Agenda item

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

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BUSINESS

CHAIRMAN

Councillor Bell chaired the meeting for consideration of the Economic Development business. 

MEMBER

Councillor Davidson joined the meeting during consideration of the following item of business.

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1.            Economic Development Update

1.1       With reference to paragraph 1 of the Minute of 1 November 2016, there had been circulated copies of a briefing note providing an update on recent Economic Development activities. The Chief Officer Economic Development, Bryan McGrath, summarised the main points. With regard to business activity during the quarter, the Business Gateway team had assisted 46 business start-ups, of which 5 had the potential to be high growth.  In response to a question about the location of the business start-ups Mr McGrath confirmed that the figures were taken from across the Borders.  However he agreed to provide an analysis of locations for Members. The Scottish Borders Business Fund had received 10 applications and approved 8 grants valued at £26,099 supporting projects with a value of £67,475.  These projects were forecast to create 12 jobs with an estimated forecast economic impact of £333,837 GVA.  The update referred to a development in support of tourism, the Midlothian and Borders Tourism Action Group (MBTAG) project, which was launched on 17 January 2017 at Thirlestane Castle and which had secured over £400k from Scottish Enterprise and Railway Blueprint to deliver tourism business-to-business activity over a two year period. 

1.2       In terms of European funding, the UK and Scottish Governments had confirmed that applicants whose grant funding was agreed and contracted before the point of ‘Brexit’ would be able to complete their projects, even if the work was scheduled to take place after leaving the EU. The LEADER Local Action Group approved grant funding of £242k in 2016, including 4 community projects, 1 farm diversification and 2 rural business developments.  11 applications had been made to the Local Action Group for consideration in January 2017 and the next application deadline for LEADER funding was 28 February 2017.  The Council had been successful in applying to the Scottish Government for a financial allocation from the European Social Fund. Up to £591k grant was available for an Employability Programme valued at £1.4m.  In response to a question, Mr McGrath advised that this support, led by the Council’s Employment Support Service, would be targeted to those individuals with more than one barrier to employment access.  There would also be a Challenge Fund through which funding would be provided to the third sector to provide support across the Borders.

1.3       With reference to paragraph 3 of the Executive Committee Minute of 4 October 2016, Mr McGrath went on to focus his update on Town Centre Regeneration.  He referred in particular to the development of a Town Centre Resilience Index for use in prioritising town centre interventions and investments.  After receiving feedback following the meeting in October, the Town Centre Matrix and Index document had been revised and this was circulated at the meeting.  The Matrix had been constructed, pulling together a range of measures that were relevant to assessing the general ‘health’ of towns in the Scottish Borders with a population of 2000 or more.  From the Matrix, a Town Centre Index (TCI) had been created, with towns ranked according to potential need.  Members discussed the data provided and received answers to their questions. In relation to smaller settlements which were not included in the analysis, Mr McGrath confirmed that the Council would also provide advice where requested to community groups in these areas who were looking at regeneration projects.  Clarification was requested around the detail behind the figures, in particular the relationship between retail units and vacancy rates and how this was reflected in the Index arrived at for each town. It was agreed that some commentary to accompany the data would be helpful to give an explanation of the context by which it was considered.  There was further discussion about the ranking of towns within the Scottish Borders, based on the overall score, with the observation made that the level of resilience was not necessarily related to town centre intervention and the level of public investment. Mr Henderson explained that, following research carried out on Town Centres, the Federation of Small Businesses would be publishing a report shortly which would show a direct inverse correlation between the proportion of social housing tenure within a town, level of education, and the number of self-employed businesses. He pointed out that it was practically impossible for applicants, who did not own their own property, to run businesses as they were unable to secure loans.  Members accepted that work was required to explore the factors behind the data.  It was also suggested that an indication of the level and direction of public sector investment for each town, within the Matrix, may be of value to evaluate its effectiveness and to inform future decision-making.

DECISION

(a)          NOTED the update.

(b)          AGREED that the Chief Officer Economic Development:-

(i)        provides an analysis of the location of the 46 business start-ups assisted by the Business Gateway in the last quarter; and

(ii)       reviewed the presentation of the data in the Town Centre Matrix and Town Centre Index document in the light of Members’ comments above.