PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

WESTERN MAIL COLUMN SEPTEMBER 24TH 2011 During a week when enterprise zones where finally announced in Wales and the Welsh Government found three more sectors to add to their list of favourite industries, the Western Mail published the annual list of the fastest growing firms in Wales. Since the Wales Fast Growth 50 was established in 1999, 418 firms have appeared on the thirteen lists and it is estimated that all of these companies have created around 20,000 jobs and generate over £10 billion of turnover into the Welsh economy every year, much of which is spent on local goods and services. This year’s list was unusual in that it included one of Wales’ most successful businesses, the Admiral Group PLC. That is great news for the economy i.e. that one of our largest firms can generate growth normally found in younger and smaller businesses. Of course, with a turnover of £1.6 billion in 2010 and over 3500 employees, Admiral dominates the data for the fifty firms. Yet, eve...

WESTERN MAIL ARTICLE SEPTEMBER 17TH 2011 As we enter the middle of September, it would seem that Wales is still waiting for a decision on whether it will create enterprise zones, which have been developed to boost prosperity through cheaper business rates, access to capital, superfast broadband and lower levels of planning control. This is six months after the Chancellor formally announced the creation of such zones, although the new UK Coalition Government had already discussed their development in previous policy announcements. Whilst there is prevarication in Cardiff Bay over their policy on this matter, our competitors across the border are already developing their plans to attract and develop new business, with twenty-one new enterprise zones already created across England. These include a number of areas on the border with Wales, including Hereford, Bristol and Merseyside. And whilst critics could have argued that this is an England-only policy that has no relevance t...

Western Mail Column  10th September 2011 Next Friday, the annual awards dinner for the Wales Fast Growth 50 will take place in Cardiff. I am proud to say that the event has been sold out for weeks and promises to be another night that celebrates the best of Welsh entrepreneurship. The dinner will be followed, on September 21st, by the publication of the thirteenth Fast Growth 50 supplement in the Western Mail. Having spent every spare hour during the last four weeks putting this together, I am proud to say that the profiles of every business featured this year is a testament to the variety of successful ventures of all sizes that flourish in all parts of Wales. Yet, it would seem that those in charge of economic development in Wales remain reluctant to engage with these high potential companies. Even when the Welsh Government, six years ago, acknowledged that it should give extra support to a smaller group of firms through the knowledge bank for business (KB4B), there ...

WESTERN MAIL ARTICLE SEPTEMBER 3RD 2011 Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of reading a new report, entitled " the Leisure Wallet ”, which examines the state of the leisure industry in the UK during 2010-11 including how and why people frequent pubs, bars and restaurants. Given the current economic climate, it made for fascinating reading, For example, whilst there is a general acceptance that consumer spending will be lower, there remains, not surprisingly, resilience amongst 18-24 year olds who see going out as a critical part of their lives. The over 55s are also continuing to eat and drink out of the home regularly and are committing higher levels of their leisure spend to UK and overseas holidays and leisure breaks. In terms of sectors, the study shows that eating out at a restaurant remains the most popular leisure activity in the UK and, despite gloomy news on the economic front, the proportion of the population eating out in the past six months has risen from 6...

Yesterday, the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation for 2011 was published. This is the official measure of relative deprivation for small areas in Wales and was developed as a tool to identify and understand deprivation so that funding, policy and programmes can be effectively focussed on the most disadvantaged communities. It is an extremely useful document for both policymakers and academics – I have recently had a paper accepted for the Entrepreneurship Research Journal that uses the data to examine entrepreneurship within the deprived areas of Wales. Yet, like all datasets, it takes time to collate, analyse and write up. As a result, most of the indicators used tend to lag considerably. In fact, the only 2010-2011 indicator available relates to fire incidence, with the majority relating to the period 2008-2010 (full details can be found in annex A of the report). Given this, you would have thought that Labour politicians would have been careful not to rush out any commen...