Councillor Ian Darcy joined the meeting during this item.

Councillor Evans OBE (Leader of the Council) introduced the item by showing a video and then highlighting:

a)    Plymouth had a lot to be proud of but wasn’t always supported, for example, by local media;

b)    PricewaterhouseCoopers Good Growth for Cities Index had named Plymouth as the UK’s best place to live and work for 2024;

                      i.        It assessed cities across 12 criteria including income, housing, health, skills and more;

                     ii.        Plymouth’s ranking was a recognition of its dedication to creating an environment where economic growth went hand in hand with balanced living;

                    iii.        Plymouth had seen marked improvements in areas such as job creation, income distribution and housing accessibility;

c)    The plan would ensure the benefits of growth were felt across all the cities communities; raising living standards, improving the quality of life and health;

d)    The UK’s first National Marine Park had been created in Plymouth and the city was home to one of the country’s most important cultural attractions: The Box;

e)    Proud of one of the best Economic Development Team’s in the country;

f)     Focus on high-value sectors such as defence, marine and manufacturing, whilst supporting new and emerging sectors such as floating offshore wind;

g)    The plan would ensure that the current and future workforce were equipped to benefit from new and higher paid jobs;

h)    The city centre and waterfront would continue to be improved;

i)      Challenges included:

                      i.        A tight labour market and increased demand for skilled workers;

                     ii.        Need to reimagine the city centre;

                    iii.        Climate emergency;

j)     70 year investment pipeline in the dockyard;

k)    The next stage in the economic strategy was to develop a 3 year delivery plan under four headings:

                      i.        Heart of the City;

                     ii.        Waterfront and Maritime;

                    iii.        Defence and Devonport;

                    iv.        North of the City.

Amanda Ratsey (Head of Economy and Investment) added:

l)     The Economic Strategy had been approved and data had been collected on all of the projects in development, speaking to a wide range of partners across the city;

m)  Four pillars of the economic strategy were:

                      i.        High value jobs;

                     ii.        Sustainable growth;

                    iii.        Civic pride and regeneration;

                    iv.        Inclusive growth;

n)    Housing target was likely going to be increased;

o)    £4.4 billion investment in the dockyard;

                      i.        The investment at the dockyard would drive growth for the city with Babcock needing 5,500 new jobs to sustain the workforce and another 2,000 construction workers in the next 10 years;

                     ii.        It had the potential to benefit the city, it’s travel to work area, local supply chain, local people and research and innovation;

p)    Existing projects needed to conclude, but a pipeline also needed to continue to be developed so this level of ambition could continue.

In response to questions, the following was discussed:

q)    Need to ensure that Plymouth residents would be able to access existing and future jobs from primary school, through to people getting jobs with career progression through the skills strategy;

r)    The Civic Centre building would be developed with City College to provide a blue/green skills hub;

s)     5,500 homes were due to be delivered in the city centre and Homes England saw Plymouth as a place for accelerated housing growth and the improvement works in the city centre had attracted housing builders;

t)     Status of ongoing projects:

                      i.        Armada Way works were underway and would be completed in phases and a press release had detailed the completion dates, the link to which would be shared with Panel members;

                     ii.        Civic Centre works were underway, waiting on information from Homes England on funding opportunities;

                    iii.        Plymouth University had made significant investment in the building at the train station, and was a 10 year project;

                    iv.        There had been delays with the Central Park ponds works, but there was confidence works would be completed in 2025;

u)    There had been difficulties in how to measure ‘making the city more fun’ and the team were open to suggestions on how to measure this;

v)    There were approximately 100 vacant buildings in Plymouth City Centre in winter 2023/24 and the aim was to half this, but there were hopes this would be exceeded;

w)   More information would be provided on the use of hydrogen at Langage to panel members;

x)    300 unique vacancies were advertised in Plymouth per month before the COVID19 pandemic and this had risen to 3,000 per month in 2024, with 7,000 new jobs generated in Plymouth from 2022-2024;

y)    The previous economic strategy had focused on job creation, but now focused on having more people in Plymouth with the skills to fill these jobs;

z)    The vision for the use of buildings in the city centre was to diversify and create a greater night-time economy, health use, education use, and more as well as retail, and this would all contribute to change the footfall in the city centre and this would contribute to a reduction in the number of vacant buildings;

aa)  Nationally only 6% of graduates want to live and work in the South West, however, 63% of graduates from Plymouth University wanted to live and work in the South West;

bb) Panel suggested the wording with engaging students was reviewed;

cc)  A number of jobs created in Plymouth relating to STEM, were likely to be less diverse, and it was an area for improvement and employers would have to think differently about they adapted to get the right people into the right jobs;

dd) It was important to encourage businesses to be more inclusive in terms of their workforce;

ee)The retention actuals data for Plymouth University graduates would be provided. 

The Panel agreed to:

1.   Endorse the approach and the titles of the 4 proposed delivery plans:

a.    Heart of the City

b.   The Waterfront and Maritime

c.   The North of the City

d.   Defence and Devonport;

2.   Endorse the approach that these delivery plans would be refreshed every 3 years in order to accurately reflect the current investment priorities of the city;

3.   Endorse that the approach for the delivery plans would prioritise projects already in train;

4.   Endorse that we will develop a pipeline and bring forward new projects.