Agenda item

A Report from the Chief Executive of the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership including the response to COVID-19 and Inclusive Growth, attached.

The Committee received a Report from the Chief Executive of the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) which updated Members on the Covid-19 response (to the economy) including the LEPs emerging priorities to Build Back Better and progress regarding Inclusive Growth. 

The Report highlighted several areas of success, including:

·     £51m of High Street Funding had been provisionally confirmed for Plymouth, Barnstaple, Yeovil, Taunton and Paignton;

·     Connecting Devon & Somerset (CDS) Digital Infrastructure programme (includes £10m contribution from LGF) had been re-procured before Christmas to 3 providers, which were Airband, Wessex and Truespeed;

·     The Future Flight project (Exeter Airport) had been approved by Innovate UK, and was supporting the development of electric-powered flight, and Long lane access road on site;

·     The Marsh Barton railway station had now been approved; and,

·     There was progress on new stations including Cullompton and Wellington, and potentially the reopening of lines including Okehampton.

The Report detailed the Covid-19 Route Map to Recovery which highlighted that that whilst the incidence of the pandemic had been comparatively

low across the region, the economic impact had been stark; particularly in coastal and rural areas. 

The Report stated that the economic impacts were stark, with the estimated impact of Lockdown 3 likely to be a loss of some 4% (in addition to the approximately 8% loss in 2020). This would likely lead to a double dip recession and although things had started to recover quickly last summer, the impact of this lockdown was likely to mean recovery would take longer.

The LEP had been responsible for local response and provided:

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

b)    local grants such as Kickstart and local response initiatives such as Bounceback, Digital, Jobs and Skills launchpad, Better Business for All guidelines and Train4Tomorrow;

c)   £35.4m of Getting Building Fund (shovel-ready projects to be delivered by Jan 2022) targeted at Green Recovery, Work Hubs and individual projects – summary projects can be viewed at Getting Building Fund projects announced for Heart of the South West - Heart of the south west LEP (heartofswlep.co.uk)

12 of 24 of these projects have now been contracted and we are expecting to meet our delivery targets; and,

d)    Working with local partners, stakeholders and key officials to highlight particular issues affecting the HotSW area.

The full publication of the Route Map to Recovery was available at HotSW Covid-19 - Route Map to Recovery June 2020.indd (heartofswlep.co.uk)

Members discussion points included:

• A Free Ports bid was submitted last week – one for Bristol/Avonmouth and one for Plymouth including sites at Langage and Sherford.  Freeports was a UK policy with a dozen bids submitted across the Country and it was expected that some announcements may be made at the Budget in March;
• Future of local growth – the LEP had not yet received an update from Government, however there may be more detail in the Budget. It was likely there’re would be more focus on Covid-19 response and delivering Brexit rather than growth plan. A Paper by the Chancellor was expected in the Budget around Recovery which may include local growth and UK Prosperity Fund;
• The Build Back Better Plan recognised key drives of the LIS and local delivering plans for Devon, Somerset, Torbay and Plymouth. published draft BBB plan before Christmas;
• The Emergency Grants for Covid-19 were complicated due to the tier system that was in place during lock down and the LEP was grateful for LA support.  It was noted the grants were insufficient and did not cover anywhere near the losses that businesses were incurring, and there were many businesses that didn’t qualify for any funding. Government has provided support for businesses for over 9 months, however businesses across the region were really struggling.
• Those businesses that had only been established in the last couple of years and did not have accounts to show the last 3 years of business, were not eligible to receive any grants or support. The LEP was extremely concerned about how the region’s economy would recover, and was anticipating a 4% loss in the economy over the next 3 months before things started to recover;
• That to get Hinkley Point back on schedule there would need to be an increase in staffing over the next 2-3 years; and further Covid-19 secure processes were being put in place such as social distancing on site;
• There would be a LEP Board Task and Finish group to look at the Build Back Better Plan, to look at responses to the consultation and make recommendations to the Board; and,
• Issues around the lack of an equality impact assessment for the Build Back Better Plan, which took into consideration the effects of Brexit and Covid-19, especially the impact of women being out of work within the retail and tourism sector, which is not considered.

It was MOVED by Councillor Brook, SECONDED by Councillor Williams, and

RESOLVED that

a)    Committee commend the LEP on the plans for inclusive growth and supports the LEP priorities in delivering programmes to respond to Covid 19 and ‘build back better’;

b)      The Committee recommends the LEP board undertake an Equalities Impact Assessment on the Build Back Better plan to include the impact of both covid-19 and Brexit;

c)    Councillors Brook and Williams be appointed to the Build Back Better task and finish group if agreed by the Chair of the LEP Board; and,

d)      Schedule future work programme items on progress of inclusive growth plans.