Agenda item

(i)      Joint Report of the Corporate Director of Resources and Interim Corporate Director of Regeneration and Local Services.

(ii)      Presentation by Officers from Resources and Regeneration and Local Services.

The Chair welcomed the Economic Development Manager,Graham Wood; the Managing Director, Business Durham, Sarah Slaven; the Research and Consultant Officer, John Mitchell; and the Regeneration Policy Team Leader, Glenn Martin who were in attendance to provide Members with an overview in relation to economic and employment statistics (for copy see file of minutes).

The Research and Consultant Officer asked Members to note the information within the agenda papers which was collated from the Durham Insight tool, with links provided within the report.  He explained this was an interactive tool and the State of the County report was powerful in that it brought together lots of elements in one place.  Members were given a demonstrate of the interactivity of the Durham Insight tool and the Research and Consultant Officer encouraged Councillors to have a greater look outside of the meeting.  Members were reminded of the measures of success from the County Durham Economic Partnership (CDEP): employment rate; number of businesses; gross household disposable income; per capita gross value added (GVA); and the Index of Deprivation’s employment domain – number of Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs) ranked nationally in the top 20 percent.  The Regeneration Policy Team Leader noted those key measures had been set up a number of years ago and they would be reviewed in line with the new County Durham Partnership Vision, and new CDEP strategy in due course.

The Managing Director noted the Committee had received an update relating to Business Durham activities at its meeting in November 2019 and noted the work undertaken by Business Durham to impact upon the statistics relating to the number of businesses and the number of people employed.  She added it was important to be able to develop the skills to match and noted Members were familiar with the relevant work carried out by Business Durham, including with strategic sites, inward investment, packages to support and help grow businesses, and work to bring in new businesses.

The Economic Development Manager noted that the Committee’s Work Programme had looked at many issues recently including the work of the NELEP and the Skills Advisory Panel, DurhamWorks and EU Funding.  He referred to the successes of the DurhamWorks programme and of the Future Business Magnates competition and Durham City Incubator.

The Committee were reminded of the Town and Villages programme and other activities including Seaham Townscapes, Crimdon Coastal Hub, World Heritage Site and Brighter Bishop Auckland. 

The Economic Development Manager referred to the work relating to infrastructure to help deliver economic growth, with not just physical works in terms of transport, but also in terms of digital infrastructure and the green economy.  He gave an example of the Garden Village at Seaham, to utilise geothermal and minewater energy generation.

The Economic Development Manager noted the challenges ahead in terms of EU Funding moving to the Shared Prosperity Fund, though with little detail yet, Local Government and LEP funding, inclusive growth and accessibility.  He concluded by noting the uncertainty that existed currently in many of these areas. 

The Chair thanked the Officers, noted the Committee would visits several of the strategic sites at the end of April, dates to be confirmed, and asked Members for their comments and questions.

Mrs R Morris asked if we used comparisons with our statistical neighbours.  The Research and Consultant Officer explained we did not, with some data sets not matching, though it could be done.  Mrs R Morris noted that some neighbouring Authorities did not really compare to County Durham and therefore looking at other Local Authorities with a similar rural nature may be beneficial.  She noted the list of NELEP areas of strategic importance: Digital; Advance Manufacturing; Health and Life Science; and Energy and noted it would be important to be able to look at our performance in those terms.  The Managing Director noted we would look to link in start-ups to those areas and the Regeneration Policy Team Leader noted we looked at the NELEP Strategy Economic Plan and Government guidance in this regard.  Mr R Morris noted we are aware of the key areas/sectors and she felt we should be “getting in early”.  She noted the Future Business Magnates competition was in its fourteen year and asked if there was any feedback in terms of successes.  The Managing Director noted she believed some data had been shared with the Committee previously, however, she added that due to the age of the participants there were issues in terms of access to the data and the individuals themselves.  She explained there was some anecdotal evidence when former participants contact us, and that schools were approached for their feedback on the programme.

Councillor J Atkinson noted challenges included planning progression, he asked had planning been a delay in any cases in relation to the larger applications.  The Managing Director noted that many schemes, especially larger ones, would experience some issues in coming to fruition.  She emphasised that the vast majority of feedback received from businesses was that the planning process at the Council was very good.

Councillor J Atkinson added that perhaps advice to businesses as regards planning processes could be useful.  The Economic Development Manager noted that in those larger instances a “Development Team” approach was taken, with colleagues from various departments such as Transport, Business Durham, Planning, Highways, feed in to give a rapid process and to ensure a good flow of information.  He added the Council would always advise pre-application engagement at an early stage to help de-risk schemes.

Councillor E Adam asked for further information relating to zero-hour contracts at a more local level.  The Research and Consultant Officer noted that the data was only available at a North East regional level and explained that using that to try to look at the county would give unreliable data, and he would not recommend that in terms of use for looking to target resources.  He added that it would be possible to get an overall estimate of the total number of zero-hour contracts, however, not by sector or type.

Councillor E Adam asked as regards the gross household disposable income and whether that could be broken down further in terms of jobs and locations.  The Research and Consultant Officer noted it was possible to give an overall and per head figure, however, only gross value added (GVA) data could be broken down by industry sector.  Councillor E Adam noted he would question the types of jobs, with data suggesting to him that we were not attracting the right types with both our level of deprivation and GVA unlikely to improve until we address this, and to do so we would need to drill down into the data.  The Research and Consultant Officer noted the restrictions in terms of the data, those being from national data sets.

Resolved:  

That the report and presentation be noted.