UPDATE: JUNE 2014mediafiles.thedms.co.uk/Publication/BH-Herts/cms... · The growth deal process is three times oversubscribed, reflecting the huge ambition of LEPs to support the

UPDATE: JUNE 2014

“Hertfordshire LEP is now

in the final stages of nego-

tiations with government

on a growth deal for Hert-

fordshire.

We expect to receive con-

firmation of our allocation

for 2015 in the first week of

July”

Graham Lane

Hertfordshire Business

Forum Chair at St Albans

Chamber n etworking

breakfast.

In This Issue

Growth Plan Update

Business Confidence returns

University and Oaklands College

launch degree for business

managers

Growth Vouchers

GrowthAccelerator

LEP Dashboard

LEP gearing up for 2015 Government’s response to Hertfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership’s (LEP) plan

for smart economic growth will become public knowledge in the first week of July.

The plan calls on government to enter into a local growth deal with the LEP and invest

over £34 million in key transport schemes and a business growth package to support

private sector jobs growth in 2015.

LEP to recruit new SME board member

Hertfordshire LEP has asked the business membership organisations representing

the county’s 54,000 SME’s to nominate individuals to represent the views of SMEs on

the LEP board. The LEP will appoint an SME rep to the board before the next board

meeting on July 24th.

Hertfordshire in top ten LEPs for fast growing firms New research from the Enterprise Research Centre ranks Hertfordshire 6th out of 39

LEPs for fast growing firms between 2009 and 2012.

LEP welcomes new Skills Manager Hertfordshire LEP is pleased to announce the appointment of Norman Jennings as

our Employment and Skills Manager. Norman brings to the post a huge store of

knowledge and experience of the skills agenda and we are delighted that Norman is

joining us at a very exciting time for the LEP as we move towards our strategy implan-

tation phase.

Hertfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership Newsletter

On the stump with Graham Lane, LEP board member explaining the LEP’s growth plans at St Albans Chamber networking breakfast

LEP update... After a frantic spring developing a Stra-tegic Economic Plan to present to gov-ernment, the LEP is now in the final stages of negotiating a growth deal for Hertfordshire.

If successful, the LEP will secure a multi million pound deal to deliver a number of key infrastructure, skills and business support projects for the county.

The growth deal process is three times oversubscribed, reflecting the huge ambition of LEPs to support the drive for growth. With a decision on the Growth Deal imminent, LEP board members have been working tirelessly to persuade government ministers and MPs that Hertfordshire can live up to its boast of being ―Perfectly Placed for Business‖ and the ―County of Opportu-nity‖.

LEP board Chair, John Gourd has led negotiations with Devolution Minister Greg Clarke and the government’s lead adviser, Lord Heseltine. Below, Graham Lane catches up with the dep-uty Prime Minister to champion the LEP’s Strategic Plan, whilst deputy chair, Peter O’Gorman gets to find out how Hertfordshire companies are benefiting from LEP support.

LEP Deputy Chair Peter O’Gorman (Santander) and Grants4Growth Business Broker Stuart Thomas present the latest Grants4Growth award to Specialist Avia-tion, Letchworth...more on this story in next month’s issue.

Confidence returns as recovery takes hold In this issue we talk to Claire Madden of Lambert Smith Hampton about business conditions and the current state of the commer-cial property market in Hertfordshire

With the UK’ s economy expanding at it highest rate for six years, it is not surprising that Claire says business confidence is riding at it’s highest level for several years. With very little new build in Hertfordshire since 2007, the primary issue facing the county concerns stock levels, especially of quality buildings, across all sectors.

In Claire’s view, higher levels of take up and conversions from office to residential—under permitted development rights- are having an impact on the availability of office stock. Landlords are refurbishing office space to a grade A standard on a speculative basis in the knowledge that the availability of Grade A space is diminishing and occupiers are seeking space that is ―ready to go‖. Connectivity remains an important issue as the availability of high speed digital connections is now an essential business tool.

Claire also says that stock levels in the industrial property market have, for some time, been diminishing across all size brackets requiring the construction of new facilities as illustrated by Tool bank and Arla both taking buildings at Hatfield Business Park. Inevitably, weakening supply means rents are increasing, tenant incentives decreasing and landlords are tending to resist early break clauses. In Claire's view there remains a significant lack of freehold opportunities across Hertfordshire reflected in increased enquires for pre-lets/pre-sales.

Clearly an issue the LEP will keep a close eye on over the com-ing months.

