The Business Productivity Review, which concluded in November 2019, found that businesses prefer to take advice from trusted sources and look to their existing networks, such as their peers, when taking advice.
As a result, in July 2020 the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) launched the Peer Networks programme in England, to strengthen the availability of local peer to peer networks.
The programme was aimed at helping SMEs to deliver productivity improvements through participation in action learning cohorts. Supported by the network of 38 Growth Hubs across England, and with practical development and coordination support from the Growth Company, the programme benefitted more than 7,500 participants from July 2020 to March 2022.