Susan Hopcraft, Partner at Wright Hassall explained the value she sees in being a mentor for Coventry & Warwickshire First’s mentoring programme.
“I set out on my career knowing relatively little about career advancement and the softer skills required to make headway and I don’t think this should be the situation for anyone. I had to work it all out for myself but with hindsight would have loved to have had wise words and encouragement early on.
“I also suspect that women more than men need this type of support; men seem to have more role models in senior positions so women who are prepared to be mentors have an important role to fill.
“Being a mentor has given me a new perspective. It has helped me understand how tough it is to qualify as an accountant; they must love numbers as much as I love words!
“Being a mentor has been really worthwhile. As well as giving me an insight into another professional’s working life, I hope I’m giving something valuable back to a young person beginning a career as a professional.”
“I became involved with Coventry & Warwickshire First in 2010 and immediately arranged for Santander Corporate & Commercial Banking to join as a member.
“Almost all of my key business relationships in the Coventry and Warwickshire ‘professionals sector’ have been the result of meeting people at Coventry & Warwickshire First events. This has led to some great friendships and two-way referrals of many business opportunities.
“The First Friday and Quarterly Breakfast events have been a great way of keeping informed through excellent quality speakers.
“I would strongly recommend to any professional working in Coventry and Warwickshire to get involved with Coventry & Warwickshire First as it is an excellent way of developing relationships with fellow professionals through great events.”
Michael Durkin, Relationship Director, Santander Corporate & Commercial Banking
Hannah Bates of Band Hatton Button is a mentee on the Coventry & Warwickshire mentoring programme. We asked her what she thought of the programme and whether or not she would recommend it to others.
She said:
“I joined the mentoring programme to find out more about other sectors, build my network of contacts and improve my networking skills and it’s proved a really useful exercise.
“It’s definitely worthwhile getting involved and I would recommend it to any young professional.
“To make sure they make the most of the opportunity my advice is to set out a clear plan of action at the start and use that as the basis for the meetings.”
We asked Vikki Whittemore, BD & Marketing Director of Wright Hassall LLP about the benefits to the firm of membership.
“Coventry & Warwickshire First is an excellent forum for sharing ideas and best practice amongst the professional service sector which is thriving across the Warwickshire region. It is a ‘must-attend’ forum for every professional regardless of where they are in the career: young or old; newly qualified or a seasoned pro, Coventry & Warwickshire First provides excellent opportunities to build your knowledge and your network.”
Leading business services professionals in Coventry & Warwickshire came together to discuss and debate the sub-regional economy and the factors affecting its growth. This report is a brief summary of the debate.
The West Midlands Combined Authority
There is an acceptance that pooling resources will support the growth of the local economy and the creation of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) will give Coventry access to existing funding streams.
The WMCA does give cause for concern. Growth in Warwickshire is likely to be constrained as the WMCA will pull the available funding into the urban areas and geographically it is not seen as making sense. Coventry and Warwickshire are a cohesive unit; according to the Coventry & Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership over 80% of those who work in Coventry and Warwickshire live in Coventry and Warwickshire. There are also a number of organisations already reflecting this geography; Coventry & Warwickshire First, Coventry & Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, the Champions, the LEP, BBC Coventry & Warwickshire. The view is that the city of Coventry and the county of Warwickshire should collaborate.
The boundaries between local authorities are meaningless to business, which instead of demarcations wants collaboration and cohesion. This is increasingly the case, forced in part by Government policy and also the attitude of new generations.
The JLR phenomenon and conundrum
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is an incredible success story, driving innovation and investment into the region. Valuable skills have been developed in the area as a result of its presence and engineering companies have grown on the back of its success. It has played a part in initiatives such as the Warwick Manufacturing Group, which have put Coventry and Warwickshire firmly on the Global map. JLR also runs a number of initiatives through which both the company and employees give something back to the local community.
Coventry & Warwickshire needs to go on capitalising on the positive and beneficial influence of JLR.
It also, however, presents a number of challenges that should not be ignored. As well as the obvious regional risk of over reliance on one business, the JLR phenomenon is affecting the availability of skills and access to housing. As a successful global business JLR is ‘hoovering up’ the skills in the region offering excellent career opportunities and salary and benefits packages with which smaller companies struggle to compete. House prices have also increased in the area and the private rental sector is saturated, resulting in an unbalanced housing market.
These issues cannot detract for the overwhelmingly positive impact of JLR but it would be a mistake to ignore them and not seek remedies.
