Member Article

Survey partnership continues as Coventry and Warwickshire continues to buck the trend

A leading accountancy firm has signed up as the headline partner for a key business survey that tests the economic waters in Coventry and Warwickshire for a fourth year. Prime Accountants Group, which has offices in Coventry, Solihull and Birmingham, and employs more than 100 staff, has partnered with the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce on its Quarterly Economic Survey (QES).

The QES measures business activity and confidence including everything from intentions to recruit through to turnover projections among firms from both the manufacturing and service sectors across the city and county.

The survey receives hundreds of responses each quarter from businesses and the results are then analysed by the Economy & Skills Group at Warwickshire County Council. Local insight and data is also fed into the British Chambers of Commerce as part of its national survey.

Steve Harcourt, director of Prime Accountants Group, said: “We’re very pleased to be partnering with the Chamber once again on the Quarterly Economic Survey. When we began the partnership four years ago we knew how important the survey was in measuring the pulse of the economy in our region.

“But then, as Covid hit, it became an even more crucial piece of work in finding out how businesses were feeling on a regular basis and we were very proud and pleased to be involved in that.

“As we moved out of lockdowns, businesses faced new challenges and the QES has, again, been a great measure of what the genuine mood is rather than the extremes that we often hear or read about.

“Coventry and Warwickshire has, largely, bucked the trend and has remained on track to grow as an economy – even if only by a small amount in some quarters – which shows the strength of the region.

“In my role, I also speak to many businesses every day and there are still companies who are performing very well and others that are facing a whole host of challenges. “My advice to all of them is to make sure they are planning and, on a wider scale, having the QES results each quarter helps us all to understand how the economy might perform and we can act accordingly.”

Corin Crane, Chief Executive of the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “As a Chamber, we pride ourselves on being the voice of business but to provide that voice, first we have to listen.

“We do that by speaking to businesses across the patch on day-to-day basis and listening to the obstacles they are coming up against – but also the opportunities they can see and how we can support with those.

“The QES is part of this work. It’s a critical snapshot of our regional economy and provides an accurate barometer of how a whole host of businesses are feeling about the coming weeks and months.

“Beyond this, it feeds into the British Chamber of Commerce’s overall results which is the largest independent business survey in the UK and is used by Whitehall, the Treasury and Bank of England as a significant economic indicator. “Having Prime Accountants Group on board as supporters over the past four years has really helped to ensure the QES has maintained its credibility and relevance as a measure of our regional economy.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Matt Joyce .