I HOPE you’ve all had a great Christmas and are enjoying time spent with family and friends. With 2018 coming to a close, I’m sure that Worcestershire’s businesses and entrepreneurs can reflect on another highly successful 12 months.

From a personal point of view, I’m very pleased with the year that Worcestershire LEP has had also. Not only were we recognised by Government for our ‘exceptional’ delivery of Local Growth Fund and EU-funded projects, we were also able to secure some significant funding for exciting new initiatives such as the Worcestershire 5G testbed and the Worcestershire Careers Hub.

These are achievements which are having real and significant impacts for business, education and families across the county. For example, our EU programme has now created a total of 1,000 jobs in Worcestershire, the 5G testbed is helping to boost productivity by one per cent and our Careers Hub is giving young people the skills that will enable them to achieve their ambitions in any career they want.

These successes and many more can be found in Worcestershire LEP’s 2018 Annual Report. Our report can be viewed on our website, wlep.co.uk but if you would like a physical copy of our report then please feel free to email the team on enquiries@wlep.co.uk and we’ll make sure to send you one.

I would always welcome any feedback from the local business community on the work of Worcestershire LEP and we look forward to continuing our partnership with many more businesses in the year ahead. We want to continue to grow Worcestershire’s reputation as a place where businesses and entrepreneurs can test new ideas, thrive and prosper.

I and the team would like to wish you all a prosperous new year and we look forward to building upon the great momentum within our local business community.