Foundation for growth
Contact officer: Andy Green, research and intelligence manager, BusinessLiverpool
Tel: 0151 233 5460
Email: agreen@businessliverpool.co.uk
Start date: 15 October 2007
End date: 29 February 2008
Purpose of the exercise:
This exercise assessed business satisfaction across the city by:
-
exploring any change in the business friendliness index (BFI) that was developed for Business Liverpool in the 2006 piece of research and also to baseline the BFI on a city-wide basis.
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gauging businesses' perceptions of Liverpool as a place in which to do business.
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exploring the drivers for, and barriers to, business growth to ascertain medium and longer-term property needs.
Who was consulted and how:
A telephone survey was carried out with a representative sample of businesses, approximately 1,500, across the city.
Who were the results of the exercise reported to:
The results were reported to the:
- BusinessLiverpool board
- Liverpool PLC transition board
- Liverpool Vision board
- Liverpool Land Development Company board
What were the findings of the exercise:
The headline finding from the 2008 survey is the city-wide BFI scoreof 6.61 (out of 10). This indicates that whilst employers are generally happy with the business environment in Liverpool, there remains plenty of scope to improve it.
The overall BFI is based upon the weightings of 'satisfaction with' and relative 'importance of' eight specific aspects of 'business friendliness' in Liverpool - these are cleanliness, safety in the city, costs of premises, transport links and accessibility, workforce quality and skills, local authority services and business development and training support.
The quality and skills of the workforce was found to be the most important aspect of the BFI for employers in Liverpool; it is also rated highest in terms of satisfaction levels. However, this should not be misinterpreted as meaning that current skill levels within the city are adequate for Liverpool to compete effectively in the global economy. National datasets show that Liverpool has a deficit in terms of both the numbers of local people possessing higher-level skills (NVQ4+) and intermediate skills (NVQ2+) relative to England.
Importantly, higher-level skills are becoming an increasingly important factor in determining how effective areas are at positioning themselves to compete in the fast-moving global, knowledge-based economy, as evidenced by recent policy documents. Policy makers and businesses in Liverpool must not lose sight of this and must therefore
continue to focus attention on the skills agenda.
All of the eight issues identified in the BFI are important to businesses and must be tackled in a joined-up and strategic manner.
Read the consultation report![(PDF [564.1Kb] opens in new window)](/images/PDF.gif)
for more information on the findings of the consultation.
What are the changes to the service brought about as a result of the consultation:
The findings of the the exercise will be used to ensure that Liverpool remains competitive and progressive and is meeting the needs of businesses across the city.