Stevenage 75th anniversary magazine | biz4Biz - Magazine - Page 5
Stevenage is Regenerating
Liz Barclay
Small Business Commissioner
T
he town is picking up the
opportunities presented by the
rise of Pharma with an emphasis
on STEM. It isn’t just the town and the
Pharma and STEM sectors that stand to
benefit. What could that regeneration
mean for the small and micro businesses
and the ripples into the wider Stevenage
society and the local communities?
According to the Collins English
Dictionary, to regenerate means to
develop and improve something to make
it more active, successful, or important,
especially after a period when it has
been getting worse. Developing and
improving any town or city depends on
its small and micro businesses working
and being supported to make the place
somewhere that the skilled people coming
in, attracted by the jobs on offer from the
bigger firms in the Pharma and STEM
sectors in this case, want to be, work and
live in.
900,000 companies were started in 2023,
up 12% on 2022. That’s a record according
to research from NatWest and Beauhurst.
“Entrepreneurs are showing
signs of resilience and
confidence. Online retailers,
property businesses and
street food stalls are leading
the way. Stevenage will see a
lift in all of those and much
more.”
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