VISION WEST TRANSPORT • ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT • HOUSING • EDUCATION AND SKILLS • QUALITY OF LIFE • SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Rising to the


n 1988 the country faced a period of social unrest. One response to that was to create organisations in which business could become more actively involved in enhancing the general community in which they operated.


challenge I


For more than 20 years the Initiative has played a major part in the way this area has been shaped, managed and developed. It continues to adapt and evolve in order to ensure that modern business can generate the essential economic activity on which the whole of our society depends.


country which used three words, well known to the Initiative over more than 20 years. They were “Local”, “Enterprise” and “Partnership”.


Out of that process came the Bristol Initiative, which drew together a small group of business people for informed debate and to foster a spirit of partnership, particularly between the private sector and those elected to local government.


Since then the membership has grown considerably and the organisation’s influence and standing is well established. In the last few years a chapter was set up in Bath and North East Somerset and in more recent times another group has been formed in Swindon.


All of them subscribe to the overarching six key priorities, though the beauty of having branches across the area means they can be pursued in line with the local agenda.


Key issues


One of the advantages of having a membership drawn from a wide range of sectors is that the Initiative can call on an unrivalled source of intelligence and opinion. That body of knowledge has generated a list of topics which are generally accepted as being the most important when it comes to underpinning a successful economy. They are: Transport, Economic


Development, Housing, Education and Skills, Quality of Life and Sustainable Development.


All Initiative activity, to one extent or another, bear on those headings, though they do so according to the needs of the area in which members are working.


New ways of working


The Government made it clear from the last election onwards that it wanted the private sector to be even more heavily involved in generating economic recovery than it had been in the past. One of the approaches was to create organisations around the


‘It was absolutely right that when a Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) was set up in the West of England that the Initiative should be right at its heart’


Therefore it was absolutely right that when a Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) was set up in the West of England that the Initiative should be right at its heart.


Colin Skellett, our vice chairman, was appointed as chair of the LEP and he was joined by other members representing different sectors from the business community. They sit alongside the leaders of the four local authorities with a representative from Higher Education. Their role is to encourage economic growth, to generate more jobs and to remove obstacles which prevent much needed developments. Already the LEP has identified an Enterprise Zone which will be sited near Temple Meads Railway Station in Bristol. However, the benefits generated there will also be shared with Enterprise Areas in the other three local authority areas in order to assist broader economic activity.


Bristol activity


Led by James Durie, the Initiative in Bristol has been the driver behind an ambitious project to create a vision for what the City Region could look like in 2050.


Given the rapid rate of change that we have experience recently, it is an incredibly difficult task to predict with accuracy so far into the future. But the key reason for doing it is that if we have something to aim for we are much more likely to achieve the sort of life style we would wish for the generations who follow. Mr Durie said: “Whilst we gaze out decades ahead, we can also take a shorter term view.


10 Business West Update SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011


JAMES DURIE DIRECTOR BRISTOL


Cabot Circus, Bristol


Therefore we have been active in supporting bids for Bristol to be involved in global events such as the unsuccessful efforts to bring the Football World Cup to this country and also to attract the Rugby League World Cup here. “We are also very firmly focused on the needs of the here and now. For example we are doing all we can to help promote Bristol as a leading creative and media hub. We have been in close contact with senior representatives from the BBC and a number of other leading media organisations who will all have a part to play in delivering the outcomes we would all wish.”


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