BUSINESSES wanting to move to Salisbury district and home-grown ones wanting to grow further have been given a helping hand.

The South Wiltshire Economic Partnership has launched its own commercial property website to help businesses find the premises that are right for them.

The website www.salisburybusinessspace.com already features about 100 properties, including offices, industrial units and warehouses.

It also has a section showing commercial land.

The Journal reported in December that business people were concerned at the shortage of commercial premises generally, and particularly in Salisbury.

The website was launched last week at a presentation at the Milford Hall Hotel in Salisbury, attended by business people, estate agents and councillors.

Peter Le Count, vice-chairman of Swep and managing director of Wilton Carpet Factory, told guests that while the south Wiltshire economy was strong, it suffered from a shortage of people to employ and a lack of commercial property.

Estate agents Myddelton & Major were working with Swep to provide property details of all local and regional agents.

Mr Le Count said: "This service will assist businesses who are already in Salisbury district to develop and grow by making sure there is a good supply of property available to them."

Philip Holford, a partner in Myddelton & Major, said he was delighted to be working with Swep.

"We identified that south Wiltshire was not served by a database of available land and property and felt this service was much needed," he said.

"The aim is to support local businesses and attract inward investment from companies outside the area.

"We hope the site will help them identify existing space and land opportunities.

"And we hope that we can contribute to the supply of information about the take up of commercial and office space, which will help the local authority in identifying future land which can be developed and help the long-term strategic planning process."

Chris Vass of Spiracle.Net, which created the website, said its aim had been to enable users to get to the information quickly and easily.

"You can search by putting in the criteria you want property type, square footage/acreage, tenure and location," he said.

"And you can register for updates so if there is no match when you first search, when you do get a match, you will be automatically e-mailed the details."

Mr Le Count said: "Let's hope this develops and grows over the coming months."