PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

  As we slowly but surely emerge from the restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, it is becoming clear that whilst some things may return to what they were prior to last March’s first lockdown, other elements of our lives will have been changed irrevocably.  In particular, the fact that nearly all of us have had to stay at home for most of the last fourteen months means that our relationship with the locality in which we live has probably changed forever. This phenomenon was explored in a recent report from the thinktank Demos and financial business Legal & General that looked specifically at post-pandemic places. This was done through a poll of 20,000 adults in Britain during December 2020 and was followed up two months later with a series of focus groups The results are fascinating and reinforces the view that the way we perceive at ‘place’ has changed and actually become stronger during the pandemic which, of course, will cause a change in behaviour into the mediu...

Since I began writing for both the Daily Post and the Western Mail as a business columnist, one of the themes I have constantly returned to over the years is that of buying locally. Back in 2002, I referred to various initiatives in the United States of America which had encouraged organisations to support their local communities through buying local produce, with ten US states passing laws requiring that schools, prisons, and other state institutions buy a percentage of food from local farmers. Since then, I have written various pieces which have implored the Welsh Government to ensure that they do everything possible to use public procurement as an economic development tool by ensuring a greater percentage of their annual spend is with local Welsh firms. For example, in 2004 I wrote that that public sector in Wales spent approximately £3 billion on services, although very few small firms seem to be able to access this. At the time, I argued that if we could improve the proces...

Last week, the Cross-Party Group on Small Shops at the National Assembly for Wales released a report of its “Supporting Entrepreneurship” inquiry which had been established to examine how the Welsh Government and local authorities could help entrepreneurs and small businesses to grow. With many studies into entrepreneurial behaviour focusing predominantly on knowledge-based firms in growing sectors, this study is to be welcomed for focusing on the needs of your ‘every-day’ entrepreneur in Wales and his/her requirements to develop their business. More relevantly, it makes a number of recommendations which the Welsh Government should consider at a time when it is re-examining its own business support policies towards entrepreneurs. For example, given the importance of training, it suggests better communication of apprenticeship funding and support for small employers to train more apprentices and, in terms of future skills, a higher profile approach by the Welsh Government towar...

As I walked through the streets of Cardiff earlier this week with the sounds of Wham’s “Last Christmas” or Slade’s “Merry Christmas Everyone” blasting from the doors of shops, pubs and restaurants, it was a timely reminder - with so many people shopping, eating and drinking - of the importance of the holiday season to the Welsh and UK economies. Estimates suggest that Christmas is worth around £78 billion of spending to the UK economy with the average family estimated to be spending around £800 this year despite a squeeze on wages and higher inflation. In fact, December is the busiest month for shopping accounting for 12 per cent of all annual retail spend. Much of this is on food and drink - with supermarket sales being 43% higher than during Christmas week than in a normal week - and presents to friends and loved ones. Each child in the UK will, on average, receive around 16 presents at Xmas with 6 million rolls of sellotape sold to wrap them up. In addition, the amount of wr...

Many movie aficionados like myself would agree that one the most underrated films ever made is the story of a Korean War veteran who ends up going to prison after a breakdown. ‘Cool Hand Luke’ starring the irrepressible Paul Newman in the title role, begins with the main character arrested for cutting the heads off parking meters, an act that gets him arrested and jailed. I would very much doubt that those drunken yobs who smashed up the parking meters in the West Wales market town of Cardigan last month did so because of post traumatic stress syndrome from fighting in a brutal war. Indeed, it has been reported that they were merely looking for more beer money by breaking open the parking meters. And whilst no one would condone such vandalism, the delay by Ceredigion County Council in repairing those meters seems to have led to unusual consequences that has resulted in greater economic activity across the town. This is because more people have apparently been taking advantage...

As we all know, local and national politicians are fond of saying that small firms are the backbone of the economy. Yet a recent Freedom of Information request from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) revealed that despite such sentiments, a significant part of the public sector in Wales simply has no idea of what it was spending with small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs). According to the business representative organisation, which has over 10,000 members in Wales, only two Welsh local authorities were able to provide a detailed breakdown of their spending with SMEs namely Gwynedd (60 per cent) and Powys (58 per cent). Incredibly, some said that they did not even record the information on their IT systems whilst one council admitted that they would have to go through their paper records manually to get the data. Given the importance of SMEs to local economies and the role of local councils in supporting their creation and growth through their economic development str...

There has been much debate over the future of the high street in North Wales in recent times, including within this column. With the development of out of town centres and the growth of internet shopping, local stores have never been under so much pressure to improve the consumer experience so to attract greater numbers of local shoppers. Indeed, there needs to be greater effort on developing an enjoyable experience for shoppers to entice them away from supermarkets and internet sites to their local high streets. Therefore, the publication of a new report from the Policy Exchange should be one that will be discussed by politicians and policymakers across the region. Published last month, “21st Century Retail Policy: Quality, choice, experience and convenience”, is a fascinating and thought provoking analysis that goes beyond the normal conventions regarding retail developments and looks to provide radical solutions which could transform and revitalise shopping areas. Perhap...

Given the increased interest in local shopping, which was discussed in yesterday's Daily Post column, I thought I would revisit an article I wrote back in December 2005 for the same newspaper. It specifically examined how an Irish supermarket, Superquinn, encouraged greater purchasing of goods and services in Ireland through developing a new type of loyalty card. Could it work here in Wales? Well, as far as I can tell, something like this has never been tried in the UK but I am sure that one of the supermarkets could trial this for a period to see if consumers can be encouraged to buy local. " When I lived in Dublin during the mid 1990s, I was astounded, on visiting my first Irish supermarket, to find that Irish goods were being promoted above and beyond the call of any retailer’s duty.  Perhaps this was because I had been fortunate enough to visit a ‘Superquinn’s’ outlet, which has a superb record of promoting Irish produce.  For example, everything sold in the ...

For those who have been following this column for the last decade, you will know how passionate I am about promoting the concept of local shopping, especially within North Wales where our high streets have been badly affected in recent years by the development of out of town centres. That is why I loved a recent article that described how a major American corporation was going on the road to promote local shopping to support the economy . Senior executives from the accountancy software company Sage, which sells mainly to small and medium-sized businesses, are traversing the USA in a large bus to educate consumers as to how important it is to shop and buy services from local businesses. And whilst this is not entirely altruistic, it is a refreshing change to see a large business actually going out of its way to support local firms. Indeed, some of the facts produced by Sage on the impact of local purchasing should open the eyes of politicians and policymakers who have, to dat...

Something for every politician and policymaker in Wales to consider.