In his speech at the Chamber’s President’s Lunch last week, Chamber Chairman, David Wade Smith called for the public sector agencies in the city to make way for private sector growth.

While acknowledging the significant role of the public sector in Liverpool’s regeneration he explained: “There is not a successful merchant city in the world whose private sector is dwarfed by the public sector in the way that we see in Liverpool.”

He said: “Liverpool is doing pretty well. The development boom that is delivering millions of square feet of new shops, offices, hotels and apartments looks set to continue into and beyond 2008 and our celebratory year as European Capital of Culture.

We are all excited to see private investment from businesses like Grosvenor Estates, Peel Holdings, Downings Developments, Bruntwood, Iliad, Land Securities, Beethams, English Cities Fund and many others. This private investment boom comes on the back of massive public sector investment in the city’s physical infrastructure and we readily acknowledge the significant role of the public sector in Liverpool’s regeneration.

But there is not a successful merchant city in the world whose private sector is dwarfed by the public sector in the way that we see in Liverpool and our economy will only become self-sustaining when we end our dependence on the public sector in generating the lion’s share of employment and investment.

Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas, but I believe that the city council and the rest of the public sector should consciously and deliberately disengage from being a provider of public services and become a commissioner. This was a theme taken up nationally by the CBI only yesterday but we’ve been promoting it for more than two years, locally.

Government Office, NWDA and the city need to inject more competition into the delivery of services. This is not about privatisation: responsibility for quality and regulation would remain firmly with the public sector - rather, it is about presenting the private sector with opportunities to pitch and deliver.

We welcome the plan for the new City Region which encourages business to contribute to new governance arrangements and we have already made it clear that we want the Chamber of Commerce to represent business interests in that forum. This is not because we enjoy those lengthy public sector meetings - but because we want to work with the local authorities in identifying public services that might be better delivered privately.

These are the debates we should be having with our colleagues in the public sector - a shared plan to grow the private sector and, over time, shrink the public sector so that it regulates, monitors and commissions business to deliver services competitively rather than delivering them directly.