The Council wants to understand the needs of local businesses as part of developing a robust economic evidence base to inform strategic activity. To feed into this on-going development, the Council and SEMLEP commissioned Public Perspectives Ltd to conduct a business survey to ascertain participant’s views on local economic and business issues; what’s good and works well and what can be improved.

The findings of the survey are a key tool in monitoring local economic conditions and in the development and delivery of the new economic strategy. This strategy is targeted to business needs and aims to strengthen economic growth and development.

The survey covered the following issues:

• Quality of the local area as a business location
• Business engagement
• Business performance
• Employment, skills and training
• Innovation
• SEMLEP
• Showcase sectors

A total of 257 Central Bedfordshire businesses were interviewed via telephone at the end of last year. This sample of businesses was representative of the business population in Central Bedfordshire. An online version of the survey was made available, which was promoted by all partners, for local businesses to complete.

View the results and full report from our 2019 Business Survey