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During the spring and summer of 2015 legal, financial, property and businesses services professionals came together to discuss the issues affecting the economic growth of their clients and their own firms.
This report summarises the key points of the discussions.
Factors affecting growth in Coventry and Warwickshire
Local investment agencies
There is a perception that the current investment agencies lack a coherent approach and there is no clarity as to the type of jobs being attracted to the region.
In particular the lack of long-term stability in the leadership of the Local Enterprise Partnership is perceived as a weakness for Coventry and Warwickshire.
Access to finance
Funding is a recurring issue faced by the small and micro businesses typical to Coventry and Warwickshire.
There is a need for unsecured lending to businesses with a strong balance sheet; the perception that banks only provide secured funding remains. This being accepted as true it is to be expected that the continuing decline in commercial property values is negatively affecting access to finance.
There is a question mark over the equity of funding deals available in Birmingham versus those available in Coventry and Warwickshire. Some advisers clearly stated the terms they can obtain in Birmingham are better than in Coventry.
Our universities
Coventry University and the University of Warwick are both world class and have a reputation for driving innovation. Combined they are a powerhouse for the sub-regional economy providing global links, creating jobs locally, attracting often extremely wealthy international students, bringing plenty of student pounds into the region as well as a flow of very high quality talent.
Hubs
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. Business owners need to recognise the value of investing in IP early on.
Facilities
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.
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.
Against this backdrop Friargate is a very important development but it is noted that there will be little space available to SMEs.
The depth, breadth and calibre of advice in the region
Coventry and Warwickshire is home to many excellent professional and financial services advisory firms. Collectively they have the capability required to support the growth of micro-businesses and SMEs, advising on everything from exporting to employment law.
However many micro and small businesses opt for the false economy of getting information from the Internet instead of expert advice from qualified professionals.
The Growth Hub and the Clearing House have both been created to provide micro business and SMEs with the advice they need. However the Growth Hub is only as good as the number and quality of local professionals hot-desking there and it is possible to see the Clearing House as devaluing the advice of the professional services.
There is perceived to be a sales and marketing gap amongst small businesses in the region. The product or service may be excellent but the business lacks the knowledge and ability to market and sell it effectively.
The legal 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.
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. Consolidation, also a 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.
Success or failure depends on the strength of management and leadership
Businesses succeed or fail on the strength of their management. The final ‘straw’ may be something very specific but strong management and good leadership will ensure the business minimises its exposure to risk and is able to adapt to survive.
Family businesses are particularly vulnerable to weak management. The second, third or fourth generation family members may inherit the position of leading the business but not necessarily the skills or outlook to do so.
The sub-region’s leaders need to be able to access good advice and support, with mentors able to guide them and provide a sounding board.
The JLR phenomenon and conundrum
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is an incredible success story, driving innovation and investment into the region. Hundreds, if not thousands of businesses, have flourished in the supply chain, creating employment and wealth throughout the West Midlands. Valuable skills have been developed in the area as a result of its presence and 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 and Warwickshire needs to go on capitalising on the positive and beneficial influence of JLR.
JLR also, however, presents a number of challenges that should not be ignored. The dominant effect of this one company on the sub-regional economy is a potential weakness. It is difficult to strip out the JLR effect and properly assess the underlying strength of the local economy. It could be that fundamental weaknesses are being masked.
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 from 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.
As indicated earlier there is a skills shortage. Apprenticeships are an effective solution and businesses feel they need to invest in them, despite the risk of young people leaving quickly.
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. Traditionally young people were apprenticed to a specific individual who coached them on the working world as well as the craft skill itself. With the lifting of compulsory retirement there are now older people in the workforce who could be the mentors the young people need.
Professional and financial services firms themselves are also experiencing the pain of the skills shortage. Within the property sector there are not enough qualified architects and surveyors and building trades skills. The scarcity of qualified and registered valuers is really beginning to show, particularly now the banks are willing to lend.
As the economy recovers and activity in the legal sector gains momentum law firms need talented lawyers who are one to six years experience post qualification to capitalise on the market potential. During the downturn however the number of trainees was reduced so there are few at this level available now. To compound the problem Birmingham firms are poaching those there are, tempting them with the promise of higher salaries. Local firms are developing their own talent, identifying paralegals with the potential and ambition. Pushing what the region has to offer, in terms of career and lifestyle may also combat the pull of Birmingham.
A lack of skills can also be tackled through innovation and improved efficiency.
The regional offer
Growth is also dependent on attracting key individuals to the region. In particular, chief executives need to opt to live and work here.
Coventry and Warwickshire has a good offer that includes culture, countryside, and good transport links, but there is little that is truly unique to differentiate the sub-region from other locations. Furthermore the housing stock may not be sufficiently high calibre.
There is also a debate as to whether the region should promote excellent career opportunities for those in the professional services or a good work / life balance.
