Planning for the future
Following the challenges of recovering from the pandemic, inflation is now becoming the largest threat to business. We face continued challenges around labour shortages, supply chains, raw material availability and energy costs will drive price increases, wage demands, the cost of supplies and pricing. This backdrop underlies the importance of supporting economic growth through objectives to improve Herefordshire and Worcestershire’s strategic connectivity and infrastructure, support a creative future-fit workforce, stimulate investment in research and development and innovation to create a dynamic business environment and revitalise our cities and town centres.
In turn, I’ve been reviewing how the two counties are approaching their strategic framework, reflecting on their different geographies. As local authorities in our two counties look to develop their investment plans for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, the LEPs, County Councils and Growth Hubs will continue to support the region by providing local business intelligence economic data and research insights to help inform local economic priorities and interventions for investment.
Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership (WLEP), in collaboration with partners and key stakeholders, have developed a strategic framework to support business and infrastructure. Worcestershire’s Plan for Growth sets out a plan to 2040 for supporting economic growth, improving productivity and ensuring greater social inclusion. The Worcestershire economy is diverse with a total almost 44,000 (2022) businesses registered, with an increase of nearly 5,000 new businesses registrations in the same year – with relatively high proportions of firms undertaking product or process innovation or performing internal R&D.
Herefordshire’s vision towards 2050 is to attract and grow a highly skilled population, support strong and inclusive communities in towns, villages, and rural areas. The aim is to encourage innovative growing businesses in green construction, agriculture, defence, and cyber technology with resilient local supply chains. In addition, there are plans for faster and more frequent rail and public transport connections with superfast mobile and broadband coverage.
According to the latest data, in 2021, around 8,905 businesses were active in Herefordshire while new business registrations (920) outnumbered the number of deaths (695). The year-on-year growth in the number of active businesses has been positive for the last ten years. The latter point being a good indicator – as older businesses tend to be replaced by innovative companies.
The two counties share a similar policy view on some of their strategic priorities. The more rural geography in Herefordshire creates a different framework direction and challenge, in some priorities, than for Worcestershire.
It is a challenge to support and maintain this new business growth and, for existing business wishing to scale up, the quality and availability of commercial property stock (both industrial and office) remains a live issue for both counties.
Food for thought. Until next time, Mike