Agenda and minutes

Working Plymouth - Tuesday 24 November 2015 4.00 pm

Venue: Council House (Next to the Civic Centre), Plymouth

Contact: Helen Rickman Email: helen.rickman@plymouth.gov.uk

Items

No.

Item

70.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members will be asked to make any declarations of interest in respect of items on this agenda.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest in accordance with the code of conduct.

71.

CHAIR'S URGENT BUSINESS

To receive reports on business which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be brought forward for urgent consideration.

Minutes:

There were no items of Chair’s Urgent Business.

72.

CORPORATE PLAN MONITORING PDF 2 MB

For Members to be provided with a presentation highlighting progress against the Local Economic Strategy, specifically job creation, City Deal and inward investment and upcoming milestones.

Additional documents:

Working Scrutiny DRAFT report , item 72. PDF 401 KB

Minutes:

David Draffan (Assistant Director for Economic Development), Amanda Ratsey (Head of Economy, Enterprise and Employment), Patrick Hartop (Head of City Deal), Adam Hickman (Economic Strategy and Partnership Officer) and Adriana Curca (Economic Research and Monitoring Officer) provided Members with an update on Corporate Plan Monitoring.

Members were advised that –

(a)	the presentation would briefly update Members on Inward Investment, how the Council worked with the Local Enterprise Partnership, the South Yard Economic Project and key performance indicators;
(b)	one of the roles of the Economic Development team was to provide support to businesses encouraging growth in Plymouth by helping them to bid for central government funding;
(c)	the following projects were achieved through Officers work with the LEP and EU funding: · Ocean Studios · Genesis · Plymouth Science Park – Phase 5 · Drake Circus Leisure · Seaton Barracks
(d)	the South Yard project was continuing to develop; land had been released from the MOD and a lot of interest had been shown for the project both nationally and internationally;
(e)	Plymouth was hit hard by the recession however had seen higher than national average growth and an increase in productivity. Youth unemployment figures had also fallen.

The main areas of questioning from Members related to the following –

·	changes relating to how Council’s/ businesses bid for funding from central government;
·	Growth Deal 3;
·	youth unemployment and the reasons for reducing statistics for 18-24 year olds;
·	South Yard developments;
·	the Seaton Development;
·	the difficulty of balancing the requirement and importance of employment, housing, leisure and transport schemes;
·	how the Council encourages investment in the city;
·	difficulties in encouraging workers in the construction industry;
·	the relationship between the Economic Development and Planning Departments within the council;
·	graduate retention;
·	support provided to military personnel once they leave the Forces;
·	successful projects related to Economic Development;
·	Local Enterprise Partnerships;
·	the communication of economic development successes and projects;
·	engagement with Councillors.

Members noted the update, thanked Officers for their attendance and agreed to recommend to the Co-operative Scrutiny Board that –

(1)	Members of the Working Plymouth Scrutiny Panel undertake a tour of South Yard and other sites across Plymouth including Herder Court and Genesis;
(2)	Economic Development’s business newsletter would be provided to Ward Councillors to enable them to update local residents on updates within this sector;
(3)	Officers from Economic Development further investigate the support provided to military personnel leavers to help encourage them and ease the transition back into work;
(4)	Officers from Economic Development would provide Members with links to specific Twitter, Facebook, websites and publications as used to advertise the department’s work; Members could then use this information to further promote Plymouth if desired.

73.

EXEMPT BUSINESS

To consider passing a resolution under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972 to exclude the press and public from the meeting for the following item(s) of business on the grounds that it (they) involve(s) the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph(s) of Part I of Schedule 12A of the Act, as amended by the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Minutes:

There were no items of exempt business.