Presentation by Matt Lockley, Economic Development Team Manager, Nottinghamshire County Council
Minutes:
Matt Lockley, Economic Development Team Manager at Nottinghamshire County Council, delivered a presentation updating the Committee on the N2 growth strategy, highlighting the following information:
(a) The growth strategy for N2 provides a clear and concise economic development strategy for the N2 area which builds on the existing Nottingham and Nottinghamshire growth plans;
(b) The strategy that has been developed will look at the fundamental drivers of economic growth, identify gaps and ultimately provide a rationale that will underpin the Combined Authority (CA). In setting out a firm rationale for the CA, the growth strategy will also aim to secure resources and deploy capacity for the CA.
(c) The N2 economy continues to adapt with Nottingham having previously been seen as a manufacturing centre for the East Midlands, it now finds it strength is business, finance and professional services. Nottinghamshire’s economy is currently in structural transformation dominated by small and medium sized enterprise (SME) growth, particularly in low carbon and digital technology. The N2’s key growth sectors generate £6.33 billion in gross value added (GVA) and consists of 16,540 active enterprises;
(d) The issue of low productivity and employment and skills levels needs addressing. Productivity per employee in N2 is £41,300 which equates to 86% of the England average. Employment rates and skills levels in the city and some parts of the county are lower than the England average. The overall employment rate of 69.7% is slightly below the England average of 72.9%. There are low proportions of employees in knowledge-based sectors outside the city, with 25.8% of employees in parts of the county engaged in STEM-type occupations, compared with 43.8% nationally;
(e) In order to address these issues there will be a concerted effort on focussing the drivers of productivity, such as increasing start-ups, improving survival rates and improving access to finance. Efforts should be made to increase graduate retention as well as support for young people in the N2 region.
In response to comments and questions regarding Growth Deal 3, David Ralph, Chief Executive of D2N2 highlighted the following:
(f) The big picture is to create an infrastructure plan for Growth Deal 3. As things stand, there are 30 active programmes equating to almost half a billion pounds, with four programmes at risk, although a plan exists to move these forward;
(g) The key action is programmes listed for 2016/17 and proposals can be made to bring these forward. A key learning outcome from both growth deals 1 and 2 is that the standard of business cases vary and an overall improvement is required to business cases across the board. Programmes will need to demonstrate that proposals are state aid compliant and evidence of broader sustainability in now required;
(h) There is a commitment amongst the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to work more closely with Economic Prosperity Committees and the D2N2 LEP will be asking Committee members to prioritise projects and present them to the LEP;
(i) Early indications suggest that there is money available for a third growth deal but there is no certainty until after the Comprehensive Spending Review. Early indications suggest that there is £4.18 billion in the budget and with N2 consisting of 4% of the population it would equate to almost £100 million across the patch. Ideally, all project lists should have been submitted by 28 October 2015 to allow for some time to appraise them and work on prioritising them. It is worth noting that the bidding process is open to the private sector, FE sector and universities and that level of competition will need to be managed;
(j) Not all schemes should be public realm and there should be a focus on housing and mixed use schemes. The schemes put forward need to be in a position to deliver economic output with developers ready to commence work. When the Chancellor spoke in Derby recently the clear indication was that an extension to the Robin Hood Line should be top of the list of projects.
Matt Lockley, Economic Development Team Manager at Nottinghamshire County Council raised the following in response:
(k) Projects in the local growth deal funding pipeline include HS2 development and hub connectivity, a town centre programme with infrastructure developments, an extension to Robin Hood / Dukeries Line and a D2N2-wide cycling strategy. Place specific projects include additional enhancements to A57 (Worksop), the Creative Village phase 2 project in Worksop, Nottingham Southern Gateway (Broadmarsh regeneration) and a city centre office and residential development at Crocus Place / Library site;
(l) The next phase is to talk to N2 chief executives and come back to the Economic Prosperity Committee with a final list for approval before submitting to the LEP.
RESOLVED to submit list of N2 priority programmes for the Local Growth Deal at the next Committee meeting on 20 November 2015.