25 October 2016

Wigan has the Plan


Brexit, Brexit, Brexit.  You are probably sick of the word let alone when it's repeated three times like some sort of magical incantation.  Of course we do have to consider the future and as far as most people are concerned, at the moment you may as well ask a fortune teller as much as a politician.

Why?  What happens next seems to be so up in the air then why not!  Yet there is a place in England which seems to have a plan (as well as a pier) and that is, perhaps surprisingly to some, Wigan. 

Zoltar the fortune teller’s lips are not moving which means that unlike politicians we cannot automatically tell whether he is lying.  He sounds fairly convinced, however, that Wigan has not just a but the plan and if you look a little further in to this then it is difficult to argue with him.

It’s all part of a rather clever marketing plan by Wigan Works, which was set up to attract investment and jobs to the borough, located in the Greater Manchester area of North West England.  There is a new detailed investment framework to support inward investment and encourage new businesses, a number of which have chosen Wigan as their new base in recent months.  Wigan certainly does have the plan.

It is something of a relief, to be honest, to see a borough with so much get up and go.  It seems that while the rest of the nation’s business leaders are looking on in slack-jawed bewilderment, Wigan is pushing itself forward: its jaw is most certainly not slack although there is a tongue poking firmly in to the borough’s metaphorical cheek in regards to the Zoltar method of disseminating their ambitions!