Meeting documents

The South East is seen by many, as the driving force behind the UK economy.  The management of economic strategy is co-ordinated by the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) which is responsible for the economic and social development of the South East.  The South East economy is larger than that of countries such as Denmark, Austria, South Africa and Greece making it the 22nd largest economy in the world.  

SEEDA’ s mission statement outlines their objectives in relation to the region’s economy - “To transform England’s Regions through sustainable economic development”. Among SEEDA’s recent initiatives are a network of enterprise hubs and gateways. These include the High Wycombe enterprise hub centred on design and the Chilterns Enterprise Gateway focussing on furniture. Both provide business support and assistance programmes aimed specifically at helping companies to prosper and grow and increasing access to work-related learning.

Recently SEEDA have released their first quarter inward investment feedback sheet, which includes information on aspects of their work, such as projects, visits, successes and business development activities.

Below shows the regional participation of the 50 new enquiries that SEEDA received over the 1st quarter (2004/05).

The information from the regional participation shows that the county of Bucks is well below that of nearby regions such as Thames Valley. With such a high business start up rate in Bucks and particularly in Wycombe this is a concerning statistic. It is believed that businesses enquiring about the Thames Valley are not being pointed towards Bucks, an issue which is being addressed with SEEDA, through Bucks economic partnership.

At the end of the quarter Bucks was working in collaboration with SEEDA on 14 ongoing projects.  Although this seems a reasonable quantity, only Brighton and the Isle of Wight had smaller numbers.  Officers of the Business Development & Regeneration service are addressing this issue through its

Inward Investment plans (see below) – a priority of the recent Economic Regeneration Best Value Review

During the quarter 21 companies visited the SEEDA region, 3 of these being from Europe, 6 from Asia-Pacific and 12 from North America. A breakdown of which regions these companies visited is shown to the left.  It should be noted that Buckinghamshire does not appear in the chart although Thames Valley (our next-door-neighbour) had half the visits.

The high percentage of US visitors could be because of the high levels of ICT, telecommunications and pharmaceutical companies in the SEEDA region.

During this first quarter SEEDA’s nine business successes have created 114 jobs.  Five of these were created by SEEDA‘s work abroad.  Most significantly for the Wycombe has been the inward investment by German ICT services company Maxteam who have set up a call centre in Bourne End. Their target is to create 40 new jobs.

Members will be aware that the business Development And Regeneration service was subject to a Best Value Review (BVR) in 2003/04. The Economic Regeneration BVR identified four key service priorities, including a focus for the service on building closer relationships with business and a greater involvement in inward and re-investment activities. In direct response the service has been developing an inward investment framework to ensure we address the priorities of the BVR and expectations of the business community.

This Inward Investment framework has two facets – attraction of businesses to the District and retention of businesses already here.  

Two marketing tools have been developed and will be used to attract businesses – (i) a revamped version of the business section of the WDC website offering information of more interest than that currently available, in a more easy-to-use format and (ii) an A4 double-sided flier (on paper and PDF) for distribution by BD&R and by commercial estate agents elaborating on the “Wycombe – a great place to do business” theme.  These will be followed by, a series of specific flyers on educational, recreational facilities, business information and so forth.

Approaches to the service from prospective investors are currently dealt with adequately but not followed up.  It is now intended to re-contact the enquirers to discuss what additional help or information can be offered and to discuss their decision-making process and timescales.  The stronger the relationship which can be forged, the more likely they are to keep Wycombe District on their shortlist of possible locations and the greater our ability to address concerns and issues they may have.

Business retention is of equal merit and will be promoted by proactively approaching leading businesses in the District to create and then strengthen relationships.  These relationships will enable the service to address issues before they become factors which might motivate a business to leave the District as well as acting as a conduit to other WDC departments and partners including, but not limited to, SEEDA. Responding proactively to business needs by planning for Economic Development and investing in business we hope to help sustain the economy of the district and make Wycombe ‘a great place to do business’