The skills challenge
Rugby is home to many logistics businesses and so there are plenty of warehouse and related jobs in the region. At the other end of the spectrum are high-level engineering roles but there is an absence of mid-tier jobs, a gap that needs to be filled if there is to be a balanced workforce.
Apprenticeships are an effective solution to the shortage of skills and businesses feel they need to invest in them, despite the risk of young people leaving quickly and so not providing a return on the investment.
More particularly the lack of work readiness amongst young people is perceived to be an issue. Most businesses feel they have been ‘burnt’ in one way or another by inexperienced young people and have adopted strategies to make sure they take on only the best. These include assessing them on their attitude ahead of their skills, getting existing apprentices and young people to interview the next cohort of recruits and only selecting those who have experience beyond the school environment.
A relationship between businesses and schools could help to address this problem. Schools focus on delivering good exam results rather than producing work ready young people. Closer collaboration between the two could give greater prominence to and support with the life and softer skills young people appear to lack.
The older workforce presents another solution to this problem. Traditionally young people were apprenticed to a specific individual who coached them on the working world as well as the craft skill itself; they helped the young person gain the softer skills they currently lack. With the lifting of compulsory retirement there are now older people in the workforce. These individuals could be the mentors the young people need.
The power of the universities
The University of Warwick and Coventry University are both extremely successful, raising the profile of the region globally, creating jobs locally, attracting often extremely wealthy international students (there are more than 48 nationalities resident in Coventry University’s Study Inn) and bringing plenty of student pounds into the region, in particular to Coventry, Kenilworth and Royal Leamington Spa. These pounds and global links need to be welcomed, understood and capitalised upon.
The risk of ghost towns
Coventry city centre is being improved. The renovation around the Council House, the Friargate development and the new access to the railway station are all seen as positive.
However there is concern that towns in the region, including Coventry, could become ghost towns – Coventry is already seen as a ghost town in the evenings – if there is a not a commitment to ensure a positive balance of office, residential and leisure facilities in the centres. Office facilities in particular are seen as important to capture the lunchtime pound and an appealing nighttime economy is needed to attract workers at the end of the day and make the centres a destination for additional visitors.
Promoting Coventry and Warwickshire
There is a consensus that the sub-region promotes itself better to the outside world than has been the case in recent decades. Coventry Champions proactively promotes Coventry and Warwickshire to London and the rest of the country and is making connections with successful businesspeople who have an emotional connection with the region. There is already awareness of, for example, Silicon Spa but a perception that few know the whole Coventry story.
Coventry and Warwickshire and all they have to offer is perhaps better known and understood in Europe than other parts of the UK.
More is demanded of the region’s politicians. They need to be lobbied and then held to account. In addition the big institutions, for example the universities, should be lobbied to buy their products and services locally.
Finally, there is a strong belief that Coventry and Warwickshire needs a strong leader or cohort of leaders to make sure all take responsibility for improving the city and tendering for major high profile projects.
Leading property professionals in Coventry & Warwickshire came together to discuss and debate the sub-regional economy and the factors affecting its growth. This report is a brief summary of the debate.
The politics of planning and the power of nimbies
The biggest single challenge facing the property sector in Coventry and Warwickshire remains the planning process. The process is perceived as expensive and time-consuming, presenting a significant commercial risk to developers.
The Government’s “more for less” agenda appears to be unhelpful in ensuring our local authorities have the right resources to deal with planning matters at the right level.
Local authorities are viewed as being imbued with a risk-averse culture that means planning officers are reluctant to make recommendations to planning committees with fully exploring every potential issue, despite their experience and expertise. They are, however, seen to be fair and knowledgeable, ultimately making sensible recommendations to the planning committees.
At the same time nimbies are getting better and better at deploying tactics that slow down if not block new developments; if the process is too slow developers pull out and look for easier sites. This attitude means that Coventry and Warwickshire is missing a number of economic growth opportunities from investors, local and international, who wish to do business here in the region.
Nimbies raise issues ranging from rare local wildlife to flood risks and developers are then forced to obtain a whole array of specialist reports, submitted as part of the planning application. This represents a commercial risk; developers commission the reports with no knowledge as to whether or not they are likely to get planning permission. Instead, planning officers should establish if there is any substance to the nimbies’ arguments before calling for specialist reports. If the nimbies case is believed to be weak planning permission could be granted subject to the outcome of such reports rather than demanding the reports as part of the submission. This pragmatic approach would greatly reduce the commercial risk at the same time as safe-guarding real local issues.
