Agenda item

A Report of the Chief Executive of the Local Enterprise Partnership, attached.

The Committee received a Report from the Chief Executive of the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) which outlined key areas including the LEPs Route Map to Recovery in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic; sharing the key proposals of the LEPs Local Industrial Strategy which aimed to deliver clean and inclusive growth; and set out the LEPs response to the Chancellor’s consultation on Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR).

Covid-19 Route Map to Recovery

The Report highlighted that whilst the levels of COVID-19 cases had been relatively low with the South West region, the impact on the economy had been severe.

The LEP had published its Route Map to Recovery on June 3rd 2020 which set out the challenges, priorities and next steps. As well as working with Local Recovery Plans, the LEP had identified 2 specific pieces of work to progress:

a)     to develop the LEPs pipeline into a series of prioritised interventions (to feed into the CSR)

b)     to bring together the actions from the Productivity Plan, LIS and Recovery Plans into a single work programme.

The Route Map could be found at https://heartofswlep.co.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2020/06/Heart-of-the-SW-C-19-Route-Map-to-Recovery-June2020.pdf  

In addition, the Local Resilience Forum in Devon, Cornwall and Avon had specific responsibilities and most local areas had developed local recovery plans.

Whilst much of the response to COVID-19 had been nationally applied, such as lockdowns, LEPs had been integral to the economic response to COVID-19 phase by providing:

a)     Government accredited advice and guidance to businesses through the Growth Hub;

b)     delivering local grants e.g. Kickstart and local response initiatives such as Bounceback Digital, Jobs and Skills launchpad, Better Business for All guidelines

c)     securing £35.4m Getting Building Fund (shovel-ready projects to be delivered by January 2022 targeted at Green Recovery, Work Hubs and individual projects – summary projects could be viewed at https://heartofswlep.co.uk/news/getting-building-fund-projects-announced-for-heart-of-the-south-west/#:~:text=HotSW%20LEP%20received%20%C2%A335.4,be%20complete%20by%20March%202022   

d)     working with local partners, stakeholders and key officials on particular issues affecting the HotSW area.

Local Industrial Strategy

The Local Industrial Strategy was submitted to Government in October 2020 following approval from the LEP Board and Joint Committee.  The LEP Board had agreed to publish the LIS as part of its recovery plan to build back better. 

The Government had identified the following key requirements of Local Industrial Strategies:

•       they would be long-term, based on clear evidence and aligned to the National Industrial Strategy;

•       they should set out clearly defined priorities for how cities, towns and rural areas would maximise their contribution to UK productivity. Local Industrial Strategies would allow places to make the most of their distinctive strengths and would better coordinate economic policy at the local level and ensure greater collaboration across boundaries;

•       they would help to inform local choices, prioritise local action and, where appropriate, help to inform decisions at the national level; and,

•       they would also provide strategic overview which would inform Local Enterprise Partnerships’ approach to any future local growth funding deployed through them. In conjunction with the key reforms set out in the Strengthened Local Enterprise Partnerships, Local Industrial Strategies would help local areas in England decide on their approach to maximising the long-term impact of the new UK Shared Prosperity Fund once details of its operation and priorities were announced following the Spending Review.

The Report advised that despite the delays, Local Industrial Strategies still constituted an important policy tool as they represented a robust and assessed independent analysis of the key strengths of a region, notwithstanding that they would need to be reviewed in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.  The HotSW Local Industrial Strategy delivered a step change in ambition balancing the economy alongside inclusive growth and environmental impact across the whole of the HotSW area. Once adopted, it would require significant action both locally and nationally if its objectives were to be realised.

Working with Government

The Report outlined that although LEPs were managed and delivered locally, they were instruments of Government with joint departmental responsibility delivered through the Cities and Local Growth Unit. 

A Government official had been invited to attend this meeting to discuss Governments role with Members, including if relevant how LEPs fit into emerging thoughts on a White Paper on Devolution.

Response to Chancellor’s consultation on CSR (Comprehensive Spending Review)

The Report advised that the Chancellor announced his intention to deliver a CSR this Autumn and ahead of its publication had invited responses from LEPs through consultation. The Heart of the South West Leaders submitted a response, which was attached to the Report.

Members discussion points included:

•     the impact of the LIS not being endorsed by central government and how this could affect future projects – it was noted that a number of projects that had previously been agreed by government had now either been removed or watered down;

•     concern raised that whilst the LIS acknowledged the role of traditional industries of Devon such as agriculture and tourism, very little had been identified in terms of projects to help support these vital industries moving forward;

•     that the South West economy had underperformed for many years against how it would expect to perform in terms of productivity and delivering inclusive growth – however employment had remained high. A Challenge for the LEP was looking at how to transform the economy to deliver an above average performance against national trends;

•     the LIS set out an economic plan that was more robust about how the South West economy responded to other challenges like climate change and focussed on investment in clean and inclusive growth. 

•     The South West being a predominantly service economy with the need to focus on tourism, retail, care services and skills – research and development was also a vital area which required improvement and investment;

•     Housing – housing needs assessment identified huge amounts of housing required in Devon, and therefore a need to develop modular construction facilities in Devon – the Committee were advised that the Joint Committee had set up a Housing Task Force to look into the White Paper on housing as well Retrofit and looking into a the range of models available, with £4m of the Getting Building Fund allocated to deliver Retrofit ;

•     Energy – in order to meet climate change requirements the South West would need to move to more sustainable energy forms – a large barrier to this was the national grid not being able to take surplus energy and the need for the LEP to identify how this bottleneck could be resolved;

•     The digitisation of the agricultural industry;

•     The idea that the HotSW LEP area should be carbon neutral at the latest by 2030 and that the LIS did not address carbon neutral challenges moving forward – the Committee were advised that the LEP had not signed up to the Climate Change Emergency in the same way most Councils in the south west had, but discussions had taken place with both he Devon and Somerset climate emergency leads around the LEPs role in addressing it.  As a government sponsored organisation, the LEP followed government policies in respect of the climate change and the need to be carbon neutral by 2050.

It was MOVED by Councillor Atkinson, SECONDED by Councillor Howgate, and

RESOLVED

a)   The Board support the publication of the Local Industrial Strategy (LIS) subject to the LEP urgently considering the adoption of a climate emergency action plan;

b)   The inability to have Government support for the LIS causes significant concerns and the Scrutiny Committee would like to understand what can be done to rectify this; and,

c)   The Productivity Plan be included as part of the LIS.