Kirkby Malzeard Business Community Group meeting, 12th September
13 Oct 2022
Kirkby Malzeard Business/Community Group, Monday 12th September 2022
St Andrew’s Church
Minutes
Councillor Richard Hughes opened the meeting by welcoming all speakers and guests. He outlined the strides forward in community co-operation with our Covid response, the Jubilee Gala and plans for more opportunities for businesses and community groups to work together. This meeting is a coming together of what the KMLD Business/Community Group has learnt so far and the people who have offered advice. Now local businesses/community groups have the opportunity to meet these experts and to ask their own questions.
David Kerfoot CBE
(David is founder of the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) in North Yorkshire. He is a champion of local enterprise with huge experience in developing and connecting rural businesses.)
David explained that his aim is to help make Kirkby Malzeard a better ‘place’, with the definition of ‘place’ as somewhere people want to work, rest, play and invest.
There are many focus areas that contribute to a ‘place’: economic, cultural, historical, as well as the tangible facilities and businesses that reside there.
In his role with the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), David had to visit many areas within North Yorkshire. He found most places could be categorised as:
Flying high
Turning over
Dying out
Considering a sense of ‘place’ is how you rejuvenate, develop and grow.
This point is not mentioned in Harrogate Borough Council (HBC)’s Economic Development Plan. The LEP, however, decided to build the concept of ‘place’ into its delivery plan, with strategic objectives and a marketing policy.
Northern Powerhouse used the concept of place-making as a policy and that was a factor in gaining funds from the Government.
‘Place-making’ has generally had an urban focus. It has always been a struggle to direct Government attention/funds to rural areas.
It is important to stress that this effort is all about regeneration and not redevelopment.
Considering how we can make Kirkby Malzeard a better place for visitors (who bring in investment), residents and those who are employed here, is all a collaborative process. Private, public, philanthropic and community partners can all work together to improve the structure of our community.
This process should start with creating a Place Plan, which brings together these key areas:
- Ensuring there is decent WIFI
- History – considering our local history and which aspects of it could attract visitors
- Connectivity – campaigning for improved bus services
- Culture
- An enhanced environment – our area is ideal for walkers, cyclists and we should encourage those visitors
- Planning – we need to get to grips with this, even though it is a thorny issue
- Facilities – Can we enhance and increase the facilities we have? How can we persuade the community to embrace this?
- KM Website – this is an excellent resource. We need to help more people to contribute. This website and Wikipedia appear first on Google when one searches for ‘Kirkby Malzeard’. We should consider the website as a resource for visitors as well as residents.
- Visitor economy – How can we encourage people to visit our area (and spend here)?
We need to be aware of developments surrounding devolution. In May there will be administrative changes. A Mayor will be elected for the new North Yorkshire administrative area (More information is here: (www.gov.uk/government/publications/york-and-north-yorkshire-devolution-deal )
Our area is the first rural area to be made a devolved authority with an elected mayor.
How will that affect us?
The devolved authority will have more power to make decisions
The Mayor will get £30 million over 30 years to distribute for projects to help communities.
We need to start building our objectives and aspirations NOW! It is timely for devolution and we want to be at the front of the queue for funding.
We have a wonderful community! We need to drive it and make things happen!
Simon Middleton
(Growth Hub Delivery Manager,York and North Yorkshire Growth Hub. Simon manages the team of Relationship Managers who work across North Yorkshire. He offers business growth support across the region and can advise on networking and funding as well as sharing all support offered by YNY Growth Hub)
York and North Yorkshire Growth Hub works with many, many businesses and places. The one thing that stands out is passion! We need to replicate Richard’s passion for this project. There are hundreds of villages in North Yorkshire, but few are coming together like us. (Kirkby Moorside is another example that wants to stand out from the crowd). We are the ones who will be at the front of the queue for funding.
There is the perception that funding goes to urban centres and larger places. We can still make our voice heard even though we are small!
Devolution is a timely opportunity to reap benefits for our area.
The timeline for the election of the Mayor is that we will have a new local authority in place from 1 April 2023 to be known as North Yorkshire Council. From 1 April 2024 we will have a Mayor in place, who will cover the 2 authorities of City of York and North Yorkshire so we will then be known as a Mayoral Combined Authority. The £30M funding is expected to be a starting point to attracting more.
