Shropshire is region’s most enterprising location
Shropshire has the chance to be named the country’s most entrepreneurial place after winning the regional heat of the Government’s Enterprising Britain competition,
The nationwide competition is run by Enterprise Insight on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and in partnership with Advantage West Midlands.
The competition – in its fifth year – rewards the most enterprising areas of the UK that have helped transform the social and economic fortunes of their area, with the reigning champions being the Scarborough Renaissance Project.
A key element of the success of the Shropshire Enterprise Partnership bid was the rise in the numbers and economic power of home-based enterprises and this was reflected in the creation of two specialist enterprise hubs in Shrewsbury and Ironbridge – the latter opening earlier this year.
The hubs offer entrepreneurs virtual office services, meeting space, latest technology and networking opportunities. They also organise advertising for home-based businesses and bring in external business support to provide expertise in the entrepreneurial field.
Fay Easton, the project director, said: “We are thrilled to be named the most enterprising place in the West Midlands, as this award fully vindicates our hands-on and creative approach to boosting start-ups and helping young firms to develop.
“We firmly believe that this is the only way to beat the current downturn. In just under two years we have developed a 500-strong community of members, played a vital role in creating 86 new enterprises, introduced over £2 million to the local economy in building our own hubs and mobilised local economic activity amounting to many millions of pounds. We called it ‘The People’s Bid’ as it’s about much more than the bricks and mortar of our HQs – it is about the enterprising people running businesses from homes all over this county, the entrepreneurial growth and the massive social and economic impact they create.”
Twelve chosen finalists, including Shropshire, will be visited by members of the judging panel over the summer, providing a chance to prove their worthiness of the national winner’s title.
Ms Easton added: “We look forward to bringing many of our businesses together to meet the judges and show them just what an inspired home business sector can do for the local, regional and national economy.”
Advantage West Midlands’ Enterprise Board’ Member Angela Maxwell said Shropshire had a good chance to put the region on the national map at the next stage of the competition.
