Coventry LEP ‘to hold banks to account’
A WEST MIDLANDS Local Enterprise Partnership could hold banks to account over their lending policy to businesses.
The Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership is considering introducing key performance indicators to measure the performance of banks and improve access to finance for SMEs, according to its chairman Denys Shortt.
Mr Shortt, chairman and chief executive of Stratford-upon-Avon based distributor DCS Europe, said the body wanted to support local businesses, encouraging companies to approach banks via the LEP. “We might want to measure the time taken from enquiry to resolution when businesses approach banks for finance,” he said.
“The LEP is in a good position to bring all the banks together and define what local businesses expect from them,” he said.
The LEP has already formed a Finance Group headed up by Yorkshire Bank’s Regional Director Brian Colquhoun, which met yesterday for the first time.
Mr Shortt said the LEP would also focus on the relationship between the area’s large companies and their supply chains with a Supply Chain Supplier Support programme.
He said: “We can join up the whole process between big manufacturers, their suppliers and the banks, and ensure the manufacturing boom isn’t stalled because smaller suppliers can’t get finance to help them fulfil increasing orders.”
Mr Shortt’s fellow board members include entrepreneur Sir Peter Rigby, Daniel Gidney, CEO of the Ricoh Arena and Martyn Hollingsworth, Director of Vehicle Evaluation and Verification at Jaguar Land Rover. Senior figures from the University of Warwick and Coventry University are also on the board.
Mr Shortt said his track record as an entrepreneur and founder of DCS Europe equipped him for the task ahead.
He said: “I think it’s interesting that the LEP is led by someone who has run a small business, who has started something from zero, and has had to go out and find the finance and the customer.
“We have not yet been given any funds to run the LEP but I do not see that as a barrier. As an entrepreneur I am used to doing things quickly and with few resources. My aim is to do as much as we can in the first 90 days.
“My aim in running the LEP board as a business leader in our region is to focus on the core priorities – growth of the economy in our region, creating jobs, and attracting new business to the region.”
