20-year strategy for Worcestershire launched

The Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has launched its new Plan for Growth.

Thw new strategy was launched alongside the arrival of the National Net Zero Carbon Tour Bus in Worcester, where the county’s business support organisation, Worcestershire Growth Hub, hosted a dedicated support breakfast to help businesses access support to make sustainability changes.

The Plan for Growth showcases the challenges facing the five key areas of the Government’s Industrial Strategy which are, People, Place, Infrastructure, Business Environment, and Innovation. All of which have their own challenges which must be overcome to achieve the Worcestershire LEP’s vision of a connected, creative, dynamic economy for all.

The Worcestershire LEP has built the Plan for Growth upon the successes from the previous strategy document, including achievements such as securing two Careers Hubs to help better engage the business community with schools and education, securing one of the six first wave Government funded 5G testbeds and unlocking infrastructure through the introduction of the first rail station in over 100 years in the county, Worcestershire Parkway.

For the launch of the Plan for Growth, the Worcestershire LEP team has produced a series of videos which breakdown the new document and what it means for the county, as well as shorter videos on the challenges facing key development areas for the LEP, Business Support, Careers and Skills and Net Zero and Sustainability.

Speaking on the launch of the Plan for Growth, Mark Stansfeld, chair of the Worcestershire LEP, said: “So much has been delivered with the strategy we have had so far, this is all about our evolution of the strategy to the next stage, so I’m really, really excited about it and I think, let’s keep on building, let’s keep on delivering the numbers, to the benefit of everybody within the county.

“It’s got to be that everybody wins out of this, it’s not just about the businesses, it’s not just about the economy. The economy is about the people who live here so, they should see benefits of this new strategy in their lives.”