Compounding these challenges is the approach of councilors, who are perceived to make partial, highly politicized decisions. Without a good planning reason, councillors block applications that may be positive for the wider area but unpopular locally in the expectation they will be approved on appeal. Councillors are then able to say to their electorate they did all that was possible. For developers this means a long, drawn-out and expensive process. A stronger business voice in the planning process would help to tackle this issue, as would calling on politicians to explain and justify their decisions.
This approach has blocked developments in the greenfield. This may seem appropriate but there is little if any brownfield development space left within Coventry, which means greenfield developments are the only option for growth.
Artificial boundaries
Local authority boundaries, which are essentially just lines on a map, are constricting growth.
Coventry, along with South Warwickshire, has developed almost every piece of brownfield space. To grow economically the city needs to expand beyond its boundary but it is being stopped from doing so by the planning decisions of neighbouring authorities. A more co-operative approach is needed, in which local authorities collaborate to economic benefit of all.
Closed for business?
Developers are looking for good development opportunities but some may be turning away from Coventry and Warwickshire, heading to parts of the country perceived to have a more positive attitude.
There is concern Coventry and Warwickshire is seen to be ‘closed for business’. Cuts mean there are fewer and fewer planning and conservation officers in post, making it harder for local authorities to respond positively and proactively. There is also a belief that the solution-oriented attitude found in places like Leicestershire is absent from Coventry and Warwickshire.
There is plenty of opportunity for developers in the Coventry and Warwickshire sub-region but it is not easy for them to access it, holding back the local economy.
A strategic vision
To support economic growth an ambitious, long-term strategic vision is needed; one that looks at least 15 years ahead, is unconstrained by artificial boundaries and views Coventry and Warwickshire in the broadest sense. The likely demand for housing and commercial development needs to be identified and transport links must be considered. For example it is necessary to rebalance the housing stock; 10% of homes in Coventry are detached compared to 43% in Nuneaton. This imbalance means people move out of Coventry to Solihull and villages like Balsall Common to get the aspirational housing they want.
In contrast, Rugby is seen to be aggressive in supporting development, allowing the town to expand towards the M6.
Facilitating investment in Coventry
As part of the long-term vision, property experts argue that Coventry City Council must adopt a new approach to its assets if it is to facilitate investment.
Following the Second World War Coventry City Council re-developed the city centre, selling 99-year leases to developers. Those leases are now not long enough to support investment. Naturally the City Council must extract ‘best value’ from these assets but its consequent reluctance to sell new long-term leases or the freeholds to key industrial estates and the areas surrounding the city centre means new development on the land is effectively blocked, hampering economic growth. The constraints of long leases running down on the industrial estates are the greatest peril. The estates of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s are in desperate need of reinvestment but this is not possible where there is just 50-70 years left on the least. In tandem, JLR, The London Taxi Company etc are booming and there is a real shortage of good workshops and warehouses for suppliers.
Investment is needed to turn the city centre into an attractive night-time and weekend economy but with easier development opportunities elsewhere in Warwickshire and beyond a change in the near future is unlikely.
Preservation vs conservation
While property experts are concerned about buildings that arguably do not warrant the status of being listed, the real issue is the attitude of conservation officers. Buildings should be allowed to evolve with uses relevant to today rather than be preserved, their uses rigidly fixed at the time they were built.
Leamington town centre must react to the opportunity
Leamington has a tendency to resist its high student population, ignoring the benefits it brings. Funders, however, see the value of the student pound and want to invest in accommodation for students. Leamington should be more proactive in capitalising on the potential offered by the student population.
A scarcity of talent
As with other sectors in the region, property is facing a challenging skills shortage. There are not enough qualified architects and surveyors and building trades skills in demand. The scarcity of qualified and registered valuers is really beginning to show, particularly now the banks are willing to lend.
The rural economy
There are a number of issues that affect the rural economy in Warwickshire:
Land values are soaring, yet the financial yield of farm land is plummeting
The subsidy regimes for farming has been a fiasco
Land is producing energy not food
For example maize grown for aerobic digestion plants is out performing other land uses
For example 30 acres is required for a wind turbine but 400 acres for maize
Access to finance for first time buyers. Property values are high, often excluding local young people.
Diversity in property
There are few women in the property sector beyond areas such as legal and financial services. There is a view that women perceive property agency (buying and selling) to be male oriented.
An acute skills shortage is one of the biggest factors affecting the growth of Coventry and Warwickshire’s professional and business services firms.
