Safeguarding future revenue and supporting local businesses is a key priority for many Local Authorities following the pandemic and the subsequent economic challenges now facing the UK. The Local Government Association identified the need for more business engagement with some great insights shared in a report published back in December 2021. One particular comment stands out “councils now have more contact with businesses than ever before and maintaining this relationship will deliver more benefits for the future. How councils capitalise on this positive action will be essential to cementing relationships with businesses going forward.”
Profiling the local business landscape
In order to build and grow relationships with local businesses, Local Authorities must first really get to grips with their local business landscape building a profile of who is operating in their area. At Destin Solutions, we’ve worked with one Local Authority to pull together all the data they hold on local businesses. This has been captured from a variety of different sources such as business rates, planning, licensing and business engagement to help provide an in-depth profile and breakdown of those businesses. Using a performance dashboard they now have instant access to data such as business survival rates (this can be broken down by area and business type), the number of new startups and closures within any given time frame and a whole host of other additional management data.
Supporting business growth and startups
Having access to this data has meant they are now able to encourage and support business startups, growth and expansion plans by providing in-depth guidance on the best areas to locate to. Using a variety of data at their fingertips they can analyse deprivation levels by postcode, success rates and longevity of similar businesses in that area and can provide general guidance on factors like footfall.
They can also access a list of all empty properties available for leasing or purchase within any given area, along with, the property size and the rateable value of that property so can advise on some of the costs associated with a startup or expansion. This, combined with the ability to provide guidance on the most likely area a business will succeed in, provides an invaluable service particularly for those businesses who may be new to the area and don’t necessarily have local knowledge and insights.
Proactively identifying and helping struggling businesses
They can also now proactively target those businesses who may be in financial difficulty using credit ratings and other data to identify the most ‘at risk’ businesses. Using this information, they can then engage with that business to identify what help and support can be provided. This approach is helping to ensure that those that need the support most, get access to it.
They also have the ability to spot trends and patterns, for example businesses operating in one district may have a higher instance of surviving less than five years in comparison to another district where business longevity is much higher.
Using unique datasets to address potential problem areas
Consolidating other unique datasets, for example, food standards inspection data, they have been able to proactively contact businesses issued with sub-standard food ratings, offering advice on how to raise those ratings, reducing the chances of imminent business closure. Similarly they have analysed and factored in important environmental data to identify flood risks in their area and categorised which postcodes are based on flood plains. Subsequently if any flood warnings or alerts come in for a specific area they can assess the potential damage it is likely to cause and proactively offer direct assistance, whether that’s with evacuations or the provision of sandbags etc.
Providing business engagement and outreach opportunities
The ability to access this type and level of detailed data has provided numerous outreach and engagement opportunities for the business partnerships team. It also enabled them to instantly analyse the implications of the draft list and revaluation of businesses rates in their area, following the last review.
Supporting bids for funding and regeneration
With access to a system that effectively provides a ‘single view of business’, freedom of information requests related to business engagement activity and statistics can be answered quickly and with minimal resource. Most importantly the information can be used to help assist with bids for future funding in growth and regeneration projects by having supporting, evidential data underpinning those requests for investment.
In conclusion, the more information a Local Authority has about the businesses operating in their region, the more support they can offer those businesses as well as helping shape the future of investment and growth in their locality.
Find out more about Destin Solutions at: https://www.destin.co.uk
