Economy

If you are already in business, looking to start up in business, wanting business advice, considering relocation to Mendip or involved in regeneration activities these pages are designed to help you.

The Economy Team

The team is responsible for the Council's economic development and regeneration activities in Mendip. We work with a wide range of partners including individual businesses, business networks, national bodies, government departments and the voluntary sector.

Our main areas of work are:

• Working with partners to deliver appropriate Business Support & Events skills development, access to jobs and business development opportunities.
• Providing information about available Business Premises & Development Sites including working with external partners to bring major development sites to fruition.
• Supporting Economic Regeneration Initiatives across the District and ensuring our five towns are able to fulfil their role as key employment and service centres.
• Operating and managing a Stall Markets service.
• Providing local Economic Information to support the role of partner agencies in delivering appropriate services across the Mendip area.

Our work contributes to the council's work in "supporting the local economy through uncertain times".

Economic Strategy for the Mendip Area 2006 - 2011 (2006)

This is a five-year vision for the economy of the Mendip area. In order to reflect local aspirations, Mendip District Council and other key partners of the Mendip Strategic Partnership worked with the business community and the Mendip Business Exchange to develop this strategy and action plan.

There are six strategic objectives within the strategy, together they aim to create a more enterprising and business friendly culture in Mendip. The objectives are:

• Promoting Mendip as an attractive, sustainable location for business

• Ensuring that businesses are effectively supported

• Improving skills

• Improving prosperity and vibrancy in the towns, villages and the countryside

• Developing the tourism sector in a sustainable way

• Proactively addressing transport and infrastructure

The action plan provides a number of common goals for all partners to work towards. Mendip District Council has developed its own delivery plan which seeks to create a more enterprising and business friendly culture in the Mendip area. Other key partners have been encouraged to follow suit. Partnership working is an essential component of the economic strategy and is integral to making the action plan work.

Mendip Economic Delivery Plan 2006-11 (2006)

The Council's Economic Delivery Plan links to the Mendip Strategic Partnership's Economic Action Plan. Delivery Plan actions recently delivered by the council include:

• Working in partnership to establish Into Somerset as the county's inward investment organisation.
• Establishing the Mendip Business Life website as a resource for the business community, especially information on available sites and premises and as an online forum for businesses to support and mentor each other.
• More employment land has become available with the Morlands site becoming operational; Cathedral Park in Wells has attained planning permission and Commerce Park in Frome is now flourishing.
• 46 small businesses in Mendip have been supported through grants between 2008-2009.

Interim Economic Strategy Update (2010)

This update identifies changes since 2006 when the economic strategy was first produced and is a response to the current global economic downturn, evolving coalition government guidance and internal changes within Mendip District Council.

The MSP Strategy and Action Plan were developed with a 5-year lifespan. The council considered that whilst the aim and objectives of the existing strategy remain sufficiently relevant to provide a framework for current economic regeneration activity, the strategy needed reviewing. This interim update looks at how the Council can tailor its delivery of economic services to better assist local businesses and the wider community during the present economic climate. It is very much a short-term recessionary plan identifying ways to improve the economic prospects of the area.

A more comprehensive review of the economic strategy will take place in 2011.

The interim update suggests a range of key delivery themes and these are presented in more detail through the council's business planning process.

Contact

Last Updated

10 August 2010

Page last updated on 10 August 2010