Upcoming LEP

events.

Utilities

Workshop

Date: 7July

Time: 1-4pm

Venue: Biopark

The workshop will explore some

of the energy and water supply

issues that there are in Hert-

fordshire as well as local energy

solutions and Water Bill implica-

tions. Speakers confirmed to

date are from UK Power Net-

works and Affinity Water. If you

want to find out more informa-

tion and register for this event

please click here.

Skills Summit Date: 16 September Venue: Biopark The Skills Summit will provide an opportunity for key stake-holders, including Hertfordshire employers, to present issues impacting the Hertfordshire Skills and Employment agenda. The Summit will allow atten-dees to discuss and validate concerns, and to identify poten-tial solutions. The information gathered from the Summit will form the basis of a Skills Strat-egy and associated action plan for Hertfordshire.

More information to follow in the next newsletter.

University of Hertfordshire and Oaklands College launch degree programme for managers Stephen Fox, Director of Higher Education for University Campus St

Albans outlines a new and exciting leadership programme that “has

been developed with employers to meet the current and future skill

needs of managers. This programme aims to help organisations to

innovate and grow through developing their talented leaders and

managers. The programme offers the opportunity to gain a degree

in 12 months by recognising each individual’s work experience. We

also want to continue to work with employers to tailor the content to

meet their organisation’s development needs and ensure the cur-

riculum is both contemporary and relevant to their work context.”

Who is the degree for? This new and innovative Leadership and Pro-

fessional Development Degree Programme lasting 12 months has

been developed in conjunction with the Hertfordshire Business

School. This is aimed at people in Leadership or Management roles

often with substantial management experience & wishing to attain

an honours degree (and seeking to gain recognition for their prior

work experience as a manager towards the degree);

What are the benefits for employers? The course will help you:

* grow your business through developing and retaining talented

leaders and managers

* expand the skills of your leaders and managers

* innovate with new ways of working

What are the benefits for individuals? The course will enable you to:

* achieve a University of Hertfordshire degree within a year

* develop your skills and enhance your career development

* apply the learning to your own work role throughout the pro-

gramme

This programme has been developed in association with:

BRE Academy; Growth Accelerator; Hertfordshire Local Enterprise

Partnership; Welwyn Hatfield Chamber of Commerce

This programme is subject to validation with the University of Hert-

fordshire in the summer. To apply please visit www.uc-sa.co.uk or

for an informal enquiry please email [email protected] or

call Stephen on 07595 282695

Hertfordshire companies are now eligible for up to £2,000 to support business grow

Announced by the Chancellor in the 2013 Budget and championed by the PM’s Enterprise Adviser, Lord Young, the Growth Vouchers programme will deliver funds to help businesses access the advice they need to help them grow.

Businesses can apply for up to £2,000 match funding as part of a research initiative, the first of its kind to be run by a UK government. Around 80% of businesses that apply will receive a Growth Voucher in a random selection process.

Growth Vouchers can be used to obtain strategic advice in one of the following themes:

Managing cash flow, late payments and negotiating finance

Developing skills and taking on staff

Improving Leadership and Management

Marketing, attracting and keeping customers

Making the most of digital technology

Eligibility- a business could be eligible if:

It’s based in England

Has fewer than 50 employees

Has had not paid-for Strategic advice in the past 3 years.

It has traded for at least 12 months

Applications for Growth Vouchers can be accessed at the following web site: https://www.gov.uk/apply-growth-vouchers.

The process for applying is light and simple and will take around 5 minutes to complete. For further information please contact:

Heather Benham

m: 07968487523

e: [email protected]

w: www.cavendishconsortium.co.uk

GrowthAccelerator

supporting 200 high

growth businesses

in Hertfordshire

A partnership between leading private sec-

tor business growth experts, Grant Thorn-

ton, Pera, Oxford Innovation and Winning

Pitch and backed by Government, Grow-

thAccelerator is a unique service that will

get businesses where they want to be –

faster.

GrowthAccelerator exclusively targets high

growth businesses who want to enter their

next phase of growth and have the poten-

tial and determination to get there.

GrowthAccelerator gives businesses the

framework to:

Build a successful growth strategy

Discover new routes to funding and in-

vestment

Unlock their capacity for innovation

Build on the power of their people

Unite and inspire their leadership team

Businesses also have exclusive access of

up to £2,000 match-funding for each of the

company directors and senior managers to

develop their leadership and management

skills.

