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IED Annual Award 2023 winner: Norfolk County Council
Norfolk County Council’s Business Development Team is the winner of the Team of the Year award.
The award, sponsored by GPC Skills Ltd, recognises exceptional economic development teams who have gone above and beyond in ensuring the smooth running and effective delivery of economic development functions in their organisations.
The nomination for the Business Development Team, as the main economic development function for Norfolk County Council, focused on the development of an investment framework to address Norfolk’s key challenges and help ensure sustained economic growth. It also pinpointed the team’s work in creating ambitious business support programmes and leveraging millions of pounds in funding and investment to deliver impactful solutions.
In particular, it highlighted the Go Digital programme which has provided over 1,000 SMEs with one-to-one support to adopt new digital technologies and increase productivity, and the Innovation Grant Mentoring Project, which offers fully-funded bespoke mentoring and bid coaching support for SMEs, resulting in over £1 million of Innovate UK funding being accessed.
Additionally, the Norfolk County Council submission featured the Business Development Team’s success in leveraging £21.4 million for the Great Yarmouth Operations and Maintenance Campus – a partnership project in collaboration with Great Yarmouth Borough Council and the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership – which seeks to capitalise on the now well-established offshore renewables sector off the east coast and the Enterprise Zone that covers sites in Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft.
Cllr Fabian Eagle, Cabinet Member for Economic Growth at Norfolk County Council, said: “I am really proud of our Business Development Team and it is great to get this national recognition for the team’s hard work. The team have gone above and beyond to think strategically about Norfolk’s economic challenges and design innovative interventions to address these – bringing in millions of funding and providing vital guidance and support for thousands of local businesses. This award is very well deserved.”
IED Director Bev Hurley CBE, who hosted the IED’s 40th anniversary awards evening, said: “Many congratulations to Norfolk County Council’s Business Development Team as the winner of our Team of the Year award. Our judges described this as a strong, broad, entry with tangible impacts spanning business support, economic strategy, and site development and sector support. This included some added value items such as developing an investment framework, as well as rural and coastal projects, both small scale and large scale.”