AUGUST 2019 BusIness 9
backgrounds should consider a career
in economics.”
It’s not a job Lombardelli had known
in school. She passed her GCSE’s at
Hazel Grove High School before
completing A-Levels at Aquinas
College.
Lombardelli went onto study
economics at Oxford University and
completed a master’s degree from the
London School of Economics.
She has worked in government since
2005, after starting her career as an
economist at the Bank of England.
Her roles have included Principal
Private Secretary to the Chancellor,
Private Secretary for Economic Affairs
to the Prime Minister, and Deputy
Director for Labour Market Policy.
She has also worked as a technical
advisor for the International Monetary
Fund. She said: “I didn’t know anyone
who had a job like this.
“My parents were hard working
people but they weren’t professionals
so I would have never known. I went
into it because I had a passion for
public service and the wider issues
affecting people’s lives.
“So we’re keen to widen the
government’s economic service to a set
of people that might not have
otherwise thought about this as a
career.”
To do this, the Treasury has launched
its first degree apprenticeship in
economics in partnership with the
University of Kent.
Following a social media campaign,
75 young people will be coming
straight from A-levels to study and work
for the government’s economic
department across the county.
Nearly half of the cohort are women
and 30 per cent are from BAME
backgrounds.
“We have definitely got a different
group and I’m hoping it will help us get
a wider range of talent pool because
that’s what diversity is about,”
Lombardelli says.
“It’s is about improving our outcomes
and our economics by getting more
people who might not consider
themselves as people that can do
government level economics.”She continues: “We are changing
especially when it comes to gender
diversity but it’s really important that
what we don’t do here is congratulate
ourselves for opening it up to a set of
white privileged women.
“Much more important to me than
gender is the socio economic impact.
“Certainly in my life, I’ve not felt that
gender at all has been a barrier, but I
wouldn’t say the same for those from
socio economic backgrounds.”
Lombardelli says the language used
in economics has also been a barrier- to not only attracting people to the job
but making economics accessible to
everyone.
She added: “Economists are terrible
at this and we need to do more to
change that.
“We use a language that is not as
accessible as it could be.
“It’s important to be technically
correct but in terms of the debate and
the national conversation we can use a
more accessible language than we do
to be more inclusive and to encourage
people to participate.”
Businesses
maintain
‘steady ahead’
Andrew Charnley, head of
corporate relationships at
TogetherWe’re in unprecedented times,
with arguably the highest levels of
economic uncertainty and lowest
levels of political confidence in
the UK since the Credit Crunch- particularly given the growing
talk of, and preparations for, No
Deal.
Against such a backdrop one
may expect to see panic in
business, heavy reductions in
investment and borrowing,
planning in place for austerity
even. However, despite some signs
of caution, businesses in the
North are clearly not adopting the
‘batten down the hatches’
mentality, but rather ‘steady
ahead’. Evidence is abundant that
many sectors are prospering.
Property investment in the
north west last year reached
£3.17bn, its highest since 2007
according to commercial and
residential real estate consultancy
Lambert Smith Hampton.
At Together we continue to
adopt our prudent ‘common
sense’ approach, but are also
seeing overwhelming optimism
and achieved a record month in
June with lending at nearly £200m
for the month, our loan book
stands at £3.47bn.
We are growing our team of
property lending specialists to
accommodate the growth, and the
recent hires of Alex Bodie and
Alex Garland to our team,
evidences the commitment that
we are making to supporting our
customers’ aspirations.
Clearly there’s confidence, and
the region’s business position can
get stronger still – backed by the
government’s Northern
Powerhouse initiative driving
investment in skills, innovation
and culture.
This confidence and potential is
not just localised, it has been
boosted by outside investment
too. The purchase of Manchester’s
Midland Hotel by overseas
investor Pandox AB for £115m is
one example.
Coupled to that is the
strengthening of the regional
transport infrastructure –
Manchester Airport is undergoing
a £1bn transformation.