Home growing our own talent is crucial so a few months ago we set up a mentoring programme designed to do exactly that. By pairing some of the region’s leading professionals with young people from another sector we are helping future business leaders accelerate their personal development.
We’ve been asking the mentors and mentees involved what they have got from participation.
The first to provide feedback is Martyn Howard, of Drake Howard Property and one of the founders of the programme.
“Having access to a mentor at the start of your career can really help someone make the right decisions,” he said. “It’s because I’ve seen the positive impact this can have that I helped set up Coventry & Warwickshire First’s mentoring programme and stepped forward as a mentor.
“The young professionals focus is firmly on the ‘bigger picture’ of their careers. It’s not a surprise as when I was their age that was exactly my focus.
“I’ve mentored a few people and each one is very different. Some are driven, some confident, some a little unsure but whatever their personality there is a steep learning curve and if we get it right the benefits for us both can be really significant.
“Helping a young person see things from a new perspective is valuable, as is reminding myself of the way things appear at the beginning of a career.
“For every employer this kind of insight is valuable. It helps us better understand the aspirations of the young members of our team at the same time as cementing a networking relation with our mentee and their contemporaries.”
As part of our initiative ‘Driving Economic Growth’ we brought leading legal professionals in Coventry & Warwickshire together to discuss and debate the sub-regional economy and the factors affecting its growth. This report is a summary of the discussion.
The legal sector in Coventry & Warwickshire
The sector is evolving. The traditional culture of hourly rates is increasingly a thing of the past as law firms focus on developing deeper client relationships based on something more than simply the provision of legal services. Adding value is the mantra, firms proactively identifying the challenges clients face and helping to resolve them.
Following the lead of city law firms, firms in Coventry and Warwickshire are shifting from the traditional structure of being led and governed solely by lawyers. Operational boards are increasingly the norm with the firm’s partners being the shareholders to which the board is accountable instead of being the day-to-day managers. This transition means specialists are filling the relevant senior roles, for example human resources, operations and business development directors.
Consolidation, also a current trend, is being driven by a number of factors. Some firms are merging to grow, broadening their skills set and generating economies of scale to capitalise on market opportunities. For others mergers are designed to provide a means of retirement or are in response to the escalating cost of Professional Indemnity insurance.
Recruitment
During the economic downturn many firms cut back on the number of trainees they employed. Now, as the economy recovers and activity in the legal sector gains momentum the consequences of this restriction are increasingly being felt. Firms need talented lawyers who have between one and six years experience post qualification to capitalise on the market potential but there are few available. The resulting battle for talent is proving a growth inhibitor.
To tackle this problem local firms are working to develop their own talent, identifying paralegals with the potential and ambition. This is a longer term solution; of more immediate benefit is the re-training of existing solicitors so they are qualified in more than one practice area.
For a permanent solution, however, the behaviour of Birmingham firms also needs to be countered. They have a reputation for poaching Coventry and Warwickshire talent, tempting it with the promise of higher salaries. A war of escalating salaries is likely to be detrimental in the long term and so an alternative approach is needed. The legal sector in Coventry and Warwickshire has a broad offer that combines career progression, challenging work, flexibility, a good income and a positive work / life balance.
The potential for growth
Within the region a number of industries are performing particularly well, presenting growth opportunities to the law firms and their clients.
Silicon Spa, gathered around Royal Leamington Spa, is a hub for the thriving computer gaming industry and the success of Jaguar Land Rover has supported the development of a hub for design and performance engineering.
Intellectual property (IP) is an important factor in the success of these industries. Funders demand it; it is an essential element of the value of a business. Too often, however, business owners do not recognise the value of investing in IP early on.
Coventry University and the University of Warwick are important drivers of growth, both by creating economic activity themselves and through the provision of valuable graduate talent.
High speed Internet is important for growth and the investment made to transform Coventry into a gigabit city is highly valued. Improving the connection in rural areas is also necessary. The rural economy itself is under-emphasised, the strong food production businesses in the region too often being overlooked.
Undercurrents affecting growth
Brexit: the EU Referendum
A no vote and subsequent exit may not have a big effect of the day-to-day operations of Coventry and Warwickshire’s businesses. A reduction in red tape is likely for micro and small businesses but medium sized businesses are more likely to rely on exports and do not want an increase in trade barriers. Brexit will be also be accompanied by economic uncertainty, which inevitably hampers growth.
