The Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Local Enterprise Partnership held its annual summit in Huntingdon today. There was a very positive dialogue and a highly engaged audience of about 100 activists from all over the LEP region.
The "Elephant in the Room" was the infrastructure issue - both transport and broadband. We are one of the worlds leading centres for scientifc and technology innovation being strangled by a 3rd world infrastructure.
The LEP is charged with increasing the number of "significant" businesses from 60,000 to 100,000. Micro Businesses are not included in these numbers which was a huge mistake. Asymmetric engagement between micro business and large business using "Open Innovation" concepts is essential. Partnership relationships rather than procurement relationships is the only way to achieve the disruptive change that is needed. Shared co-working spaces are required as a new way of working.
The skills position is critical and needs to focus on new technologies such as making, 3D printing, printed electronics and the Cloud of Things. New communication technologies such as LTE Advanced, Whitespace, Zigbee IP and Bluetooth Low Energy which are being created in Cambridge should be deployed and field tested within the LEP area.
Our Cleantech and alternative energy technology businesses are suffering under a completely broken energy market. Initiatives are switched on and off on the whim of politicians. We need more stability and control over our local energy and utility provision.
The competition for the GCGP region is not the other British regions - we compete directly with other leading global innovation centres like Boston, California, Barcelona and Shanghai. We therefore need a highly active internationalisation agenda incorporating goods, services and more importantly Knowledge. I am not convinced by the UKTI proposition.
Grahame Nix and his team at the LEP executive should be congratulated on a really positive summit but the test will be delivery.
Witten by Richard Wishart
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