Agenda item

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

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BUSINESS

1.            Chairman

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

2.            Economic Development Update

2.1       With reference to paragraph 2 of the Minute of 16 April 2019, 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, of which 7 met the new classification of “Early Stage” growth.  The Advisers had delivered 22 Start-up workshops and 5 Growth workshops to 165 attendees.  Growth Advisers continued to work with companies which had potential to achieve growth targets and had put 12 businesses through segmentation.  Business Gateway continued to work across the whole of the Scottish Borders, meeting with a number of intermediaries promoting the services available through Business Gateway and the Council.  In total 46 intermediary visits had been held during the period.  Business Gateway Advisers had facilitated 13 Digital Boost workshops with 106 attendees.  The Scottish Borders Business Fund had received 6 applications and approved 6 grants valued at £19,666, supporting projects with a value of £45,469 between 21 March - 5 July 2019.  These projects were forecast to create 13.5 jobs with a forecast economic impact of £651,000 GVA.

2.2       Regeneration updates were set out as part of the Town Centre Regeneration Action Plan 2018/19.  Jedburgh was progressing well and the formal offer (legal contract) from Historic Environment Scotland had been completed and it was hoped that the Scheme in Hawick would be launched early October 2019.  In terms of Business Growth Projects, the Council had previously acquired the former Armstrong’s department store building in Hawick for redevelopment and would potentially demolish elements which were beyond repair and redevelop it as a business incubator hub providing small office units.   The development was anticipated to provide up to 17 business incubator units, 613 m² net business space and potentially up to 25 FTE additional jobs, with the overall project due to be completed in April 2021.  Galalaw Business Park now consisted of 4 industrial units, with 3 of the units occupied.

2.3       The first cohort of unemployed trainees at the Hawick Textiles Training Centre for Excellence was completed in July 2019.  Six trainees completed the training and four had been offered a job in textiles businesses.  The second cohort of 6 started in August 2019.  Employers had now guaranteed an interview for anyone completing the 16-week course.  In addition, a number of mills were sending their existing employees on day-release to upskill and retrain.  Five shopfront and property improvement grant schemes had been launched in Jedburgh, Hawick, Galashiels, Eyemouth and Selkirk as part of the allocation of funding to key town centre projects by Scottish Borders Council.  The Schemes had been developed in partnership with business/community groups and were being funded through the Council’s allocation from the Scottish Government Town Centre Fund. 

2.4       European funding continued to be available to projects through the European Maritime Fisheries Fund 2014 – 2020 programme.  The Scottish Borders LEADER Programme 2014-2020 was fully committed.  The UK and Scottish Governments had confirmed that applicants whose grant funding was agreed and contracted by end of June 2019 would be able to complete their projects, even if the work was scheduled to take place after leaving the EU.  Property enquiries received to date were 67 and had resulted in 11 new leases which would generate £44.3k in annual rental income for the Council.  Occupancy levels for the last quarter (April to June 2019) were 88%.  An update was also given on the five projects which had received grant funding from SOSEP totalling £1.045m to develop rural skills, community enterprises and local businesses.

2.5       Mr Dickson and Mr McGrath answered Members’ questions on a number of matters.  Staff were currently working on the Community Enterprise Support project with progress expected in weeks/months.  With regard to the re-development of Armstrong’s Department store into a business incubator hub, Mr McGrath advised that this would be a support building, not simply office space, and it would be operated by Business Gateway and SBC.  The aim was to have much more of a licensed approach rather than through leases, which would allow Business start-ups to come in and then, after a time, move on to their own premises.  In response to a question about the timescale for demolishing Armstrong’s building, Mr Dickson advised that it was subject to a number of conditions attached to the planning approval as it was a listed building, so this could take up to 2 months before demolition could begin.  With regard to maintenance of the of the planters recently provided as part of the Selkirk BID company project, Mr McGrath confirmed that the very driver behind this was that businesses in the town would support the planters through BID on an ongoing revenue basis.  Members also made reference to the advertising on the cladding round the Tapestry building in Galashiels; the lack of business premises out-with the central Borders which was being worked on as part of the Local Development Plan; the lack of hotel accommodation in the central and eastern Borders which limited the number of visitors; and if community projects funding bids failed then officers worked with the communities to try to identify other sources of funding.    Officers confirmed that the Council did work with other Public Sector partners e.g. NHS Borders where practicable with regard to available properties and marketing surplus properties.    

DECISION

NOTED the update.