Business Regeneration in Monmouthshire

Plans to Attract New Businesses Implemented in Monmouthshire

Dan Smith, director of M4 Property Consultants welcomes the recent plans implemented by Monmouthshire Country Council to change the way it approaches economic development and stimulate economic activity in the county.

Monmouthshire Enterprise (an initiative by Monmouthshire County Council and Venture Wales) has been set up and tasked with ensuring that this is achieved. Whilst it is too early to judge, their intentions seem to correct.

The rural county of Monmouthshire has suffered in recent years when compared to it’s neighbours. Its bordering Welsh counties have benefitted from being allocated grants and funding from Europe to help them develop and regenerate their business communities.

However, Monmouthshire has traditionally been considered too affluent to qualify for such funding and therefore hasn’t shared in these spoils. Why set up a business in Caldicot when the same business can be launched in Newport with the aid of a rent subsidy grant and / or a website development grant? This is just one issue that needs to be considered.

Another issue is the over reliance on the tourism trade. Monmouthshire has some of the best scenery in the UK, many great places to visit and some great restaurants and hotels. We have a great tourism trade and this is very beneficial to the county as a whole. However, it has been relied upon for too long and there is so much more the county has to offer.

There are good high quality commercial properties located throughout the county but are there enough of them and what are the long term plans to promote the area to businesses?

Beacon Industrial Park in Caldicot is well positioned for accessibility to the M4 and offers a wide range of different sized industrial units. The owners have adapted the units to fulfil market demand – the conversion of the larger units into smaller ones for start-ups and SME’s.

The adjoining Severn Bridge Industrial Estate is another example of a location with great accessibility and a tenant list that includes international companies such as Siemens and Corus.

A bit further up the coast Riverside Court, an Office Space Business Centre located just of the M48 by the old Severn Bridge is a modern serviced office centre accommodating businesses of all sizes.

Occupancy levels are ok here but they could be improved. The building provides a fantastic working environment with great views of the Severn Estuary. Despite this, many companies still do not

consider the location or Monmouthshire as a whole, a viable location for business and this is something that the council must address.

Simon Berry-Jones, director of Office Space Business Centres is encouraged by the new initiatives but also thinks perhaps more can be done.

He said, “We have the facilities and workforce here in Monmouthshire. Chepstow, Monmouth and Abergavenny are regarded as great places to live. Unfortunately, too many of the people who live in the county leave to travel to Cardiff, Newport or Bristol to undertake their work. We need to address this and work together to proactively promote our county and invest in new companies with growth potential.”

Contributing, Dan Smith added, “Monmouthshire is a great place to live and work. The county is strategically located providing great access to South Wales and the South West of England. We have a great tourism trade here and many successful businesses.

However, we need more. There are many business owners living in Monmouthshire. The council’s task is to ensure more of these companies are started in Monmouthshire, not surrounding counties, and remain in Monmouthshire.

To do this we need to ensure that these companies are provided with the support to get started, the facilities such as commercial property to grow into and the infrastructure to allow them to communicate with the wider business community. Monmouthshire has many strong points but perhaps our biggest flaw is communicating these.