Your Voice

The latest Your Voice feature, giving LBV members a platform for their views on the current business landscape in Leicester.

Neil McGhee is a business consultant in Leicestershire. He is a main board member with the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP), a long-standing LBV board member, a WQE College Governor and a former local business owner.

How would you describe what LBV does?
LBV takes time that you may not have, to look at and address issues that are needed to help businesses thrive.

How can LBV help Leicester and Leicestershire businesses?
LBV can help by approaching issues from a business perspective and looking for ways to ease the working environment.

Which are the main issues that businesses in Leicester and Leicestershire face?
These include energy costs, supply chain failings, staffing and funding.

What would you identify as the key strengths of Leicester and Leicestershire?
Our key strengths are that we are multi-disciplined, not in the thrall of one massive employer and granular.

With which key developments have you been involved in the local business community?
I am an LLEP Board member on the Business Gateway Board, the Sustainability Board and the Investment Board and I am also involved in the skills drive for future employability.

How can businesses get more out of their engagement with LBV?
First, engage! Offer suggestions and seek to improve the business environment.

What are the top three ways in which LBV can help to support the local business community?
1. Take a broad perspective on an issue.
2. Keep pushing an issue, which will allow business owners to get back to keeping their companies afloat.
3. Seek to engage with influencers and decision-makers by affecting what happens to businesses in a way that really gets them to think differently.