Dr Gareth Jones

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Dr Gareth Jones
Director, DTZ Response to the Draft RES
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OVERVIEW

• Appears very business friendly
• Encourages business growth
• Deals well with strategic business issues
• Less strong on immediate issues
• Says most of the right things, but
• This is only a strategy, and
• Devil is in the detail and delivery

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STRENGTHS

• Raises issues of geography, peripherality and
  transport/communications (although reliability
  barely covered)
• So, focuses on natural advantages (quality of
  life), and knowledge economy
• Emphasis on innovation, entrepreneurship and
  knowledge
• Raising the skill base is prominent
• Recognises urban drivers of growth, and
• Urban-rural linkages to maximise benefits

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AREAS FOR DEVELOPMENT

• Need for appropriate premises and development
  land are covered, but
• Not clear what the public sector is doing
  (strategically)
• Availability of housing is critical to economic
  growth not covered
• Key sectors welcome greater focus but still
  unconvinced by overall approach
• What is key sectors approach trying to achieve?
• More emphasis on exploiting the expertise in the
  HE and FE sectors
• What about ports?
• RES stops at regional borders but business
  relationships do not

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OTHER THOUGHTS

• Inner-city regeneration opens up urban sites
  and latent workforce (sustainability)
• Do businesses know what a RES is?
• Do they need to know? yes!
• Is business community truly engaged in
  partnership approach (at all levels)?
• Multitude of partners and complexity of approach
• Setting targets and accountability
• Does public sector share priorities?