For all of us in business, we’ll be looking for a period of stability after a tough and uncertain few years due to a plethora of challenging circumstances - from Brexit to Covid and from the conflict in Ukraine to the blockage in the Suez Canal.
There are so many great businesses and organisations in this region that have survived and thrived for decades facing every crisis you can think of. HORIBA MIRA – where I am based for my day job – has been on site for more than 75 years; CW Chamber celebrated 120 years last year; and Cawthornes, another well-established company, has been serving the business community with crucial supplies since 1868!
There are countless other examples of businesses who have been operating for many years and I am sure they will all agree that the most recent period has been up there with the most challenging.
So, what do we want to see from the Government after July 4?
The Chamber for Coventry and Warwickshire has focused on three priorities - employment land, skills, and the cost of doing business. We need Government to improve these areas and provide the optimal environment for businesses to grow and thrive.
I would also like to see the new Government incentivise investment in adopting new technologies across business operations to improve productivity and tackle the gap we have with our global competitors.
There are some great examples of technology adoption across sectors in north Warwickshire from robotics in logistics to AI in sales and marketing but we need to support more businesses to take advantage of future tech.
I haven’t heard much on innovation from either of the main parties, yet innovation in new products and new processes will be key to driving productivity.
As colleagues at the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce have pointed out, it’s vitally important that a new Government supports the allocation of more development land for commercialisation and manufacturing including sites such as MIRA Technology Park’s South Site.
The Government must also help us overcome the challenge of finding the infrastructure investment required to build sustainable locations for businesses to ensure we deliver on our environmental commitments too.
We need to see support for a cross-regional approach with growth corridors such as the A5. Businesses and their employees pay no attention to local authority boundaries so creating a more joined up approach will be better for everyone when it comes to delivering growth.
On skills, initiatives such as the Local Skills Improvement Plan have made headway in starting to put the needs of employers first, and we must build on that and offer more flexible funding models for reskilling and upskilling as well as future talent development.
I would also be keen to see the next Government commit to long-term business support programmes such as those delivered by the Chamber that help to drive growth and support start-ups.
The more businesses that we can start, grow, and scale - the more chance we have of generating long term and sustainable economic growth that brings benefits for all of us.
