This is a rare and important opportunity to influence how the council spends the  money they get from all of us through taxation.

Please respond to the consultation and help to safeguard economic development for the sake of Buckinghamshire’s businesses.

In the consultation you will be asked the areas you think to be most important. The temptation for the Council  is to spend every penny on fixing current social problems but without investing in business growth at the same time these very issues will worsen in future as taxation revenue falls behind.

We desperately need investment to attract and support businesses and to accelerate access to high speed broadband to help keep and bring jobs to Buckinghamshire so that businesses in the County can be globally competitive. Buckinghamshire already has the fewest available local jobs per head of population anywhere in England and we are rapidly becoming a dormitory County, which means less and less of our disposable income is being spent in our localities.

Unless there is clear support for continued investment for businesses and creating jobs, this will be an area of spend that the Council cuts to zero and we will once again simply pass more and more problems down the line to our children and grandchildren. Surely that can’t be the right choice!

It is really important that you respond to this survey and tell the Council that you want to see investment in supporting jobs creation, and providing access to high speed broadband or it will be cut.

Get your staff involved too! If your staff work in Buckinghamshire they can take the Residents Survey.  The more support we can generate amongst the business community, the stronger the message we can send about the importance of economic development for the future of our County. 

The consultation features a comments box at the end which offers you a chance to comment. Please take the opportunity to stand up for the needs of those who pay for everything the Council spends, i.e. the businesses and employees.