After high growth in the first half of the 90s, the rate of job creation has flattened in the last five years. We are not creating enough high quality jobs to ensure economic growth. Too few graduates are staying on in the area, since too few companies recognise their value. Our reputation for research, development and innovation is not strong. Expertise at the universities, which both have good links with industry, is rarely used in Nottingham. The creation of new businesses is 12% below the national average, while failure rates are higher. Many residents are in low skills, low pay jobs.
During the next decade only modest growth is expected, with a further 11,000 jobs forecast, mainly in retail, distribution, financial services and the public sector.
All of this can be altered. We can be more successful if we become more innovative.
There is a complex relationship between skills, enterprise and innovation - we need to unravel it.
Working with schools, colleges and universities, we need to make sure that we can supply companies with the workforce they need.
Conversely, we need to work with local companies so that they learn to value skills at every level in their workforce. They must be encouraged to take staff training seriously, and to recognise the value of graduates as an investment for the future.
We need to work with individuals, too, particularly local people who lack incentive to train when they can easily get low skills - and low pay - jobs. We must encourage them to raise their aspirations so that they can spring the low skills trap. Most people know what they need - they lack the confidence, the information and the support to achieve it. The voluntary and community sectors have a valuable role here in providing a setting where people can gain the experience and social skills that can alter individual life courses.
The citywide skills strategy that is being developed will be the first milestone along this route.
We need to raise horizons within local companies where the commercial value of research and innovation has to be emphasised. Both universities work closely with industrial partners, but not enough of them are in Nottingham. We must find a way of linking world class resources with the needs of local businesses.
We need to look, too, at the productivity of local commerce. Some companies could work more effectively in their own areas, while others may need to diversify to survive.
What contemporary clusters could we encourage, particularly those that depend on new ways of working that can instigate a wider revolution?
The creative industries sector in the Lace Market and the successful BioCity experiment backed by both universities are encouraging developments.
We need to consider why so few business are started here, and why their failure rate is high. Practical considerations include premises - plans to extend Highfields Science Park and for a Regional Innovation Centre at the Jubilee Campus are important, as is a City Wide Growth Action Plan to free up fringes of the city centre for growing companies.
Lastly, we need to target new companies and commercial sectors that we would like to have here. The new conurbation wide inward investment service is welcome - incentives for those moving into the area should also be considered. Growth in the public sector is a future opportunity, particularly in view of the proposal to relocate civil servants. Our Core City status and the Inland Revenue's relocation to Castle Meadow should stand us in good stead.
This skills/enterprise/innovation relationship will dictate our future growth. Nevertheless, it is notoriously difficult to influence, never mind control. If we are able to harness the efforts of the many specialist agencies and support organisations who are working in this area, we will have made a good start.
Other factors are in our favour. Our school standards are steadily improving, our universities produce a supply of graduates who wish to work in the area and our large companies are committed to working with their local communities. The clusters of small companies that are forming in some sectors show that we can attract the creative industries of the new century.