Local Enterprise Partnerships - Enterprise M3 - A new direction

Launch conference

Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership was formally launched on 5 April 2011 at a conference at the Prince's Hall, Aldershot. The conference, which was attended by around 300 businesses from across Surrey and Hampshire, was the first step in setting priorities and forming the structure for the partnership.

The conference included an electronic voting session where conference delegates were able to express their views on the enablers and barriers for growth in the Enterprise M3 area. The full voting results and the presentations from the conference can be found below.

Summary of results

70% of businesses at the conference expected their business to expand over the next two to three years which shows the high levels of confidence in the local economy.

Businesses believe that the most powerful enablers of growth are:

• getting people with the right skills
• access to customers and markets nationally
• initiatives to improve business productivity and efficiency

Businesses believe that the biggest barriers to growth are:

• a shortage of skills
• poor broadband speed and availability
• difficulties in accessing finance
• red tape

Next steps

The next steps are to set up the Board, Implementation Group and Action Groups. Businesses, business support organisations and public sector organisations all signed up to support Enterprise M3 at the conference and work is underway to sort through the lists of interested parties and their areas of interest and match them to the priorities identified at the conference.

If you would like to get involved in Enterprise M3 either at Board, Implementation Group or Action Group level please email business@basingstoke.gov.uk with your details and your area of interest.

If you have any questions or queries about Enterprise M3 please contact Chris Howard, on 01483 444329 or email chris.howard@guildford.gov.uk.

Further information, the conference presentation and the voting results can all be found by visiting www.enterprisem3.org.uk