First look at Gloucestershire's new economic strategy
Gloucestershire is about to get the first look at an economic road map to take the county to 2034 and beyond, and find out how achievable that might be in a political, post-GFirst LEP world.
* Everything you read on The Raikes Journal is made possible by our incredible Founding Partners: QuoLux, Willans LLP, Gloucestershire College, Merrell People and Randall & Payne; our sponsors Hartpury University and Hartpury College; our Founding Members and all our wonderful paying subscribers. If you upgrade to paid too, you’ll be able to see beyond the paywalls we place on many of our second and third email editions of the week and that lock our archive after two weeks. You will be able to view our rolling Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series, comment on our stories and you’ll be helping to make possible this community interest company dedicated to supporting the county, its businesses, charities and education and training providers — all for just £2.30 per week!! For commercial opportunities visit our About us page or email andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk.Dear Reader,
We hope you’ve had a great week! Welcome to a members-only edition of The Raikes Journal. These are ever evolving as we try our best to give back something of real value – and we’ve starting to add a fuller list of key diary dates within the edition, immediate and looking to the future too.
We try and dig out a really good read, something particularly pertinent in the form of a news story, feature or deep-dive article, perhaps a round-up of a few of the week’s best stories we’ve spotted or other shorts – written by us or published across social media and other websites.
What we struggle with is when we get really good stories we want to tell everyone! But then we remind ourselves it is the generosity of our Founding Partners, Founding Members and all of our paid-for subscribers who make this community interest company possible, and that is why we paywall most of our Friday editions and many of our Thursday editions too.
We hope you understand, and if you are not a member yet – please do think about joining the fold. You would be helping deliver some quality journalism for Gloucestershire and supporting its business community, charities and education and training sectors too.
Have a great weekend.
* Everything you read on The Raikes Journal is made possible by our incredible Founding Partners: QuoLux, Willans LLP, Gloucestershire College, Merrell People and Randall & Payne; our sponsors Hartpury University and Hartpury College; our Founding Members and all our wonderful paying subscribers. If you upgrade to paid too, you’ll be able to see beyond the paywalls we place on many of our second and third email editions of the week and that lock our archive after two weeks. You will be able to view our rolling Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series, comment on our stories and you’ll be helping to make possible this community interest company dedicated to supporting the county, its businesses, charities and education and training providers — all for just £2.30 per week!! For commercial opportunities visit our About us page or email andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk.
Your Friday roundup
📈 The FSB released its South West Small Business Index, Q1 2024, report earlier this week. According to the federation, small business confidence in the South West has bounced back in “dramatic fashion”. Confidence levels among members increased by more than 40 percent to the highest level since October 2021 and surged in the region so much that the South West - which has been the least positive areas in the UK in many recent FSB reports – is now above the UK average. Nearly half of small businesses polled in the South West said their growth aspirations in the next 12 months were to grow ‘either rapidly or moderately’ and more SME owners say their intention is to increase staff numbers in the forthcoming quarter rather than reduce their headcount. Read more here.
⚖️ 📰 For those businesses and organisations wrestling with how best to hand the challenges surrounding protective belief, one of our partners, legal experts Willans LLP has written a helpful blog on the matter. As the article says, “dealing with such conflicts in the workplace can be extremely difficult for employers, especially when the case revolves around a public post on social media platforms like Facebook or X (formerly Twitter)”. Willans outlines the key legal principles covering the protection of the expression of one’s beliefs and considers the challenges for employers when tackling clashes of conflicting rights in the workplace. Read more here.
First look at the Economic Strategy for Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is about to get the first look at the economic road map designed to take the county to 2035 and beyond, and find out how achievable it will be in a political, post-GFirst LEP world.
So, Gloucestershire’s new Economic Strategy (2024-2034) could be officially adopted and in the public domain later this month when the full cabinet of the county council meets.
Since the Government pulled the plug on the county’s local enterprise partnership, the independent business group which led the county on such matters, those looking for what the new leadership might look like have been waiting.
Everyone knows the staff and connections of GFirst LEP have slid in-house at the county council, but the concern for many is whether the local authority will be able to capitalise on those skills and connections, or whether they will be suffocated by a new political world.
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