Welland Sub-regional Strategic Partnership
The East Midlands regional winner of the Enterprising Britain 2006 competition is the Welland Sub-regional Strategic Partnership (SSP).
Welland SSP who were recognised for their success in creating an innovative, all inclusive, sustainable and in many cases environmentally-friendly strategy for enterprise across their rural area.
The Welland is made up of 12 market towns, 600 rural villages, covers 1,000 square miles and has a population of 370,000. It is stunningly beautiful and it can best be described as a hidden part of England offering huge potential for the continuing development of a sustainable and enterprising economy. The Walland also includes parts of 4 of the East Midlands 6 counties and as Geoff Plummer (Executive Director of the Welland SSP) says, 'We don't think small and we don't think that we can't do something because it's in a different country. What we concentrate on is encouraging and supporting enterprise and innovation.'
Despite the areas beauty and seemingly rural idyll, people living in the area face significant economical challenges. This area has traditionally been dependent on agriculture and farming, with farms covering 83 per cent of the Welland. It has also witnessed a significant decline in manufacturing and engineering industry: between 1997 and 2002 over 646 businesses were lost in the manufacturing and construction sector alone.
Another problem facing the Welland is that many people leave its villages and market towns on a daily basis to work in the cities of Nottingham, Leicester and London. Despite a relatively high skills base amongst its population, the Welland does not benefit from economic rewards as people leave to work elsewhere. The Welland economy is dominated by micro-businesses that offer relatively low wages, leading to many people leaving the local area in search of better employment opportunities. In fact, the largest employer in the area is the public sector.
'It was more than clear that we had to do something and that something had to be the right something!' continues Geoff. 'In 2002 we started to turn the Welland into an economically viable area; our aim being to encourage and support people and business who are looking at bringing innovative and enterprising opportunities to the area.'
Behind every big idea though there has to be a tried and tested plan and it was no different here. 'We focused on five main pillars which were seen as key to the success of the overall project,' says Geoff. These are:
- supporting business and enterprise
- developing enterprising communities
- employment, learning and skills
- innovation; and
- tourism and culture
Encouraging enterprise into each of the area's twelve market towns was crucial. Previously if a business in the Welland offered a service it was for urban-based businesses, taking Welland business out of the Welland. To overcome this, the Welland SSP developed centers that understood the issues facing rural businesses. Each centre delivers pro-active support for start up and growing businesses as well as programmes around community and social enterprise. More centers will be established over the next two years and all will be responding to local need as well as meeting regional and national economic needs. The Enterprise Centers have achieved transformational results and, with help from the Success for Welland Women programme, have resulted in 48 per cent of business start-ups being women-owned.
A strategy central to the success of the Welland SSP is the linking of activities to gain maximum impact. The Enterprise Centers cannot sustain raised enterprise levels alone. Linking with business incubation centers targeting high growth, knowledge-focused businesses has, however, measured impact.
Working alongside The Rural Energy Trust, Welland's renewable energy champion is typical of businesses now attracting recent graduates and the Trust now employs two graduates. The Trust has a local, national and European reach in raising awareness of bio-mass issues. Twenty-five farmers are involved locally, but the initiative also works with a further 200 farmers outside of the Welland area as well as with European counterparts.
This initiative has put the Welland on the environmental map and has encouraged other environmentally important initiatives and research such as a project focusing on agri-mapping and satellite technologies as well as another which is looking at the viability and markets for flax, hemp and other bast fibre crops (again another project with European interests).
As the Welland is so uniquely rural, it adapted a hub-and-spoke approach to establish vibrant economic hubs. Stimulating work in market towns has, in turn, enabled villages to turn into enterprising communities. The knock on effect develops an entrepreneurial culture through the towns and villages. A prestigious example of this hub-and-spoke approach is the Melton Food & Drink Festival, which draws local food suppliers into the town, securing Melton Mowbray as the nation's rural food capital and an additional yearly income of approximately £1 million.
Another way that the Welland SSP has managed to establish a sustainable and enterprising economy is by encouraging tourism. It supported the creation of 'Hidden England', a consortium of country houses and castles, which has successfully managed to increase tourist spend and retention. 'Although we had a high tourist footfall we had proportionately lower tourists spend. It was vital that we found ways to attract, retain and encourage spend from our tourists before they left our area,' says Geoff.
The Hidden England network has now spread to include local hotel, restaurants and tourist services. Businesses have seen the value of collaboration resulting in an enhanced tourist offer. The Welland SSP has really brought a focus on tourism back to the area, which has stimulated enterprise and business. Hidden England has also gained international recognition and the 'Enjoy England' Gold Award.
Moving forward, the Welland SSP has started a new equine tourism and leisure programme which will raise the business performance of the local equine industry and link effectively to quality tourism, providing new income streams to farmers.
'That's just one of our plans,' hints Geoff. 'Since the Welland SSP began in 2002 we have achieved transformational results in the community and one of our biggest achievements has been in our ability to grow business and enterprise in such a unique and rural area. But if you ask me what I'm most proud of it would have to be that we have looked at what we have in our area, the environment, the landscape, the knowledge and have created new opportunities for it whilst ensuring that the environment is protected for the next generation to work with and live on.'
Since 2004, the Welland SSP has created 1,583 new jobs, 319 new businesses and 61 new community facilities. Through its fresh perspective on regeneration of the rural economy, the Welland SSP has challenged the orthodoxy that a rural area has to lag behind its city counterparts in terms of new business starts and employment, innovation and enterprise.
Perhaps Ray Edwards, emda's Director of Rural Affairs sums it up best when he said, 'The Welland's success in the Enterprising Britain 2006 competition reflects the whole region's achievements in encouraging enterprise over the past two years. The increase in entrepreneurial activity is living proof of the quality, support and encouragement that the Welland SSP provides to the people of the area. We're delighted that Welland has been chosen as the East Midlands regional winner and wish it every success.'