Geography
The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) will pool resources and support the growth of the local economy, giving 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.
There is also a cultural challenge; geographically it is not seen as making sense. Coventry and Warwickshire represent 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.
Introducing the artificial boundaries of the WMCA into the region of Coventry and Warwickshire will compound the challenges that already exist in relation to local authority boundaries with regard to planning and development. 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. The boundaries are meaningless to business, which instead of demarcations wants collaboration and cohesion to the economic benefit of all.
Promoting Coventry and Warwickshire
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 and Warwickshire story.
As well as Champions there are other organisations tasked with driving growth in Coventry and Warwickshire and attracting inward investment. These include Coventry City Council, Warwickshire County Council, the Local Enterprise Partnership, the Chamber of Commerce, the Growth Hub and of course Coventry & Warwickshire First. Working collaboratively these organisations could constitute a powerful lobby able to communicate the full story to a wider audience.
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.
The rural economy
There are a number of issues that affect the rural economy in Warwickshire:
The rural economy itself is under-emphasised, the strong food production businesses in the region too often being overlooked.
Diversity
With the Government on track to achieve its target of women accounting for 25% of board members of FTSE 100 companies, there is more to be done amongst firms within Coventry and Warwickshire. The black and minority ethnic representation is also poor. As a consequence the firms are not fully tapping into the potential talent available.
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 positive.
However there is concern that towns in the region could become ghost towns – Coventry is already 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 are needed for 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.
Property-specific issues
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 the Local Authorities have the right resource 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 without fully exploring every potential issue, despite their experience and expertise.
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 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.
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.
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.
Closed for business?
There is concern Coventry and Warwickshire is ‘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.
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.
Facilitating investment in Coventry
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.
Six months on from its conception Coventry & Warwickshire First’s mentoring programme is proving its value, home growing talent as a means of tackling the acute skills shortage.
As the potential of the region’s professional services sector for growth increases in line with the area’s economic growth its expansion is being hampered by an acute skills shortage, made worse by the high salaries offered by Birmingham and London firms.
Coventry & Warwickshire First board member Martyn Howard is one of the driving forces behind the programme, working closely with the Young Professional network to deliver it. It pairs the region’s leading professionals with young people from another sector, helping them accelerate their personal development.
Speaking about the value of the programme Martyn Howard explained: “Having access to a mentor at the start of your career can really help you make the right decisions.”
Lucy Webb of Band Hatton Button continued: “I’m thinking about where to take my career at the moment and so joined the Scheme with the specific goal of exploring my options.
“The informal style of the sessions made it very easy to chat and by tapping into my mentor’s first hand experience I feel I’ve gained a great deal. I can now see many more opportunities than I was aware of and feel doors have opened.”
For Paige Howitt of SFB Group the mentoring programme has helped her build her confidence. “The relationship with the mentor is informal so it’s easier to talk openly than it would be with a colleague or my manager,” she explained. “As a result he has given me some great feedback and helped me understand my strengths and areas for improvement. He’s also shared some of his early experiences.”
Mentors are also benefiting from participation, often in unexpected ways. “I’ve learnt a lot,” said mentor and Relationship Director at Barclays Bank, Keith Boxley. “My active listening skills have definitely improved, the goal being to help my mentee find her own solutions rather than tell her what I would do.”
James Oliver, mentor and Relationship Manager – Commercial at Yorkshire Bank, has also valued the need to listen. “Needing to listen means I can really see things from my mentee’s perspective and am seeing things anew myself.”
Susan Hopcraft of Wright Hassall, pointed out the value of women participating in the programme as mentors. “I suspect women more than men need this type of support,” she said. “Men seem to have more role models in senior positions so women who are prepared to be mentors have an important role to fill.”
To find out more about the Mentoring Scheme, whether a potential mentor or mentee, email Coventry & Warwickshire First at admin@coventryfirst.co.uk.
Member firm Poppleton & Appleby has just completed an assignment for a client which resulted in the survival of a business, despite difficult circumstance.
Click here to read on.
Paige Howitt, Senior Accountant at SFB Group talked to us about the benefits of participation in Coventry & Warwickshire First’s mentoring programme.
She has very clear ambitions and sees the mentoring programme as a facilitator of her career. “I know I want to be a manager but I wasn’t sure of the right approach. For me the mentoring programme was the perfect opportunity to talk to someone who has already achieved, and in doing so build my self-confidence.
“The relationship with the mentor is informal so it’s easier to talk openly than it would be with a colleague or my manager. As a result he has given me some great feedback and helped me understand my strengths and areas for improvement. He’s also shared some of his early experiences. This, in particular, has really built my confidence as I can see everyone has to work hard and work around challenges to achieve their career goals.
“Working with my mentor is proving incredibly valuable; I’d definitely recommend it.”
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:
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.