Meeting documents

The Committee received a report that outlined the elements of the draft Economic Development Strategy and Action Plan for the Vale for the period 2015-2018.

 

At the scrutiny meeting in June 2015, Members had provided with an overview of the Aylesbury Vale Economy and the key issues impacting on it.  While many of the key factors that had impacted on the local economy in 2011 were still largely the same in 2014, there had been sufficient changes in some areas, e.g. infrastructure development, to make it prudent to refresh the Strategy and Action Plan going forward for the 2015-2018 period.

 

The Economic Development team had recently undertaken a survey to help provide some further input and feedback on the key issues the refreshed ED Strategy would need to address.  Data was still being gathered from this and Members were informed of these emerging issues and themes at the meeting.

 

The draft Economic Development Strategy (EDS) key themes had then been used to develop the Action Plan which set out the range of actions, key leads and key partners involved in delivering the key actions. The Action Plan would be used to guide and monitor this economic development work being undertaken in the District. The activity areas were more fully explained in the appendices to the Committee report, which also included information on how they would be monitored and reported to the scrutiny committee via the work programme.

 

The Action Plan had 6 strands, namely:-

 

·                    Delivering the strategy – which focussed on the steps that would be taken to make the EDS a reality.  Progress against the identified tasks would be regularly monitored and an Annual Report complied to highlight the progress made.

 

·                    Supporting new enterprise – which aimed to build on Aylesbury Vale’s strengths as a centre for enterprise and one of the best places in the UK to start a business.  This would also focus on creating an environment in which entrepreneurship was recognised and celebrated.

 

Enterprise education in schools and Further Education (FE) and Higher Education (HE) would also be supported locally, as exemplified by the University Campus Aylesbury Vale (formerly known as the Waterside Academy).  Potential new businesses would be supported, where appropriate, with access to funding and first stage premises, and provided with first class access to advice.  Business networking would be encouraged to develop a strong sense of identity for local businesses.

 

·                    Supporting existing businesses to grow – businesses would be supported and encouraged to grow and expand locally.  A mix of modern premises were available and meant that businesses could expand or re-locate within the Vale to employment land in areas including Silverstone, Haddenham, Westcott and Berryfields.

 

Aylesbury Vale would continue to strive to meet the challenge of providing job opportunities in both mainstream and high value emerging and knowledge based sectors, to ensure the Vale economy continued to have a relevant, dynamic, resilient economy offering a wide range of employment.

 

·                    Attracting inward investment to the Vale – the EDS and Action Plan recognised that encouraging new business creation and the growth of existing businesses in the Vale could not be relied on alone to meet job growth targets. Therefore, there would also be a major focus on Aylesbury Vale as an exciting and dynamic inward investment business location, as part of the South East Midlands and Buckinghamshire Thames Valley Local Enterprise Partnerships.

 

As part of one of the fastest growing areas in the UK, the Vale would create a unique positioning that was attractive to ‘niche’ segments of the business market, emphasising the opportunities for higher value employment types, the potential to exploit the proximity to Oxford & Cambridge, especially with the advent of East West Rail, and the excellent location close to the M40, M1 & M25, lying midway between London and Birmingham.

 

·                    Infrastructure Development – there would be regeneration of the overall quality of employment space available within the Vale and upgrade and identification of other employment sites, in line with the emerging Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan (VALP) and the Aylesbury Town Centre Improvement Plan.

 

It was also planned to regenerate other key road and rail infrastructure such as the Eastern Link Road and East West Rail. Superfast Broadband would be rolled out further to rural and "not spot" areas to ensure wider coverage in the Vale in support of communities and business.  The Local Enterprise Partnerships would identify infrastructure projects that were suitable for new Government funding streams for unlocking and help create a revolving fund to provide capacity.

 

·                    Growing our own workforce for the future knowledge economy – the availability of an appropriately skilled workforce was key to keeping pace with the increasing demand for higher skilled occupations and new and emerging market opportunities. Aylesbury Vale had to secure its future in the knowledge economy through responding to employers recruitment needs now and in the future.

 

To do this would require investment in the research and innovation skills of young people and providing alternative career paths, including vocational and apprenticeship opportunities, part of which would be met by the University Technical Centres (UTCs). Aylesbury Vale needed to focus on what it was good at including: supporting entrepreneurialism, exploiting its current knowledge economy research assets, exploiting ‘niche’ markets and encouraging multi-and cross-disciplinary workforce skills.

 

The 6 strands comprised 47 activity areas that had been reviewed and prioritised.  These work areas had been discussed at the scrutiny meeting in June 2015 and the work areas for 2015/16 had been listed as:-

·                    Key employment sites.

·                    East/West Rail and HS2.

·                    LEP delivery programmes.

·                    The Aylesbury Vale Estates Business Plan.

·                    Skills Development.

·                    Support for business growth within the Vale.

·                    Inward Investment.

·                    Economic Development Strategy and Action Plan.

·                    Enterprise – start up businesses.

·                    European funded programmes – bidding and delivery.

·                    Economic Performance.

·                    Broadband.

·                    Business Support to market towns including Buckingham and Winslow.

·                    Visitor Economy.

 

A one page survey had been sent out in July-August asking key stakeholders to prioritise the following factors impacting on economic growth:-

 

A)        Enterprise culture.

B)        Business Retention and Growth.

C)        Competitive Knowledge based economy.

D)        Articulating a compelling Aylesbury Vale offer.

E)        Enabling infrastructure.

F)        Growing our own workforce.

 

23 replies had been received and a summary of them was provided to Members.  While there had been a small number of replies, there had been general agreement that collaborative and effective partnership working was essential to delivering economic growth.  The identified first choice priorities had been B), E) and D).  The second choice priorities had been F) and D.  At the same time, it had also been commented that all of these priorities were important and it was virtually impossible to differentiate between them.

 

Member requested further information and were informed as follows:-

 

(i)         that while the ED team did all they could to put interested people and investors in contact with local people, it was then up to these people to work together to progress issues, something that was often out of the control of the Council.

 

(ii)        on the current 2015/16 estimated budget for the Council’s economic budget activities, including employee costs, special grants information.

 

Members also commented:-

 

(a)       that while the strategy identified strands and action areas, more work needed to be done to develop an overarching vision for the Vale and to then articulate this to people, particularly those outside of the Vale.

 

(b)       that more needed to be done with educational facilities to develop people with the 2 skills for which there were national shortages, IT and engineering.

 

(c)       that it would be helpful to differentiate within the 47 activity areas in areas such as:-

·                     actions that helped maintain existing businesses, helped to grow existing businesses or were linked to inward investment.

·                     those that were Aylesbury specific, or that focussed on a market town, or rural areas.

 

RESOLVED –

 

(1)       That the Cabinet Member and Officers be requested to consider the feedback from this meeting in finalising the Economic Development Strategy 2015-2018 and the accompanying Economic Development Action Plan.

 

(2)       That Members with any further comments on the Strategy or Action Plan should provide them directly to the Economic Development team.