Company founder backs expert’s call for support (From The Northern Echo)

Company founder backs expert’s call for support

8:21am Friday 6th June 2008 in North-East Business News By Owen McAteer

A COMPANY founder who was forced to move his business from its rural base because of a lack of suitable premises has backed a Government expert's calls for better support for rural enterprises.

Wayne Edy, the founder of Inov-8, was forced to move his specialist extreme sports shoe firm from Stanhope to Wolsingham, and then out of Weardale to Crook, County Durham, as it grew.

Mr Edy was the first person to express interest in business premises at the proposed Eastgate Renewable Energy Centre development in Weardale, which, if it goes ahead, will create 350 jobs on the site of a former cement works.

Although an outline planning application was submitted to Wear Valley District Council in April, Stanhope Parish Council voted against the development last month, having backed it in November.

The area suffered a further blow last month when Weardale Castings and Engineering, in Wolsingham, which at its peak employed 600 people, ceased production.

Mr Edy, who founded his business in 2003, believed it was time to "stop talking and take action"

if the next generation of youngsters were not to be forced out of the area to find work.

Inov-8 is today highlighted as an example of a good rural business in a report by Dr Stuart Burgess, the Government's Rural Advocate and chairman of the Commission for Rural Communities.

Dr Burgess's report sets out proposals for the Government to improve areas of support for, and development of, people and enterprises in rural areas, making it possible for rural businesses to double their economic output to £347bn a year.

Mr Edy said: "Given the opportunity, we would like to have stayed in Weardale. The reality is we have grown and had no option but to move from the heart of the dale.

"When I based the business there, we were trying to build a business and leave it in the dale - that is why I started recruiting local people.

"I am saying this to raise awareness, not to point fingers at Wear Valley District Council - we all have to work together, we are genuinely trying to build a business in the rural dale, but it has been very difficult."

Mr Edy believed that if nothing was done to address the problem, it would be the next generation who would be forced to leave their homes for work.

He said: "Who is doing anything for the youngsters of the dale? They want to live in the dale, because they were born and have grown up here, but they are being forced out because there is little employment. They have to commute long distances to get jobs and then they spend so much time commuting, they decide to move to where they work - out of the dale.

"That is why I think Wear Valley District Council needs to be supporting next-generation businesses like ourselves. There are a lot of people talking about it, but who is acting on it?"

Mr Edy said his two longestserving employees were both graduates who were brought up in the dale and educated at Wolsingham School. He said: "I welcome Dr Burgess's report, but we need some action, we really do, even if they identify some land for development, these things don't happen overnight.

"Even if there is approval, you are still looking at 18 months to two years before anything can happen."

Sue Dowson, assistant director of economic regeneration at Wear Valley District Council, said: "The lack of business accommodation in the dale has been one of the considerations in the development of Eastgate.

"Mr Edy's is exactly the sort of business we are keen to see at Eastgate because he is creating quality job opportunities for young people, the majority of whom are from the dale."

Ms Dowson said that the present lack of business and office accommodation in the dale was a "real handicap", but said planning constraints were caused by large parts of the dale being a conservation area.

Dr Burgess' report followed a request from the Prime Minister to investigate ways in which rural economies might be strengthened in the wake of flooding and foot-and-mouth incidents last year.

Dr Burgess said: "By lifting the performance, especially of medium and larger firms in rural areas, by attracting more investment, by strengthening the capacity to innovate, they could perhaps double their economic contribution."