Oxfordshire Voice Forum: Why is it so hard to recruit in Oxfordshire

ABOUT OXFORDSHIRE VOICE

In September 2017 the B4 focus group at Rhodes House concluded that B4 was well placed to represent a significant proportion of Oxfordshire’s business community, to voice its concerns and to work together to create solutions for the challenges that all businesses face. B4 is one of Oxfordshire’s leading business networking organisations – see www.b4-business.com

Following a year of planning, Oxfordshire Voice (hereafter OV) officially launched on 17th January 2019 at Blavatnik School of Government, a partnership of business people, elected officials, legislators and budget holders working together to promote Oxfordshire’s vibrant and dynamic business community. With so much development, innovation, growth and potential in Oxfordshire, a single body and consistent message will help to educate those in and beyond Oxfordshire what Oxfordshire has to offer to potential investors.

Oxfordshire is one of the UK’s leading growth areas and OV will play a key role in supporting future growth. Oxford was top of the 2017 Demos-PwC Good Growth for Cities Index and in the 2018 Arcadis ‘Investing in Britain’ report, Oxford was named after Edinburgh as the second best city in the UK for Growth Potential.

However, although Oxfordshire’s economic track record is excellent, we all face many challenges ahead to maintain and improve this performance. The ground-breaking OV collaborative partnership is bringing the local business community around the table with the local authorities (Oxford City Council, Oxfordshire County Council and Oxfordshire LEP) to seek input and views from businesses on how to address the challenges facing them including progress updates on plans and policies for dealing with these challenges.

Oxfordshire Voice therefore has three key aims:

1. To build a collaborative business forum to inform and influence policies and decisions with a view to finding solutions to the key issues threatening the future economic performance and growth of Oxfordshire in four key areas:

Housing – commercial and residential
Workforce / Skills
Transport & Communication
Social & Environmental issues
Workplace Wellbeing

2. To promote Oxfordshire as an attractive location for investment

3. To be a forum for businesses to come together to share experiences and provide peer support for one another

Whilst OV is not a lobbying group, its growing partnership knows that collaborating will help create a better future for Oxfordshire. By supporting OV you will be helping to shape the economic future of one of the UK’s most vibrant economic regions.