As Bristol returned to work this week, Chamber of Commerce and Initiative executive director James Durie believes the city’s business community should adopt a ‘John Cabot spirit’ in 2013.
“The turn of each new year is traditionally the time for predictions and resolutions and no doubt many pundits will warn of another year of next to nothing growth and ever tightening belts.
Even for those businesses bucking the trend, funding growth will undoubtedly be difficult, with lenders so risk averse and confidence fragile.
But while it’s important to stay realistic about our prospects, I actually see 2013 as a ‘cup half full’ sort of year.
My reasons to be cheerful? Well here are three for starters.
Bristol already has one of the best economies in the UK with an extraordinarily diverse business base: a great platform to build on. We have a new, independent elected mayor in place who is business-friendly and committed to a sustainable growth agenda.
And – last but not least – we have the number one ranked Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) which is now being given real resources to help drive and stimulate private sector growth.
It’s still quite early days for us, but the direct achievements of our LEP so far include the designation of Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone, five Enterprise Areas, £56m of revolving infrastructure funding and now the £1bn Bristol City Deal.
This means for the first time we have a clear proposition of where we locate 100,000 new jobs across our region linked by a properly integrated transport system moving people from where they live to where they work.
With a proven track record of creating new jobs, we are pushing hard for more and together with the mayor are in an excellent position to unlock more vital funds and decentralised powers from Government to kick start key infrastructure development, nurture business and support growth sectors.
The fact that the Bristol city region is less dependent on the public sector (where cuts continue) also gives us a head start over other parts of the country as the private sector works hard to replace the jobs being lost.
But as tempting as it is to compare our performance with other regional UK cities, competition also lies increasingly with other cities and regions around Europe and further afield. So as well as Manchester, Leeds and Edinburgh we also need to compare ourselves to the major cities and regions in countries such as Germany – still our most important trade partner after the US – competing with Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Hamburg on inward investment, international trade and attracting talent.
Lest we forget, earlier this year Bristol was voted as the European city of the future, third for business friendliness, third for its foreign investment strategy, seventh for quality of life and most recently the most Googled UK city after London – a great platform.
Look closer at the current situation, and there are even more grounds for optimism. The macro-economic picture masks the true situation of many businesses in the city and region actually coming though the recession in quite good shape – in large part because they are in the knowledge-based sectors where growth is actually occurring, and because they are looking at a global market rather than a UK or Eurozone one.
Talk to businesses such as Hydrock, the construction, infrastructure and environment consultancy, flavourings innovator Tastetech and microchip pioneer Xmos and they’ll tell you about expanding order books and growing workforces.
Of course, you say, it’s a lot easier for the bigger businesses to contemplate the risks and sheer hard work of breaking into overseas markets . . . and it’s worth remembering that about 93% of our local companies have fewer than 10 staff. But that bedrock of smaller businesses isn’t excluded from the ‘club’.
The Government and Bristol Chamber’s commitment to encouraging exports means that there’s a big team of UK Trade & Investment support staff all around the world and an award-winning international trade team in local chambers of commerce – all dedicated to making it easier to exhibit and trade abroad. If that sounds appealing, just get in touch. It’s going to be a big focus for us all in 2013.
But, naturally, good sustainable growth right across Bristol, Bath and the South West is what we all want to see: a situation where every business can benefit. Achieving that means thinking long term – and here we see several major challenges ahead.
First of all, we do need to resolve, once and for all, the public transport issue in our city region.
We’ve seen significant strides recently with the approval of £244m of Government money towards the five major rapid transit transport schemes that will provide vital links for the people of Bristol to the key locations earmarked for growth.
But that is still not a done deal; and after years of wrangling, we sincerely hope 2013 will see all this signed off and work underway. The current transport network and accompanying congestion are simply not fit for the 21st century and alongside major investment flowing into rail locally and inter-city this is a vital part of the needed step change in provision. We cannot afford to waiver and lose this investment.
Secondly, the city region still has a big job to do to ensure it has a workforce with the skills needed for the years ahead. Again, we’re seeing employers, colleges, universities and academies talking and working together on what a future skills set looks like – we want to see that agenda move quickly now. Another big priority for us in 2013.
We also want to see bold decisions taken on major developments such the arena, our football stadia, a museum for Concorde, our bid to be European Green Capital in 2015 and private investment proceed on Bristol Port and airport, Bristol Temple Meads Station and the renewable schemes in Avonmouth.
Taking energy from the Severn too . . . as long as whatever delivers that energy does not in any way affect the growth of our port. All of these projects won’t just create a plethora of jobs during construction: they will each give us renewed confidence and tell the world that Bristol means business.
And last, we want to see businesses being able to take advantage of the super and ultrafast broadband connectivity now coming to the city. There was a time when to be ‘connected’ meant having ships in your harbour plying trade with the rest of the world. Pioneers such as Cabot and visionaries like Brunel opened Bristol up to the trade opportunities beyond these shores . . .arguably we’ve become just a little complacent and comfortable in recent decades and we need to encourage more of that pioneering and entrepreneurial spirit come to the fore once again, and open up new business frontiers.
