As I write this week’s blog only Stoke-on-Trent and Tamworth have declared results in the local council elections with Tamworth seeing a Conservative loss with no party majority and Stoke-on-Trent seeing a Labour gain from a no party majority.
At the hustings event at the Chamber last week Labour’s Cllr. Jane Ashworth, who is set to be the new Stoke-on-Trent City Council leader, said that if Labour form the new administration, she wants to be able to look back on the four-year term and say what happened was transformative for the relationship between them and business in our city.
Jane went on to say that she wanted to see us with a high wage, highly skilled workforce, and for this area to be leading the country, particularly in various forms of digi-tech.
Cllr. Ashworth said: “One of the things we need do immediately is create a proper business support network that can help businesses that are likely to be in trouble because of the cost-of-living crisis.”
She also called for a review of the council procurement strategy and said she would work closely with other significant agencies and employees in the city to make it easier for local businesses to win contracts from the city, adding: “About a third of contracts stay within the city but it should be vastly more than that.”
“Last year the distribution value of contracts was £1 million inside the city, £19 million outside the city. That is not ok. It means we are haemorrhaging money.”
All the sort of messages we want to hear, and I hope whoever takes control of the other councils in our county will have business at the top of their agendas. You can be assured that Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce will be making the necessary representations to councils to ensure all the above and more actually happens.
We are expecting results from other councils later today and our Daily Focus newsletter will have a special 4pm edition, rounding up the results at that time. Check your inbox or view online: Daily Staffordshire Business News – Daily Focus (daily-focus.co.uk)
We will also keep you up to date on election results via our social media channels.
Co-working
Earlier this week several Chamber members took part in took part in a research project investigating the potential of co-working spaces to contribute to geographically distributed (digital) manufacturing activity and levelling up.
We were one of three UK locations taking part in the research, the others being Thames Valley and North Devon.
The project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Made Smarter Network and undertaken by the University of Bath School of Management.
As a bridge between the formal workspace and home, co-working spaces offer a space where you can network, build relationships, share knowledge and ideas and collaborate. And when you consider the millions of self-employed and micro start-ups in the UK, co-working offers flexibility, affordability and collaborative opportunities that were not available up until recently.
Originally an urban phenomenon they are increasingly appearing in semi-rural and rural areas.
The reason for the research is that despite their rise, especially post-pandemic, in the UK they are absent from regional policy discussions.
We certainly know the value of co-working spaces here in Staffordshire where a range of co-working spaces have opened their doors over the past few years. Our universities, private providers and other places such as the Foxlowe Arts Centre in Leek, all offer a range of co-working options.
Our own Members’ Lounge here at Commerce House on Festival Park opened in 2019 and post lockdowns it has become increasingly popular with scores of members who utilise it to work, hold meetings, interviews and as a place to network and surround yourself with likeminded businesspeople. You can view a 3D tour of our Members’ Lounge here: The Members Lounge – Staffordshire Chambers
Similarly in Stafford, Chamber members can use the open plan area on the ground floor of Shire Hall Business Centre, for hot desking on an ad-hoc basis, free of charge. Upstairs, there is a dedicated co-working area with segregated pods available at a small charge.
Shire Hall Business Centre – Staffordshire County Council
We invited regular Members Lounge users to take part in the research and we also had the centre manager from flexible space provider BusinessLodge Stoke, which also opened in 2019, and as well as providing everything from a desk to a fully serviced large office, they also have a co-working space, breakout space and a gym for their clients.
Those who attended the session with the University of Bath team spoke in glowing terms of the benefits of co-working; having the right environment for work, the opportunity to meet new people and build relationships and the positive benefits on mental health and wellbeing.
We have created a welcoming environment with tabletops, a high counter-style desk and sofas, to cater for working on a laptop to meeting informally over a coffee – from our excellent fresh bean coffee machine!
The Members’ Lounge feature of local art on the walls and only two weeks ago we previewed our first ever solo-artist exhibition featuring local artist Terry Shave in conjunction with our newly launched design forum.
It will be interesting to see if this research does conclude that co-working spaces can contribute to manufacturing activity and regional levelling up in the UK.
I would like to see more people involved in manufacturing using our spaces as a breakout from the factory environment and this will be something our manufacturing forum will play a role in facilitating.
I look forward to sharing the findings of the research later and hope that we can use the results to persuade politicians to make co-working spaces a priority. In the meantime, if you want to find out more about co-working opportunities in Staffordshire contact us using the details below.
If you want to talk to us about any business issues, including funding, you can call our switchboard on 01782 202222 or call the Stoke and Staffs Growth Hub Helpline on 0300 111 8002 or email: info@staffordshirechambers.co.uk
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