Doncaster Chamber of Commerce has welcomed the arrival of two South Yorkshire Mayoral Authority publications and is optimistic about what they could mean for local businesses going forward.
The Plan For Good Growth and the new Skills Strategy were launched simultaneously, with each representing a commitment from SYMCA to help our region unlock its full potential. Both documents place an emphasis on innovation and embracing fresh ideas, while also being firmly grounded in reality and attuned to what’s happening on the ground level in places like Doncaster.
Chamber CEO Dan Fell said The Plan for Good Growth was concerned primarily with how the region will attract further inward investment and create more high-paying jobs in the future. Meanwhile, the Skills Strategy looks at what more can be done to retain talent here in South Yorkshire. He sad: “More specifically, it sets out three key missions: to help those who are currently unemployed transition more easily into the world of work; to ensure that people are equipped with the core knowledge they need to thrive in today’s labour market; and to generally increase the supply of a high-skilled workforce.
“It’s great to see such strong, but crucially realistic, ambitions being articulated for our region. We believe that this vision bodes well for South Yorkshire and that it will inject some much-needed positive energy into the discussion about where we are heading next.
“The Plan for Good Growth contains a lot of laudable aspirations, including ideas for improving our existing infrastructure as well as for encouraging further innovation and productivity; all of which will be instrumental to our success going forward. Between our Investment Zone status and major assets — like the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre and Gateway East — there is already a lot of great opportunity here for the indigenous SME community and it’s imperative that we do all we can to help them seize it.
“It feels as though partnerships are working far more effectively in South Yorkshire than they have done for quite some time, and we are seeing a pleasingly collegiate atmosphere develop. The Plan for Good Growth gives us something new to rally behind so that we can continue in this vein and work towards a shared ambition that will really benefit our communities.
“If national government take note of this plan as well, and fully commit to partnering with the region on it, then they will find that there are several ideas here that will help them deliver upon their flagship levelling up policy. We know that our members feel very passionately about this need for greater collaboration with government— a point reinforced when the Levelling Up Advisory Council recently visited South Yorkshire — and so we hope the ambition of this plan is properly heeded by Whitehall.
“All in all, we are optimistic about these two strategic documents from SYMCA and expect that they will deliver great things for the region. Of course, this hard work must now move beyond vision and towards implementation. It is action, not just words, that the business community ultimately wants to see. Nonetheless, today’s strategies were a confident stride in the right direction.”
