Welcome from Monica Fogarty, joint managing director of Warwickshire County Council

Hello everybody and welcome to the March edition of Warwickshire Means Business.

It has been a very encouraging start to the year for businesses in our region. Following last month's excellent news that Warwickshire is leading the country in terms of productivity growth, last week the Coventry and Warwickshire area was recognised among the top regions in Europe at the prestigious MIPIM awards in France.

Against very strong competition, the Coventry &Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (CWLEP) area was placed in the top six in Europe in the categories for economic potential, areas of the future and business friendliness. The recognition offers further proof of the strength and diversity of our business community and bodes well for the future.

It was interesting and very pleasing that the region rated so strongly for business friendliness. It is nice to know that ours is a friendly and welcoming region, as well as a successful one.

To ensure the future remains bright, for businesses of all sizes and in all sectors, we need to ensure a constant pipeline of talented young people coming out of schools and colleges. Warwickshire County Council's Economy & Skills team works constantly to help address the skills & recruitment challenges which affect many businesses and it was great to hear the subject explored with such passion at our recent Skills Conference in Stoneleigh.

The full-house event, attended by many businesses and education-providers, underlined the collective commitment to tackling this issue.

Thank you for reading this latest edition of Warwickshire Means Business, which is now issued monthly because there is so much going on! If you think there is something we should cover in a future edition, please email brianhalford@warwickshire.gov.uk.