The voice of the Lancashire business community was heard during a week long series of events for the inaugural Lancashire Business Week. Frank McKenna discusses the issues that emerged during the week…

I want to start by thanking everyone who attended the events during an exceptionally successful Lancashire Business Week. We have received excellent feedback from everyone involved. I know that I certainly enjoyed each of the events. The guest speakers for the week were fantastic and were the key to the success.

The purpose of business week was to bring representatives from across the private and public sectors together to discuss the major issues that Preston needs to address if it is to compete regionally and nationally. It was evident from all the debates there is a consensus and everyone is pushing in the same direction. We all want to see Preston thrive. To achieve this we must first of all overcome the apparent lack of confidence within the city.

Lancashire Business Week is just the beginning of the campaign to grow a thriving and exciting Preston city. On the back of the discussions Downtown Preston In Business has drawn up a four-point plan to get the necessary culture change underway to achieve our aims:

The plan consists of:
* Ensuring local companies have a level playing in the procurement process
* Ensuring schools, colleges and universities skill Preston's workforce to ensure jobs created by Tithebarn are taken by local people;
* Pushing for a closer working relationship between council and developers on developments outside Tithebarn;
* Getting the Preston Vision Board working as the first point of call for inward investment

Over the next 12 months DPIB will be taking up the cudgels with the relevant public sector bodies to deliver results that will benefit the Preston business community and see that it goes from strength to strength.