HULL'S mindset has changed for the better following the launch of the ambitious ten-year City Plan, according to city council chief executive Darryl Stephenson.
He was the first to map out some of the early ideas behind a new programme aimed at boosting Hull's economy over the next decade late, last year.
Now, after the City Plan's official launch and the recruitment of a cross-sector partnership board to oversee it, he believes the next step is to deliver some of the "early win" projects.
"I think it has already massively raised the profile of the city," Mr Stephenson said.
"We have had national figures like Lord Mandelson, Baroness Bottomley and Lord Heseltine talking Hull up and we have had two parliamentary debates about Hull.
"That brings a lot of attention and the City Plan, together with the City of Culture bid, is building on that."
He thinks people in the city are now believing change is possible.
"A lot of this is about having confidence in yourself as a city and I get the feeling that people now believe that something is happening here," he said.
"They might not be able to put their finger on exactly what yet but our ambitions have been made very clear with projects like bringing HMS Illustrious here.
"It's very much moving from the negative to the positive.
"Yes, Hull has its problems and some of them are going to be very difficult nuts to crack but every city has problems.
"What I think we have going for us now is momentum and an enthusiasm from the business community which perhaps was not there before."
He paid tribute to the business community for its contribution to the City Plan.
"The city council certainly appreciates the time, commitment and energy being shown by the private sector in terms of the of the people involved on the City Leadership Board. Their genuine enthusiasm has been great," he said.
"In a way, I am not surprised because we always thought there was a huge untapped source of enthusiasm for getting things moving in the city. It was just a question of finding the right way to tap into that."
Mr Stephenson said he accepted the board currently lacked any input from Hull's professional sector.
"It is a weakness and we are looking at ways of engaging them more. Perhaps they initially couldn't see much in the City Plan that was directly relevant to them.
"Similarly, there is probably not much on sport and that needs to be improved but we are also working on that."
