months, which means they were a possibility before Brexit was ever a thing; we could have had our cake and eaten too!

 

(MrBloke - realise this post sounds like I'm having a go at you - I am not! Just picking up on your point)

 

Yes, you speak the truth. EU grants are given with no string attached. But let's look at the figures a little more closely...

 

"The UK sent £12.9bn to the European Union in 2015.

As a very rough calculation, when you divide the UK's overall payment by the number of taxpayers in the region, Yorkshire and the Humber contributed about £1bn towards that overall amount.

In comparison, the Yorkshire and Humber received £747m (979m euros) in funding from the EU between 2007 and 2013, according to the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI)."

 

From this report, we can gather:

 

1. Yorkshire sends £1BN to the EU each year (on average)

2. Yorkshire recieves £747M back every six years on average (£124M a year)

3. Sheffield received only £155M of that total funding, while Leeds received £300M

4. Divide that £155M between six, and that's £25M of EU funding to Sheffield each year (on average)

5. Let's assume that as the second-biggest city in Yorkshire, Sheffield contributes £300M of that £1BN each year, Leeds £400M, and the rest of Yorkshire £300M.

6. When you compare that £300M going out of Sheffield annually, the £25M coming back in annually looks measly

7. Yes, the jobs created by the EU are great but they certainly do not make up for the missing £275M

 

Meanwhile, we have just been handed £1BN on a plate... £200M+ of it in just a couple of years.

 

Anyway, this is not about EU investments being better than other investments, or vice versa. In an ideal world, we'd have both.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36420415