PBI Celebrates 25 years in Business and looks towards the future
Date: Thursday 11th September 2008
In spring of 2008 PBI celebrated it’s 25th year of service delivery to the businesses of Pembrokeshire. With the completion of Objective 1 and its contribution directly and indirectly to some of the services that PBI delivered, 2008 also represented an important milestone in looking ahead toward the future needs of the area and the ongoing PBI role.
Before looking ahead however it is wholly worthwhile reflecting on the past so that lessons can be learned and adopted in going forward. Experience is of no value unless gainfully utilised in shaping current and future activities. It is interesting to note that in the period of PBI’s existence it has provided a consistency of service availability and indeed presence. In the same period we have seen the demise of the WDA, the Small Firms Service, emergence and death of TEC’s, emergence and metamorphosis of the National Assembly for Wales and its executive arm, Welsh Assembly Government.
Locally we have seen the end of South Pembs District Council, Preseli Pembs district Council and Dyfed County Council and the emergence of Pembrokeshire County Council.
On top of that we have seen the emergence and finish of Objective 5b, Objective 1, Perifera, Konver, Retex, EAGGF and various Interreg programmes.
PBI has been a consistent presence through all of this upheaval but of course like any business faced with substantial changes in its operating environment has itself had to metamorphisise significantly in order to sustain its operations.
During this period PBI has continued to provide its core activity, supporting new business starts at anything up to 150 a year for nearly all of its 25 years and providing general support to existing businesses. Its database of businesses supported now stands at about 50% of the reported total for the county. It has also developed and pioneered some new services such as its eCommerce support which was adopted and adapted nationally and re-emerged as the Opportunity Wales scheme. Pembrokeshire has also uniquely benefited from many years of marketing support which has been available to all businesses for over 10 years. In more recent times support to the energy support industry, particularly in the oil and gas sectors has been prominent and has proved valuable in ensuring maximum benefit for local companies from recent investments. The emerging Social Enterprise sector has also been strongly supported.
Many of the activities delivered over more recent times by PBI have emerged as tendered and contracted processes with the Welsh Assembly Government and other organisations. This is part of the change in the operating environment that we have faced and this process is open to anyone. In parallel with this many of our activities are a result of bidding for and utilising available European funds from the myriad of programmes already mentioned. The European funds only represent a proportion of the costs and the balance has to emerge as match funding. By definition those projects cannot be profitable and are based upon 100% of the costs agreed at the outset of the project bid. If the bidding organisation can secure the shortfall in funding after the European contribution from outside sources then it will have all its costs covered. However, this is difficult to achieve and PBI has taken the view that certain vital services must be delivered for the benefit, uniquely, of Pembrokeshire and has therefore accepted the responsibility of providing some or indeed all of the match funding. This is generated from ongoing profits on contracted activity and/or reserves.
In the last round of EU funding PBI has provided over £0,5m of its own resources over the last four years towards a variety of activities such as marketing support, social enterprise support, energy activity support, Artswave, Pembrokeshire Business to Business Networking. This was considered to be PBI’s Enterprise Agency remit and has provided a consistency of delivery over a long period and access to services that would not otherwise have existed.
What of the future? The board of PBI has unanimously confirmed that the PBI role is still and will be important for the future. The current and emerging projects generated through the Convergence funding (successor to Objective 1) are generally contracted out or will now need to be formulated on a much wider geographical basis. Gone, at least for the moment, are the local projects. In the fullness of time as the strategic projects and contracted out delivery are placed then there may be more capacity and willingness to consider more locally contracted projects and activities which fill the gaps left by the overarching strategic activities.
Core services have already been secured for the future by way of start up support including the New Deal element which has already been re-contracted for three plus years and general and specialist advisory services via the Rural Development Plan which likewise has already been approved well into 2010. Other activities too have been extended and awaiting new contracts. Secured budgets to date total £1.5m.
However, the development of some activities under the new funding programmes is somewhat protracted, particularly because of new procurement and partnership rules. PBI is involved in developing a wide range of all Wales or regional service delivery projects whether as project sponsor or as a deliverer and some of these will take a little longer to emerge. Some of our historic projects have already come to an end so we shall be faced with a period where some of the historic and future activities will not move seamlessly into one another, but they will re-emerge over the next 9 months. In the meantime the core services are in place and the tenders and project bids also in place for the new activity.
It is certain that the availability of government funding to contribute to some of the proposed projects will be severely limited. It is also evident that it is unlikely that government funding alone will be sufficient in capacity to enable all the European funds available to Wales and Pembrokeshire to be accessed without the use of other match funding sources. The capacity available from PBI to provide this match funding into the future is also limited by the availability of the commercial contracts that feed it. Into the future therefore a number of services which hitherto have been free of charge to the end user will in the future require a financial contribution, but will continue to carry a substantial subsidy. That is the only sustainable way to retain services for the future.
For PBI, the next 25 years will be different to the last 25 years, but that has always been the case. PBI will keep on adapting to change and trying to bring to Pembrokeshire businesses products and services relevant to the needs of the area and will utilise its own resources in this process to the extent that it is able. That is its continuing remit as your Enterprise Agency but be assured that core services are already in place for the next few years with more development work already close to fruition in many delivery areas.
Richard J Packman
Managing Director, PBI.
September 2008
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