Want your business to benefit from half a billion pounds-plus?

A project two years in the making to get Gloucestershire’s biggest businesses to spend an extra £550 million of their budget with small and medium-sized county firms is about be unveiled.

Good afternoon,

Welcome to the second edition of The Raikes Journal this week. In Monday’s edition we looked at the origins of an incredible project to help make Gloucestershire a better place for the many young people growing up with ADHD. Our best-read story to date. Today we talk about money and a very different project. And when we say money, we mean lots of it!

This is the story of a plan that will enable Gloucestershire’s biggest businesses to spend an extra half a billion pounds with small and medium-sized county companies.

Raikes spoke to some of those at the heart of the talks and we let you how it will work, how you can find out more and get involved and benefit.

We’ve also corralled our usual pick of the stories that have caught our eye so far this week, including a quick view of the future of fashion house Superdry.

And we introduce you to another charity – one with a very handy guide to help those parents and carers help young people navigate issues of gender identity.

We…