Our business plan
Supporting businesses and places
Supporting businesses and places
Our business plan for 2021-22 sets out how we'll work with partners to build vibrant economic communities across Scotland, build Scotland's reach and reputation, and work with businesses to build resilience and growth and develop future economic opportunities.
Getting behind businesses and places. Our business plan 2021-22 builds on the strategic approach set out by the Scottish Government in:
- Its response to the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery report
- The Enterprise and Skills Strategic Board’s Labour Market Sub Group report
- And the Logan Review
It also reflects the Interim Guidance Letter (PDF, 185kB) issued by the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Fair Work and Culture.
Building vibrant economic communities
Scotland’s economic needs and opportunities vary from region to region.
We'll work with regional partners to support regions and their businesses. We'll help them adapt to and take advantage of economic opportunities, building vibrant economic communities across Scotland, spreading increased wealth and wellbeing.
Working with companies and supporting business communities
Strong, growing businesses are essential for thriving regional economies, supporting local communities and jobs. We'll continue to play our part to support business resilience, business growth and support the transition of businesses across Scotland.
We're working with public sector partners to expand Find Business Support, so that businesses can easily access relevant business advice and support from across the public sector, regardless of location. This will help companies navigate the landscape, ensuring they can more easily find the right advice and support.
Support for high growth entrepreneurs, start-ups and spins-outs is still a key element of our work. We'll nurture the companies of the future, who have the potential to develop transformational products and services and create more jobs. Making entrepreneurship more inclusive will ensure we support entrepreneurial talent and widen participation from key under-represented groups such as women and young people.
We understand we need a vibrant and diverse funding market to support companies, so we'll continue our efforts to develop and grow the risk capital market in Scotland. We'll continue to invest in the early stage market where public intervention is needed most, supporting some of Scotland’s most ambitious and high growth businesses.
Strategic place initiatives
We'll focus particular attention on those areas identified by the Scottish Government as needing the most support for their recovery - Glasgow and Clyde, Ayrshire, and the North East. We'll work alongside local authorities and other partners to align regional needs with our national and international priorities.
We'll collaborate with partners, including local authorities and Business Gateway, to deliver regional Business Support Partnerships in these targeted areas and support regional company growth pilots.
We'll continue to support regional partners, offering our expertise and investing in strategic sites. Our support will help to transform places, building concentrations of assets, supporting Scotland’s economic recovery in a way that promotes long term sustainability. This partnership work will make the most of opportunities for people and places from the projects we support.
Building Scotland’s reputation and reach
Scotland’s international competitiveness is central to economic recovery. The Scottish Government has set out its priority areas in:
- The Inward Investment Plan
- A Trading Nation
- A Vision for Trade
- And the Global Capital Investment Plan
We have a significant role to play in delivering the priorities set out in these plans, helping deliver our ambitions around jobs, net zero and place.
Inward investment makes a significant and positive contribution to Scotland’s economy. Inward investors complement our existing business base and create opportunities to build supply chains, increase knowledge, networks and talent, helping build more competitive businesses in Scotland.
The Inward Investment Plan commits to a values-led approach and we are determined to attract businesses which provide good jobs and contribute to Scotland’s transition to net zero. The plan also sets out how we will target investment which not only brings jobs, but which will deliver added benefits such as opportunities for building sustainable supply chains.
We'll also continue to work with existing inward investors to identify and secure expansion projects, leading to future investment and jobs.
Working with agency partners and others, we'll ensure all regions can share in Scotland’s economic success. This means understanding all of Scotland’s assets (natural and built), people and skills and being able to promote these to potential investors.
We're also engaging with partners to develop regional investment prospectuses which will contribute towards Scotland’s overall proposition to attract investment and talent.
We continue to help businesses respond to the challenges arising from Covid-19 and the UK’s exit from the EU. We support companies to consolidate their market positions and rebuild their export potential, through innovation, capability building and developing new market opportunities.
By delivering the priorities in the Scottish Government’s A Trading Nation and its central ambition to grow Scottish exports, we will strengthen engagement with those exporting companies making the most significant contribution to Scotland’s economic recovery and growth.
We'll use a digital approach, to provide more online support to more companies, allowing us to work with a broader business base. We'll ensure that the five principles set out in the Scottish Government’s Trade Vision are incorporated into our approach and delivery, adapting operations where we need to.
