As I leave for a holiday – my first since June 2013 – I have been giving some thought to how business and economic life in Nottingham looked then and what has changed over the last 14 months.
Paul Southby – Chairman of Nottingham Means Business.
Focusing initially on the club, now renamed Nottingham Means Business, there have been massive and positive changes over the last 12 months but also the great sadness surrounding the untimely death of Jim Taylor, one of the founders of Invest in Nottingham Club, without whose efforts it is fair to say the club would not exist and I would not be writing these words now. In the best sense of these words, Jim was a one off, never to be repeated. Some months before he died and in view of Jim’s poor health, we had employed Simon Gray as interim chief executive to help carry the club forward and to start to take some of the load off of Jim’s shoulders. I am grateful that Jim and Simon were able to work together for several months before Jim’s passing, enabling Jim to download much knowledge and intelligence to Simon.
Simon has given a different look and feel to the club, rebranding as NMB and has been ably supported by Natalie Williams who worked for many years with Jim. Both are to be congratulated for the amount of progress made on a tiny budget in a very short space of time and I hope that the momentum Simon has achieved can be sustained going forwards. Our board has been reshaped and added weight given to the Interest Groups, both local and international, to ensure that NMB’s efforts are aligned to the core drivers and themes upon which the city and county growth plans focus. A communications strategy has been shaped and via the new website along with targeted press activity and enhanced electronic communications, we are able to add value to the member offer and to the support we provide to our city district.
It is important to be clear that although the look and feel might be different, the reason why NMB exists is the same as it always was. Although of course there are benefits to membership via intelligence, information and the excellent network of members and stakeholders, including our colleagues at the City, District and County Councils, the fundamental reason why members get involved is to support Nottingham’s drive to attract new investment to the city and to promote the growth of the local economy. That has not changed and will remain the core principle upon which NMB and NMB membership is based.
Having said that the look and feel of NMB is different, a glance around the city confirms the massive changes that are enabling Nottingham to enhance its offering, grow its reputation and ”trade up” externally. Some changes are physical – it is easy to forget that as I left on my last holiday, the tram works had not started, the station was old and tired, the A453 works still seemed a long way off and the ring road was a constant source of irritation to motorists and cyclists alike. As these projects edge towards completion through the inevitable period of disruption during the construction phase, imagine how different life will be once they are all completed. But also imagine how different the city will look to potential investors for whom the ability to get their people in and out of and around the city is often a key component in their decision making process. I look forward to paying my first pound fare from my office on ng2 to City Council HQ at Loxley House rather than having to the get the car out for a journey of a mile and a half several times a week!
The City Council has done and sponsored some fantastic work to help create funding options for growth business in the city and to support the continuing development of the Creative Quarter project. Great progress has also been made in partnership with city colleges and others in enhancing the availability of relevant apprenticeship positions, an area in which Nottingham lagged far behind other cities only a few years ago. The deep involvement of our great educators – the universities, colleges, and private sector providers – in the effort to attract new investment to the city through a variety of mechanisms and their increasingly deep involvement in the economic life of the area can only lead to positive results and the increasing understanding among our public sector colleagues of the connection between those focused efforts and the economic prosperity of the city is good to see.
When I last went away, Nottingham’s television channel Notts TV was still some way off, the MediCity project was not yet underway and the major retail projects appeared not to have moved on for some time. Today Notts TV and MediCity are with us, the Enterprise Zone project is gathering pace, and the Victoria Centre and Broadmarsh developments are moving on. Again the period of transition during these developments might be uncomfortable, but the rewards for the city on completion will be economically meaningful for the future, which seems increasingly bright.
Most importantly, confidence is growing. In discussions with members and stakeholders including our local politicians and council officers there is an increasing theme of looking forward to a better future. Much hard work has put us in that position, but the move towards economic growth nationally and the confidence that brings cannot be underestimated. Nottingham is a small city on the global scale, but on the global stage we are putting ourselves in a position to punch well above our weight supported by many businesses, some globally recognised brands, others operating below the radar, our universities and colleges and politicians who understand increasingly that true partnerships between the public and private sector are crucial to economic growth both locally and on the international stage. We often hear that with NMB’s help Nottingham is “a bit different” in these terms and that the relationship between business and the city is jealously regarded elsewhere. That can only be a compliment and a testament to what Jim Taylor started and what Simon and our growing membership continue to achieve in collaboration with our public sector partners.
Thank you to all our members for you support. See you at our next lunch on 26 September where some fascinating insights into how growing businesses fare in Nottingham compared to other UK locations will be discussed.