GFirst LEP flying high for Gloucestershire

Today, at their biggest Annual Review yet, Dr Diane Savory OBE DL, Chair of GFirst LEP and David Owen, Chief Executive, address over 250 business leaders with an overview of record achievements in the last twelve months and plans for strengthening the Gloucestershire economy by £0.5bn with the creation of 34,000 new jobs and 5,000 apprenticeships.

Today, at their biggest Annual Review yet, Dr Diane Savory OBE DL, Chair of GFirst LEP and David Owen, Chief Executive, address over 250 business leaders with an overview of record achievements in the last twelve months and plans for strengthening the Gloucestershire economy by £0.5bn with the creation of 34,000 new jobs and 5,000 apprenticeships.

In partnership with the public, private and voluntary sectors, GFirst LEP has defined three core priorities to make Gloucestershire even greater:

1. Skills: to develop a highly employable and economically productive population.
2. Connection: develop an infrastructure that supports economic growth.
3. Promotion: create a quality of working life recognised as the best in Europe.

 

Speaking before the event at Gloucestershire Airport, Dr Diane Savory OBE DL, said: “As Chair of GFirst LEP, we’re celebrating an important and exciting milestone in our three year history by delivering to Government an ambitious business plan for the county.  Having secured £36m from the EU Structural and Investment Funds Strategy and requested £52m from Government, we are poised at a point of significant transformational change.

The Annual Review is our opportunity to unveil our exciting future plans for the county and celebrate the tremendous achievements in the last 12 months, which are attributable to our Board Members, 11 Sector Groups, our Business Membership Group and 600 Ambassadors. Pioneering the way forward, they have galvanised businesses, councils and educational organisations to work together and achieve common goals.  A leading example has been to raise local business concerns about the A417 Missing Link, lobbying the Highways Agency to ensure it’s included in their Route Based Strategy.  Having successfully achieved this, the challenge now will be to convince Government to find £255m to build it.

GFirst LEP is led by business, for business, and I’d like to thank all those who have worked with us to strengthen the local economy in the last three years. The energy, expertise and commitment of the business community, county and district councils, colleges and universities have been instrumental in the achievements that we’re celebrating today.”

David Owen, Chief Executive, GFirst LEP added:  “We recognise that given the current financial state of the UK economy, the Government will be faced with difficult investment choices to choose from the 39 LEP regions.  We have presented a solid investment case for Gloucestershire with plans to achieve significant economic growth. We have already received extremely positive feedback from Government to our three flagship initiatives”.

• The Growth Hub is a unique partnership between the University of Gloucestershire and GFirst LEP to enable businesses to achieve their true growth potential. Leading with expert diagnosis, it will provide a range of innovative and tailored services and offer a wide variety of skills placement programmes to include work experience, apprenticeships and workforce development skills.

• By ensuring the availability of employment land in strategic locations, the Growth Zone will attract and retain high value-added businesses by providing valuable space and the necessary transport infrastructure for business expansion, incorporating enhanced natural environments for the benefit of wildlife, residents and businesses.

• To ensure our engineering sector continues to thrive and to meet the growing demands in nuclear and renewable energy, a Gloucestershire centre of excellence in Renewable Energy, Engineering & Nuclear skills (GREEN) is planned at the decommissioned Berkeley power station to provide workforce development training and apprenticeship opportunities.

Once funding has been agreed, we will use our unique partnership that brings together the combined power and influence of Gloucestershire PLC to ensure the highest return for the county.”

At the event, GFirst LEP will be announcing headline figures about the county’s economy, including:

• GFirst LEP directly supported over 2,000 people across the county who faced redundancy or were unemployed, offering careers advice and coaching.
• Over 4,000 pupils signed up to our STEMworks programme involving schools and businesses across Gloucestershire, exceeding our target of 2013.
• 5,000 businesses were set up across the county last year.
• Gloucestershire has the highest business survival rate over three years, second only to Cumbria.
• £3m was awarded from the Gloucestershire Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) to Stanhope Developers to build a new Transport Hub in Gloucester.
• The number one transport priority of addressing the A417 Missing Link is now included on the Highway Agency’s Route Based Strategy to be presented to Government in March 2015.

Diane and David will also be recognising the outstanding commitment and hard work of those Ambassadors receiving the GL Ambassador Awards 2014 for making an exceptional difference to Gloucestershire:

• GL Ambassador Award for Connection goes to Mark Ryan, Managing Director of Gloucestershire Airport in recognition for his outstanding work and contribution towards GFirst LEP’s Connection priority by leading the Transport and Logistics Sector Group.
• GL Ambassador Award for Skills goes to Julie Collins at Renishaw in recognition for her contribution to encourage primary school children to follow a career related to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) through the STEMworks programme.
• GL Ambassador Award for Promotion is awarded to Mark Gale from the Gloucestershire Gateway Trust in recognition for his vision and commitment for making the new Service Station on the M5 a reality using local suppliers, local produce and his aspiration for creating 300 local jobs.
• GL Ambassador Award for Championing Business is awarded to Ruth Dooley, Partner at Hazlewoods for leading the Business and Professional Services Sector Group to look at ways of increasing exports and developing skills for this growing sector.

 

To download a copy of the Annual Report for 2014 and see the videos from the event, please click here. You can also follow us on #FlyingHighGlos.