In addition, for many businesses the free movement of people is essential for filling a stark skills gap. Jaguar Land Rover and other engineering businesses are particular examples. There are approximately 42,000 engineering vacancies each year and only 16,000 graduates of relevant degrees; immigration is essential for filling the gap.
The Greater Birmingham Authority
The Greater Birmingham Authority will bring with it the potential for investment in specialist business areas and developing hubs such as Silicon Spa.
There is a cultural challenge, however, to accepting the Greater Birmingham Authority; Coventry people are not willing to lose city status. There is also a question mark as to whether Warwickshire and Solihull will be willing to join the Authority.
Access to commercial premises
There may be plenty of commercial premises in and around Coventry and Warwickshire but there is little flexible, high quality office space. This constitutes a barrier to growth as businesses struggle to find premises that will allow them to take the next step.
Access to finance
The number of mergers and acquisitions in the region is growing, but many are still hard to complete. Access to affordable funding remains a barrier to growth.
We asked John Rimmer of BRI Business Recovery why they are members of Coventry & Warwickshire First. He said :
“BRI Business Recovery and Insolvency are an engaged member of the Coventry & Warwickshire First group.
“We enjoy the fact that the group brings together a variety of local professionals to share and celebrate the successes in Coventry and Warwickshire. We also benefit from understanding and discussing the current issues facing the area and to learn about how we can help to make it a better place by engaging with businesses and the local communities too.”
– confused, supplier-led funding increasing the challenge –
An acute skills shortage is the biggest barrier to economic growth according to a panel of politicians and business leaders brought together by professional services membership organisation, Coventry & Warwickshire First.
This barrier is compounded by the confusion surrounding funding and grant support, which when properly understood and effectively accessed catalyses growth.
The panel voiced its opinion in front of an audience of business people in Rugby on Friday 26 June.
Martin Gibbs, Chair of Coventry & Warwickshire First and Senior Partner at Dafferns Chartered Accountants said: “During the financial crisis and the immediate aftermath public and private investment in skills was cut. Seven years later this has resulted in a challenging skills shortage.
“Jaguar Land Rover and others are phenomenal and extremely valuable success stories within our region. They have driven our economic growth. But an unfortunate side effect is the impact on the availability of skills. Small and medium sized engineering firms, the lifeblood of Coventry and Warwickshire, are struggling to attract and retain key skills in the face of the allure of these exciting and successful global businesses. Addressing this challenge is essential if the region is going to continue growing.”
Glenn Bourne, Vice Chair of the Rugby Branch of the Chamber of Commerce and Managing Director of FRS-STAFFSOLUTIONS, said: “Whilst apprenticeships are key and will have a positive long-term effect on the skills shortage, the government must also recognise that smaller SMEs not only need support in delivering these programmes on a day-to-day basis, but also making longer-term employment more affordable and not becoming blinkered by the very large ‘skills hoovers’ that can dominate their thinking.”
The inability to access finance was raised during the debate as an ongoing challenge. The Coventry & Warwickshire Growth Hub was set up to simplify what was a complicated and disjointed business support landscape and as Craig Humphrey, Managing Director of The Growth Hub, explained there is plenty of funding available but accessing the right package is not always straightforward.
“Grants and funding for capital investment drive growth by giving businesses the stability and continuity they need, but the support available is confused and supplier-led,” said Craig. “Our goal at the Growth Hub is to make it easier for businesses to understand what’s available and find the solution that suits them. We draw together the different threads so businesses can navigate the complicated funding landscape.”
The changing political landscape was also addressed during the debate; the looming in / out referendum on Europe and the potential impact of the West Midlands Combined Authority.
“There is a great deal of uncertainty in relation to both these issues and business hates uncertainty,” said Martin Gibbs. “Things were beginning to move forward with confidence. We definitely don’t want investment decisions put on hold in the face of this uncertainty and our local economy to slow down as a result. We have to have the debate, settle these issues sooner rather than later and move on.”
The panel comprised Mark Pawsey, MP for Rugby; Michael Stokes, Leader of Rugby Borough Council; Andrew Smith, Partner at law firm Shakespeares Martineau; Glenn Bourne, Vice Chair of the Rugby Branch of the Chamber of Commerce and Managing Director of a recruitment and staffing business; Craig Humphrey, Managing Director of the Coventry & Warwickshire Growth Hub; and local economist Myles Mackie. Martin Gibbs, Senior Partner of Dafferns Chartered Accountants, chaired the debate.
Run by its members for its members Coventry & Warwickshire First is the only forum exclusively for professional and financial services firms in the region.
