News & views

20 February 2023

At LBV, we’re looking forward to a productive 2023 for all of our members and the wider business community in Leicester and Leicestershire.

Last year, against a challenging background for local businesses, we were delighted to grow our membership to around 60 local businesses, representing many of the core sectors across the city and county economies.

Throughout 2022, LBV hosted a range of different themed events, combining both in person and online.

They included a focus on entrepreneurs where attendees heard inspirational stories of how local entrepreneurs have achieved success, managed pitfalls, and what needs to happen to generate more entrepreneurs in Leicester and Leicestershire.

Members heard an update from Richard Mitchell, Chief Executive of University Hospitals of Leicester who shared his thoughts on a range of topics including procurement opportunities for local businesses, and how can the business community and health sector engage better and benefit from each other.

We also looked at whether access to funding is a barrier to your business growth where attendees found out more about the financial assistance that is available locally and through the high street lenders, to help their business ideas flourish.

At Cities Outlook 2022, we looked at the outlook for Leicester and how the city can prosper in the future. We also hosted representatives from the three local universities focusing on attracting, training and retaining graduates.

As part of Leicester Business Festival, we held a focus on manufacturing event where we put a spotlight on manufacturing and education in Leicester and Leicestershire, discussing those driving change for the good of the manufacturing eco-system, as well as what’s ‘in it’ for business owners, their employees, and the next generation.

We hosted a ‘netwalking’ event around key regeneration sites in Leicester, took part in an ICAEW panel discussion and welcomed 60 members and guests to our annual members’ dinner with guest speaker, University of Leicester’s President and Vice Chancellor, Professor Nishan Canagarajah.

As well as a rich programme of events, our links with local business groups and key stakeholders such as East Midlands Chamber, Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP), Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), and the councils continued to develop. It is more important than ever for your voice to be heard on important matters affecting the local business community such as devolution, Workplace Parking Levy and more. Our relationships put us in a unique position to amplify your collective voices on these key issues.

In particular, we surveyed members as part of the City Council’s Workplace Parking Levy consultations to get the real business viewpoint. We represented our members’ views by being a vocal member of a working group of key stakeholders including East Midlands Chamber and the FSB, when we fed these results back to, and discussed with senior representatives from the City Council.

We also extended support for local charities such as Menphys and The Bridge Homelessness to Hope.

During the year, we welcomed two new board members – Sandra Wiggins from DPI UK Limited in Castle Donington and Jen Fensome from Loughborough University – and said farewell to a long-standing board members – Dafydd Prichard from Cite and Graham Watts from Santander.

To promote our members, we exceeded 2,000 followers on Twitter and moved our LinkedIn profile onto a new page. Our Your Voice online feature for members showcased thoughts on the local business landscape from Excello Law, Geldards LLP, Neil Mcghee, Leicester Tigers and the University of Leicester.

We will continue to work with our members to make a difference, and help Leicester and Leicestershire to be a great place for business.

If you’re not already a member of LBV, talk to us about the benefits of joining or apply at www.lbv.co.uk/membership