Worcestershire’s outlook is bright, according to a major conference organised by the Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership and compered by ITV Central’s Emma Jesson.
Held at the Sixways home of Worcester Warriors rugby club, Worcestershire LEP launched its new business plan, regulatory and business partnership charter and new website, www.wlep.co.uk amidst a surge of optimism around growth and employment prospects.
The LEP has set a series of targets including 10,000 new jobs in the next five years, 1,000 new apprenticeships, attracting new private sector funding of £750 million by 2017, better M5 signs to alert drivers to Worcestershire and a greater choice of quality hotels.
Addressing 300 business executives, LEP chairman Peter Pawsey said Worcestershire must promote itself more.
“When I was invited to become chairman, I thought about our county and saw how hidden it was, and still is,” he said. “It’s tucked away and largely undersold, but there is massive potential. We are determined to drive economic investment and job creation opportunities to new levels.”
He urged people to talk up Worcestershire as much as possible.
Miranda Ballard, of Muddy Boots Foods, did exactly that, catching the audience’s imagination with her entrepreneurial spirit, returning from London to her home county and successfully launching a new business selling locally sourced beef burgers, from Hereford Farmers’ Market to national supermarket chains.
Urging people to “be positive”, she noted: “We have the least money we have ever had, the least job security, the least holidays, the least idea of where we are going … but we have never been happier.
“Small businesses are trendy at the moment in the media and government – let’s make this a county of non-whingers.”
And it was a theme which the audience really got behind, inspired by Josh Tiffany and Andrew Craik of Cattleya CIC, a social enterprise exotic cocktail company founded and run by students from King Charles School in Kidderminster, who quipped that the future lay with the “scary young people” they represented.
Interactive texting and a flurry of Twitter comments throughout the conference provided a running link including ‘we need to keep all of our young talent here in Worcs’, ‘really enjoyed your presentation – I’m now following you’, and ‘what fantastic entrepreneurial young talent in Josh & Andrew – weren’t they inspirational?’
Indeed there was considerable Twitter praise for the conference generally, a typical example being “great conference and plenty of ‘glass half full’ – Worcestershire is a great place to live and work”.
Both David Frost, National LEP Network chair, and Lorraine Holmes, Chief Executive, Manufacturing Advisory Service, stressed the need to address skills, access to finance and regulation to support business growth, all priority areas for the LEP.
Mr Frost cautioned: “People looking to get out of operating from their bedroom find it is just not simple enough to move into a business unit. There are too many blockages in place and too much regulation. We have spent billions on skills and employability yet we still have a big gap between schools and work.”
Ms Holmes said there had to be “a focus on removing the constraints to growth” including access to finance – the LEP wants to develop a variety of funding models including the possibility of a Bank of Worcestershire although that is at a very early stage.
“Make it easy for business to find what it needs when it needs it,” she implored.
At the conference end a text poll found that delegates’ understanding of what the LEP did was much improved.
