Local Enterprise

Local Enterprise Partnership

·         The Business Launch for our new Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership was held at the Princes Hall at 8 am last Tuesday.  The event was extremely well attended with over 180 delegates and the consensus was that it had been a success. The event was focussed specifically at businesses and, as well as increasing their awareness of the LEP, its main purpose was to identify their priorities for economic growth and to get them to consider nominating representatives to sit on the Board.  The voting on priorities was carried out through an electronic system a little like “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” and the results were -

70% of businesses at the conference expected their business to expand over the next two to three years which shows the high levels of confidence in the local economy.

Businesses believe that the most powerful enablers of growth are;

·         getting people with the right skills

·         access to customers and markets nationally

·         initiatives to improve business productivity and efficiency

Businesses believe that the biggest barriers to growth are;

·         a shortage of skills

·         poor broadband speed and availability

·         difficulties in accessing finance

·         red tape.