Wayne Chapman, chief executive, Staci
The economic support we are hearing about is music to my ears because when we invested in the area four years ago it was something that was lacking.
To continue to invest we need that support, not only from the local council but also from the local community when it comes to training and development.
Wayne Chapman
The key driver for us is that joined-up and long-term approach. It’s that vision to make sure that all the departments within local government and wider government come together.
Being very open about it, there is money available with the levelling-up agenda, so in effect you’re competing with other areas, with other councils.
Our decisions going forward will be very much around the availability of a skilled workforce in an area, and that encompasses not only the workforce but how they get to the premises. What’s the public transport provision?
It’s not just the funding that’s available, it’s how that’s used and it’s the joined-up nature of it.
One thing I’ve seen from other council areas that we deal with is a real team approach and a real engagement towards developing the local economy. It needs to be a multi-agency approach and businesses have a huge part to play in that.We need a clear vision for the future and that vision has to involve engagement with the local business community.
Atif Malik, managing director at property business Portfolio
We’re property developers and we have bought a fair chunk of the town centre. We’re backed by a UAE conglomerate and in Accrington we’ve about 30 sites.
To be honest we’ve had zero support, to the point that, although we don’t want to, we’re looking at exiting in the next two or three months. One tenant took up a shop for a discount store and it has been a nightmare for them as well with regards to business rates and so forth.
Atif Malik
If you want private companies to come in and invest unlimited amounts of funds to regenerate the town centre, there needs to be real support, not just talking support.
We work with 18 or 19 other town centres where we’ve had support immediately. Businesses here are struggling and if we lose some of them it is going to be an absolute ghost town.
We’re still keen on working to promote and develop the town centre, but ingoing tenants need an incentive. Other local councils are saying, ‘go in and we’ll support you with the rent, we’ll support you with everything’.
At the moment, the general consensus in the property business is, don’t touch Accrington. We need to change that. Businesses in the town centre are struggling. You have to retain and look after the businesses that are currently there, support them.
Liz Boswell, founder of Bold Moves Coaching
If I’d have been here six months ago, I’d have been speaking really negatively and saying, ‘As a small business, seven years old, I’ve had no support from the council,’ but now things are changing.
I work as a business coach and do a lot of networking with small businesses. When you set up on your own you’ve got all these skills and there’s a lot of talent that we’re bringing into the local area.
What you don’t have is knowledge of how to run a business and that’s been lacking. It’s where to go for that business support. That’s what we need and we’re now starting to get it.
It’s also opportunities to bring small businesses and the larger businesses together because that is the biggest challenge, finding that connection and getting those introductions.
Liz Boswell
Lisa O’Loughlin
Lisa O’Loughlin, principal and chief executive, Nelson and Colne College Group
It is an exciting time for Accrington and Rossendale College. My agenda is very much about getting us back to where we should be in terms of delivering skills for business.
Our group is the result of a merger of Nelson and Colne College in Pendle, Lancashire Adult Learning, which works right across the county, and the Accrington campus.
Our major investment is in Accrington. We should have a really strong level three technical offer here co-created with industry. Businesses need to tell us the skills that they need, particularly any additional technical units that might be really important.
Employers tell us we need the soft skills. Not everybody realises that Ofsted and national government policy expects that we actually deliver them. Colleges tend to do that in a very generic way but we can work on delivering something more bespoke around the employability skills that make your business run.
I want employers to help us look at the curriculum and to work in partnership so it is delivering exactly what they want and to also to help us to deliver work experience and industry placements, so kids come out of those courses work-ready.
There is more to skills than apprenticeships and there are things that we can do working with employers. One of the really important things many are not familiar with is T Levels and the way they work.
When it comes to making business in Hyndburn better let’s have that long-term plan so when investment comes in we’re linking it into something that’s been well thought through, collaboratively.
26 HYNDBURN
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