What support YNY Growth Hub can offer
YNY Growth Hub considers two issues when supporting businesses:
- Business focus
- Place focus
When offering support, YNY Growth Hub first listens to what businesses want to achieve and then finds a way to facilitate that.
Grants
The most common question is, “Can I get some grants?”
We are currently in a period of transition from EU to UK funding. The shared Prosperity Fund is the UK’s replacement for EU funding and that is in process at the moment.
Grants can generally help with buying specific pieces of equipment.
Criteria that help with grant applications are issues like how many jobs will be created and what sort of business you are.
Many businesses were unable to access the previous EU funded schemes that were often restricted to those that traded B2B (ie their customers were other businesses). As the EU schemes have mostly come to a close now post Brexit, we will soon have the UK Shared Prosperity Fund that will be open to businesses regardless of sector.
Training and Development
For example, whilst YNY Growth Hub cannot directly offer funding to mitigate the huge energy hikes we are experiencing, they can help in other ways – improving efficiency or increasing income.
For our area, we should look at our ‘place’ – what can our area offer for walkers and cyclists? How can we tie in our local businesses?
There are grants available for marketing. What would make Kirkby Malzeard stand out from other villages competing for the grant? What would attract people to Kirkby Malzeard?
YNY Growth Hub can help with marketing. All advice is free. Simon’s background is in finance and banking. Other colleagues have different sets of skills. They want to listen, find out what our plans are and help us!
Steve Bolton
(Welcome Back' advisor to HBC post Covid re-generation. Steve can offer business support and mentoring.)
Steve is a private consultant employed by Harrogate Borough Council to support post-covid recovery. He has a wealth of experience as a business owner. He has worked with LEPs on major investment programmes and strategic business growth and with Lancaster University as a mentor on their Help to Grow Programme.
Steve’s initial appointment with HBC was funded by the Government’s ‘Welcome Back fund to build post-covid resilience. His initial brief was to cover the towns of Harrogate, Knaresborough, Ripon, Boroughbridge, Masham and Pateley Bridge. The usual format for this sort of support would be to offer master classes, peer to peer groups or mentoring. Steve decided to go slightly against the usual council offering and instead developed a plan to listen to businesses and then offer a bespoke service. This engagement worked brilliantly with businesses that had been dealt a seismic shock by the covid pandemic, for which there was no precedence of support.
Steve helped 400+ businesses, many of them multiple times. He has signposted support services to over 140 businesses – legal, accountancy, funding, marketing (ie PR, advertising etc).
Steve has offered all sorts of individual support:
- Developing a vision (anything from 5 – 20 years ahead)
- Writing and implementing strategy
- Project management
- Business mentoring
- Raising finance (through grants, debt finance (loans) or equity (shares))
- Strategic and tactical marketing
- Signposting (eg advice on finding a good accountant / architect / marketing manager etc – based on the requirements of the individual)
- Succession planning (What plans should be made for staff? What commitments are there?)
- Cashflow projections (eg can decisions be made earlier to avoid problems?)
- Rebuilding the supply chain
There are over 140 different ways of making money!
Steve then outlined two examples of business support. In the first, the business was assisted to develop a vision for expansion during the pandemic. This initially caused slight hysteria, but the vision, project management, cashflow forecast and mentoring support quadrupled the business’s cashflow projection and increased its employment capacity.
In the second example, a family run business was struggling to implement a successful succession to the younger generation. Setting a realistic timescale for implementation, developing an exit strategy and restructuring the company lead to a secure resolution. The business is now thriving and 50+ jobs have been retained.
These services and support packages are available to any business. HBC also has 2 full-time Growth Advisers. This can all be accessed via HBC and all these services are free of charge.
Andy Barton
(CEO, Skipton and Ripon Business Enterprise Group. Andy has over thirty years’ experience in corporate strategic development.)
Skipton and Ripon Business Enterprise Group offers mentoring for businesses. This service is available as occasional or ongoing support. Business can apply on-line (www.skiptonandriponenterprisegroup.co.uk).
This is a free service in which businesses can talk about issues with an experienced mentor. Mentors are committed to supporting others and very generously give their time for free. The only requirement is to respect the mentors and to turn up to meetings or to call back as agreed.