DEVON County Council is announcing the next phase of expansion to a network of business work spaces, which is helping to boost the county’s productivity.

Around 20 per cent of Devon workers are working from home, some of them small businesses that started from spare rooms and kitchen tables, and many are looking to move into larger office accommodation.

Work hubs are the answer, providing flexible-term office space, equipped with facilities that modern businesses need.  And Devon County Council wants there to be more of them. 

Those in Totnes, Tavistock and Barnstaple, and associate hubs in Exeter, East Budleigh and Torquay, are seeing steady throughput as start-up firms, coming to them with fewer than a handful of staff, are outgrowing work hub accommodation as they take on more employees and require larger work premises.

They are run by local business people, and can be a more attractive proposition for people looking for short-term and inexpensive office space.

Devon County Council plans to expand the work hub network further with hubs in possibly three more towns.  Businesses and entrepreneurs can apply for grants of up to £20,000 per hub, to help the council develop the hubs.  Free support for businesses with the application is available.

Councillor Stuart Barker, the Council’s Cabinet Member with responsibility for economic growth, said: “As a former small business owner myself I know how important good accommodation is to the success of a business.   It needs the right equipment and technology, the right facilities, be in a good location, and it needs to be affordable.

“Work hubs are providing that, and they’re giving small to medium sized businesses in Devon access to accommodation on short-term contracts that can otherwise be difficult to find at the right cost.”

Businesses testify to the work hub success.

The Council is inviting expressions of interests to apply for work hub funding by midnight on Wednesday, May 30.

For more information and guidance, and to download an application form, please visit the work hubs website: www.devonworkhubs.co.uk .