Attracting capital investment is vital to enable business growth, develop infrastructure and places, and support the success of Scottish Enterprise’s seven National Programmes. We will contribute to the delivery of the Global Capital Investment Plan by:
- Helping build a pipeline of investable opportunities
- Supporting companies and projects to be “market ready”
- Taking propositions to international investors
Attracting overseas capital investment will be vital if Scotland is to meet its target to transition to net zero emissions by 2045. Scotland’s Green Investment Portfolio is at the centre of the Global Capital Investment Plan. The UN Climate Change Conference, COP26, scheduled to take place in Glasgow in November 2021, is a unique opportunity to promote Scotland’s climate approach and opportunities to investors across the globe.
Building resilience and growth
We've supported businesses and sectors throughout the pandemic and we'll continue to provide that where needed, but our focus is on recovery. We must work with businesses to withstand future shocks and build their capacity and capability to adapt to new opportunities and business models.
We'll provide effective support to more businesses by simplifying our service delivery, working alongside partners. We also need to focus on the broader economic objectives we want to achieve, around creating and retaining good jobs, the shift to net zero and benefiting places across Scotland.
To help us do this, our delivery model needs to be more flexible, ensuring we can respond to different economic circumstances, opportunities and threats, regionally, nationally and internationally.
We're working in partnership to develop recovery plans to support those sectors most impacted by the pandemic.
We'll continue to play an active role in the Recovery Plan for Manufacturing, including supporting the Supply Chains Development Programme to help build better and more strategic supply chains and leverage opportunities from Scotland’s £12 billion annual public procurement spend.
Recovery Plan for Manufacturing from the Scottish Government.
Our ambition is to deliver growth for more companies, keeping the elements that customers value, such as face-to-face interaction, but also creating a model that is flexible and uses the skills of our staff to achieve the greatest impact.
We need to respond to what businesses are telling us they need to build resilience and help them adapt and grow in a changing economy. We will shift our relationships during 2021/22 to focus on where there is a specific project or opportunity that we can support businesses to deliver.
This means a move away from longer term account management to opportunity management, where our face-to-face engagements will focus on achieving specific opportunities or projects and be over a shorter timeframe. This will enable front line staff to work with more companies.
We'll make more use of online self-assessment tools, such as the employer Fair Work Tool. This will enable businesses to assess their own performance and access support to help them do more.
Building future economic opportunities
Alongside supporting resilience and growth, it's also critical that we look towards Scotland’s long-term success, building future economic opportunities that will drive our international advantage.
This will require a strong focus on future economic opportunities where Scotland has a competitive advantage, stimulating investment in a green, innovation-led recovery: net zero, enhanced health and wellbeing, the accelerated use of digital and advanced manufacturing.
Based on insights and evidence, we worked with the Scottish Government and partners, to assess opportunities which we believe have the potential to achieve the best outcomes for Scotland. As a result, we've developed a portfolio of seven National Programmes:
- Digital Scale Up Level Up
- Health for Wealth
- Scotland in Space
- Future Healthcare Manufacturing
- Zero Emissions Heavy Duty Vehicles
- Decarbonising Heat
- Hydrogen Economy
We'll work in partnership with national and regional partners, including enterprise and skills agencies and local authorities, to deliver these seven National Programmes and ensure all of Scotland can contribute to and benefit from their success.
High growth start-up and spin-out companies, many of which are in technology, digital and low carbon sectors, are key to the future of Scotland’s economy.
They're driven by the spirit of entrepreneurship with innovation at the core. They're enterprises that create high-quality jobs and attract investment into Scotland while retaining a focus on growing in Scotland and increasing exports.
We must continue to support these ventures so that those with the best growth potential can flourish into significant businesses of the future.
Investment in early stage businesses is crucial to the development of Scotland’s future success in job creation and delivery of our economic priorities. We've transformed the early stage risk capital market in Scotland over the last decade and will continue to support its growth by co-investing with private sector investors to fund and support early stage growth businesses.
We're working closely with the Scottish National Investment Bank to ensure businesses can benefit from our complementary investment offerings.
Case studies
Read more about how we're getting behind businesses and places.
LumiraDx: £78 million investment
Life sciences giant LumiraDx has announced a £78 million investment in its Scottish operations which could see up to 750 jobs created over the next three years.
Arcola Energy Ltd: 135 jobs to Dundee
Hydrogen technology company Arcola Energy Ltd will bring up to 135 jobs to the former Michelin site in Dundee over a three-year period.
Emergency One: world's first electric fire engine
Supported by Scottish Enterprise, the company is poised to target international markets with a new net zero emergency vehicle.
Xergy: tech start-up funding
Xergy secures a £425,000 grant from Scottish Enterprise for a cloud-based system that can help companies get ready for digital transformation.