Welcome from Councillor Izzi Seccombe

Welcome back to Warwickshire Means Business.  I hope you all found time to enjoy a break during the summer and that it is not too distant a memory already.

By the time you read this, the Rugby World Cup will be imminent or may even have started and the county, specifically Rugby itself, will be hosts to thousands of visitors bringing many opportunities to boost the local economy. A huge amount of work has gone into making sure that we are ready to make the very most of this wonderful opportunity to showcase Warwickshire as an outstanding tourist venue.

Despite the nights drawing in, and the temperatures talking a notable dip, tourism remains very much on our agenda.

Next week, the Coventry and Warwickshire Tourism and Culture Awards will launch, with the county council a headline supporter.  Tourism plays a major role in Warwickshire's income, supporting over 18,000 jobs and a business turnover in excess of £1billion, and it is a growing sector with annual growth forecast to be 5% over the next five years.  Good luck if you're up for an award.

As we seek to maximise what tourism brings to the county, rural businesses are being urged to apply for the Rural Payments Agency's grants.  Further details are available elsewhere in the newsletter but this is part of a concerted push to attract not only more visitors but to make it more likely that the visitors that we do have will stay overnight.  Our cultural heritage and the range of attractions in the county offer so much; I hope that businesses take advantage of the grant scheme.

As we have always said, economic growth is the sum of many parts.  You will see elsewhere in this issue that Warwickshire County Council has won a Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) award for its innovative support for the Small Business Saturday campaign. We profile the Eliot Park Innovation Centre which is a hub of industry, managed by the county council, which is currently home to nearly 40 local small businesses.

Small businesses are also supported by the 'Small Business Friendly Procurement Charter'.  The county council, which developed the charter with the FSB, has committed to increasing the proportion of its procurement through small local businesses.  This is great news, not only for those businesses but also for the broader local economy, as research shows that procuring locally leads to greater subsequent local spend.  In a nutshell, our money stays local.

Growth is also a consequence of being proactive and the Invest in Warwickshire team has been busy on our behalf this week at the British Council of Shopping Centres' annual conference and exhibition.  This is an excellent showcase for Warwickshire and has, in recent years, attracted several businesses to the area.