Issue - meetings
Oxfordshire Strategic Economic Plan
Meeting: 18/03/2014 - Cabinet (Item 26)
26 Oxfordshire Strategic Economic Plan 
PDF 102 KB
Cabinet Member: Leader
Forward Plan Ref: 2013/182
Contact: Richard Byard, Service Manager – Economy Skills
Report by Interim Director for Strategy and Infrastructure Planning (CA8).
The purpose of the report is to provide an update on the Oxfordshire Strategic Economic Plan (SEP).
Local Enterprise Partnerships were invited to prepare Strategic Economic Plans that set out the vision and ambitions for economic growth in their areas. The strength of our SEP will determine the level of investment we will secure from the competitive £2 billion annual Local Growth Fund (LGF). Scale, ambition and deliverability are key assessment criteria - our project priorities are currently being finalised in parallel against these criteria.
Development of the Strategic Economic Plan has been a fast moving iterative process following the signing of the City Deal on the 30th January. A near to final draft document (100+ pages) has now been prepared and forms the basis of the summary attached. This draft has been discussed at Chief Executives, Leaders, LEP Board and Strategic Economic Plan Steering Board meetings prior to Cabinet.
Cabinet's approval is sought to ensure the SEP aligns to and delivers against corporate priorities, prior to the SEP's submission to Government by 31 March 2014.
The SEP executive summary which captures the key themes, geographical focus and governance of the SEP accompanies the report.
The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:
(a) agree the appended Strategic Economic Plan Executive Summary which captures the key themes, geographical focus and governance of the strategy;
(b) request that the Council Leader should be authorised to approve any further amendments and approve the final Strategic Economic Plan that will be submitted to government on 31 March 2014.
Additional documents:
Decision:
Recommendations agreed.
Minutes:
Cabinet considered a report that gave an update on the Oxfordshire Strategic Economic Plan (SEP) including the SEP executive summary which captured the key themes, geographical focus and governance of the SEP.
Councillor Brighouse, Opposition Leader welcomed the Strategic Economic Plan which she found to be good. However one area which seemed to be missing was the impact on local communities of the economic growth, including factors such as low housing affordability and the level of skills in the local communities. These areas needed to be included in order to support future funding bids. The Leader welcomed the comments and commented that officers had worked to produce the document in just a few weeks. Richard Byard added that there was an emerging skills strategy.
A Cabinet Member asked that if the information was available it would be helpful to have a breakdown of investment by area. Joanna Simons replied that generally this information would not be available as spending was based on client groups rather than area. However she undertook to see what information was available.
A Cabinet Member asked that the final document be checked to ensure it was readable as the font size on some pages was too small.
RESOLVED: to:
(a) agree the Strategic Economic Plan Executive Summary which captures the key themes, geographical focus and governance of the strategy;
(b) request that the Director for Environment & Economy in consultation with the Council Leader should be authorised to approve any further amendments and approve the final Strategic Economic Plan that will be submitted to government on 31 March 2014.