Agenda item

Presentation on recent Economic Development progress by the Chief Officer Economic Development.  (Briefing note attached.)

3.1         With reference to paragraph 2 of the Minute of 5 December 2017, there had been circulated copies of a briefing note providing an update on recent Economic Development activities. The Chief Officer Economic Development, Mr McGrath, summarised the main points.  With regard to business activity during the quarter, Business Gateway had assisted 83 business start-ups and 6 of these had met the new classification of “Early Stage” growth.  Advisers have delivered 24 Start-up workshops and 20 Growth workshops to 276 attendees.  Two Masterclass workshops on General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and Exporting had been hosted by Business Gateway with a further GDPR event scheduled to meet demand.  The Scottish Borders Business Fund had received 11 applications between 15 November 2017 and 15 March 2018.  10 grants to the value of £27,997 had been approved with a forecast economic impact of £482,419 GVA and potential creation of 18.5 jobs.  For the same period, the Scottish Borders Business Loan Fund approved 3 loans valued at £41,148 with a forecast economic impact of £118,052 GVA and potential creation of 4 jobs.

3.2         Regeneration updates were set out as part of the Town Centre Regeneration Action Plan 2018/19 under Item 7 on the Agenda.  The Tweed Valley Tourism Business Improvement District (BID) had appointed a Project Manager with the aim of progressing to a ballot in October 2019.  With regard to Tourism and Events, Mr McGrath advised Members that as from May 2018, a new supplier would be delivering the content for the interactive kiosks situated at stations and in towns along the Borders Railway route, bringing new investment and software with increased capacity for visitor and business information.  A new Rural Tourism Infrastructure funding opportunity, managed by Visit Scotland, was launched in April 2018 and it was intended that SBC submit an expression of interest application for potential capital projects by 24^th of the month.  With reference to Funding, the UK and Scottish Governments have confirmed that applicants whose grant funding was agreed through the LEADER and European Maritime Fisheries Fund 2014-2020 programmes, and contracted before the point of “Brexit”, would be able to complete their projects even if the work was scheduled for after leaving the EU.  The LEADER Local Action Group had approved grant funding of £2.01m to date, covering a range of projects and it was anticipated that a further 7 applications would be received in may 2018.   The Forth Fisheries Local Action Group had recommended 13 projects amounting to £452k to Marine Scotland.  A further 3 projects totalling £67k had been recommended to Marine Scotland in March 2018.  In terms of Property and Projects, Mr McGrath advised that the development of 4 workshops at the Galalaw Business Park had progressed well but had been delayed by around 3 weeks due to recent inclement weather.  It was anticipated that the current project would be complete by the end of May 2018.  There had been 25 new property leases issued in 2017/18, generating an annual rental income of £99.4k for SBC.  The occupancy level for leased industrial units during 2017/18 was 87%.  Members were advised that under the Low Carbon Economic Strategy, 4 new business referrals had been progressed during January – March 2018.

3.3       In response to a question on surplus property within the SBC property register, it was agreed that a report be presented to the Committee in due course.  Further questions relating to statistical data on occupancy rates and tourism were answered by officers.  The Structure Fund managed by Visit Scotland included a budget of £6m for allocation across Scotland and Mr McGrath explained that consideration would be given to applications which supported existing facilities such as mountain biking.

DECISION

NOTED the update.