Broadening the Economic Base To promote and facilitate investment that will complement and strengthen the local economy, support new business formation and stimulate the translation of innovative ideas into business opportunities. In a dynamic economy companies will constantly grow, shrink or relocate. Therefore the County must continue to attract inward investment and encourage indigenous business growth. The approach will combine selective marketing and hands-on advice, targeting quality businesses in sectors that will make the best use of local skills and build on the County's existing successes. Improving Business Competitiveness To support business growth by stimulating the competitiveness and professionalism of local companies and encouraging innovation, particularly in key industry sectors, clusters and supply chains.
Businesses can only survive and grow if they are competitive.
Enhancing Skills To encourage the full development of everyone's potential in order to provide the skills required for a prosperous Gloucestershire in the 21st Century. It needs to be increasingly demand led and have a greater emphasis on transferable skills and quality if Gloucestershire's relative prosperity is to be sustained. To use the benefits of economic prosperity and wealth creation to regenerate those parts of the County and those communities that are suffering economic and social disadvantage and to foster community enterprise. Despite the fall in unemployment, there are still unacceptable levels of poverty, poor health and social deprivation to be found in the County. These are concentrated in the major urban areas, but there are also problems in the smaller market towns and rural areas, which suffer the added hardship of isolation from employment and from training opportunities.