To be eligible, businesses must:

Be registered in the UK & based in Eng-

land

Have fewer than 250 employees

Have a turnover of less than £40 million

www.growthaccelerator.com

@GrowthAccel

Cyber-Duck takes to the water

Elstree based Cyber-Duck is considered one of the lead-

ing independent web design, user experience and application development

digital agencies in Europe. Running a growing business in a fast-paced

industry, the management team recognised the need to define their long-

term vision for the business and elevate key technical and creative person-

nel to future managers.

Growth Manager, Julian Greenaway, helped Cyber-Duck to assess their

needs and develop a deeper understanding of the tools required to achieve

their business ambitions. Cyber-Duck's Managing Director, Danny Blue-

stone says, "GrowthAccelerator helped us to challenge our assumptions

about our marketing and bring the management team together to look three

to five years ahead to plan our strategic goals.‖

Cyber-Duck worked with their Growth Coach Prof. Ashley Braganza to de-

velop a long term strategic and operational plan, implement a stronger mar-

keting strategy and create an organisational structure for the business.

Match-funded Leadership & Management training at the University of Hert-

fordshire was critical to Cyber-Duck's growth, providing the management

team with the skills to enable them to implement their growth strategy.

Since working with GrowthAccelerator, Cyber-Duck's management team

share a common understanding of the direction of the business. The busi-

ness is now experiencing more opportunities, higher turnover and won a

£200,000 contract via routes it previously considered to trivial. Danny says,

"As a result of working with GrowthAccelerator we have improved our go-to

-market strategy and nailed our HR development model for the future.‖

To find out more about GrowthAccelerator, get in touch with Growth Man-

ager, Julian Greenaway:

M: 07920286763 E: [email protected]

LEP Growth Dashboard highlights Hertfordshire’s strengths and key barriers to growth

June saw the publication of a research document by GrowthAccelerator and the Enterprise Research Centre at Warwick University Business School.

The dashboard, in addition to providing an easy to understand set of growth metrics, provides a useful indicator to the barriers im-pacting on SME and start-up growth in each LEP. These barriers are derived from survey data and interviews with local participants in the national GrowthAccelerator programme.

The results for Hertfordshire make encouraging reading and con-firm Hertfordshire’s position as a leading LEP economy. Ranking sixth out of the 39 LEPs for Fast Growing Firms, Hertfordshire outperforms the city regions of Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Bir-mingham and Sheffield. This makes Hertfordshire , at twelve places above Greater Cambridgeshire LEP, the highest perform-ing LEP area in the former East of England for fast growing firms

The county’s Net Job Creation Ratio at 3.2% is also impressive. At ninth best of England’s Local Enterprise Partnerships, Hertford-shire again outperforms major metropolitan cities like Leeds and Manchester. However, in spite of this strong performance there are some areas where the performance is more lacklustre:

Start-up survivability: The survivability of businesses start-ing up in 2009 is tenth worst among LEPs with 62% surviving to a fourth birthday compared to 68% in Oxfordshire.

Growth rates: In terms of revenue growth only 4% of £1-2m turnover businesses grew to £3m turnover companies in three years and only 3.8% of businesses starting in 2009 grew to £1m turnover companies. Our rankings in the LEP dashboard at 17th and 18th respectively, leaves room for improvement.

The dashboard supports the LEP analysis underpinning the SEP: we have great potential but we struggle to move companies on to the next level. As the evidence shows, Hertfordshire continues to enjoy good start-up rates and is very good at starting fast growing companies but we struggle to grow our micro businesses into small firms and small firms into mid sized businesses. As such, the dashboard is quite helpful in identi-fying the key barriers to growth, highlighting Strategy and Management as the biggest barrier, followed by Sales and Marketing; Skills and Staff; and Finance.

The LEP is aware of the issues and through the Local Growth Deal is seeking funding from government to boost business support in the county by supporting the Hertfordshire Growth Hub. Through the Growth Hub we will work with the University and its subsidiary, Exemplas to put in place a facility through which local firms with the ambition to grow can work with professional advisors to access help to grow the business.

If you would like a copy of the dashboard and supporting research, contact Paul Witcombe at [email protected]

Contact Us

Give us a call for more in-

formation about our plans

and activities

Hertfordshire LEP

BioPark

Broadwater Rd

Welwyn Garden City

Hertfordshire

AL7 3AX

+44 (0) 1707 358 744

[email protected]

Visit us on the web at :

www.hertfordshirelep.co.uk