Sutton is a great place to do business, says Vince Cable

SUTTON'S firms were this week given the backing of business secretary Vince Cable.

He was speaking on Wednesday at the Opportunity Sutton event, supported by the council with the aim of realising the potential of the town.

Mr Cable told the 100 or so delegates attending the conference at the Holiday Inn: "There is a team spirit where the local authority is working with businesses and the two MPs.

"There is a sense of a 'Sutton united' approach which is heartening if you want to get things moving."

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And in a direct appeal to potential investors Mr Cable made it plain he believed Sutton had a lot going for it.

He said: "All the indicators are that Sutton is in pretty healthy shape."

Mr Cable said the start-up rate for small businesses was one of the highest in the country and unemployment, while unhappily rising, was, at 3 per cent, relatively low.

He added the Government was doing its bit to help areas like Sutton by gradually giving local councils powers to spend more of business rates collected locally and reduce the amount of regulation on small businesses.

The call for companies to become more aware of what Sutton had to offer was led by Councillor Jayne McCoy, chair of the council's housing, economy and business committee.

She told the conference: "Over the years we have been keeping Sutton a secret but we have a lot of reasons to shout about it."

Nevertheless, she said, there were benefits now for businesses, arising from "hiding the borough's light under a bushel" in the past, adding: "It is fantastic place to live and, for businesses, has bags of potential for growth."

In addition, she said, the retail mix in the town had not reached saturation point and could easily be expanded.

"It is time for us to stop being so modest and start advertising the fact that Sutton is open for business," she said

A range of other Sutton supporters gave an insight into the town's attractions to investors, including retail and leisure and development opportunities.