In economic terms, the South East of England is one of Europe’s most successful regions, but to avoid complacency and ensure future success it has set up a framework for sustainable development comprising of its main challenges and their proposed actions to achieve goals of Global competitiveness through smart growth and sustainable prosperity.
Challenges arise with the emergence of economic super powers such as China and India creating additional competition, economic strong holds in the South East must maintain their competitiveness. Increasing prosperity while remaining environmentally friendly will mean increasing productivity, economic activity and enterprise within the region. There is an chance to unveil economic potential in underperforming areas resulting in new opportunities for innovation and competitiveness.
The report divides the region into three areas, the inner South East, the Rural South East and the coastal South East. Each presents both positive and negative economic projections. Their strategy adopts three objectives to combat the primary challenges mentioned above: Global Competitiveness, Smart Growth and Sustainable Prosperity.
When focusing specifically on enterprise, the report defines six actions to achieve the targets set out above. These actions include increasing business stock, maximising the number of people ready for employment at all skill levels, increasing the number of SMEs tendering for public service contracts, reducing road congestion and therefore pollution levels, ensuring affordable housing and employment space appropriate to the region and improving the productivity of the workforce, increasing economic activity.
To access the whole report follow this link:
http://www.seeda.co.uk/about-us/how-we-work/res