Enterprise thriving in Knowsley

Jan 4 2007 Hot 100

Enterprise thriving in Knowsley

The North West regional winner of the Enterprising Britain 2006 competition, Knowsley Economic Forum was recognised for successfully encouraging and supporting people to develop their business ideas, and stimulating an entrepreneurial culture in the deprived area of Knowsley.
 
During the 1980's and 1990's, Knowsley was suffering from industrial decline - 22% unemployment, 12,400 manufacturing jobs lost, derelict sites and continuous population decline. Knowsley is the UK's third most deprived borough and traditionally is dependent on large firms and satellite factories of companies. This dependence had led to the borough having a weak enterprise base.
 
To respond to all these challenges, the Forum was established to drive an ambitious change programme within the borough. Early actions concentrated on changing the physical environment, attracting major inward investment and introducing an after-care programme to ensure new businesses had access to ongoing support. By 2000, what had happened in Knowsley was nothing short of a major turnaround: population stabilised at 154,000, increased business investment of more than £1bn since 1990, unemployment to 10.7% and a diversified employment base with over 70% in the service sector.
 
To build on this success, the focus was then placed on developing a grassroots enterprise culture to change the lives of local people and improve the wealth of the borough. From a borough that had one of the lowest business start-up rates in the country and a low stock of small business, Knowsley now has the 7th highest employment growth rate nationally and the highest on Merseyside.

Moreover, there has been a 70% increase in self-employment and Knowsley is now actively encouraging young people to embrace the newly found entrepreneurial culture. The unemployment rate is now around 4% making the drop in unemployment in Knowsley over the past 20 years between 1984 and 2004 the largest drop of any local authority in Great Britain - a drop of 14.

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