Meeting documents

The Executive
Tuesday, 19 April 2005

EX190405-09

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ITEM EX9

EXECUTIVE – 19 APRIL 2005

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ACTION PLAN

Report by Head of Sustainable Development

Introduction

  1. This report describes progress made during the first year of the County Council’s Economic Development Action Plan (EDAP) and describes how the plan and its implementation will be improved in the year to come.

  2. The review process has involved interviews with those identified in the plan as responsible for particular outputs and a discussion of the draft report with the Lead Member Review Group of the Environment Scrutiny Committee.

    3. The Policy Context of EDAP

  3. The EDAP was approved by the Executive in March 2004. It is a plan of specific actions that the County Council (OCC) can take to help deliver the wider Economic Development Strategy for Oxfordshire. The Economic Development Strategy for Oxfordshire was developed in 2001 by members,of the Oxfordshire Economic Partnership (OEP) including OCC. The strategy is available on the following web site: http://www.oep.org.uk/index.html.

  4. The three overarching objectives of the OEP’s Economic Development Strategy for Oxfordshire are:

    1. Improve the competitiveness and innovation of the Oxfordshire economy to achieve a gross domestic product (GDP) per capita that ranks among the top ten sub-regions in Europe;

    2. Sustainable development – to achieve growth in productivity, whilst sustaining the county’s environmental assets; and

    3. Social Inclusion – to fulfil the employment potential of all the citizens in Oxfordshire by increasing participation in the labour market and matching skills to job opportunities.

  5. The 17 OEP priorities for Oxfordshire are:

Competitiveness and Innovation

Sustainable Development.

Social Inclusion

  1. Spread innovation best practice
  2. Exploit the commercial and creative potential of the science and technology base
  3. Invest in workforce development
  4. Refine support services for new and growing businesses
  5. Nurture business clusters and support networks
  6. Drive e-commerce forward, through a communications infrastructure
  7. Exploit new export opportunities
  • Achieve a more equitable housing market;
  • Secure adequate investment in transport infrastructure;
  • Protect the county’s important environmental assets;
  • Maximise the benefits of brown field land in appropriate locations;
  • Build and sustain viable rural economies;
  • Improve the environmental performance of all employers.
  • Invest in learning especially early years and adult basic skills
  • Widen participation in education, training and the labour market
  • Change community attitudes towards enterprise
  • Promote enterprise development within disadvantaged areas

    • The Economic Development Action Plan

      1. OCC’s role in Economic Development

    1. OCC is involved in delivering all of the OEP priorities except for 2 and 7. The EDAP brings together all the economic development actions of the Council and comprises:

        1. the policy context for sustaining prosperity in Oxfordshire;

        2. an analysis of the main factors affecting the economy; and

        3. an action plan that pulls together the work across the County Council relating to sustaining prosperity and implementing the Oxfordshire Economic Partnership’s (OEP) Oxfordshire Economic Development Strategy.

    2. These actions were structured around 3 approaches:

      • Creating a supportive and enabling policy context;

      • Using the levers that Oxfordshire County Council controls to overcome barriers and strengthen drivers of the economy; and

      • Working in partnership on major projects.

      8. In view of the feedback received while reviewing the 2004/05 EDAP the format of EDAP 2005/06 will be changed to align more closely with the main aims of the OEP’s Economic Development Strategy for Oxfordshire.

      (b) The main opportunities and threats to the Oxfordshire economy addressed by EDAP

      9.

      Strengths – Opportunities

      Weaknesses - Threats

       

      Strong science and knowledge base

      Skills shortages and underperformance of the educational sector

       

      Strong links between university and commercial sectors

      Changes in particular sectors of the economy in the face of global competition.

       

      Presence of clusters of firms in biotechnology, ICT, and high tech engineering (for motor sports and instrumentation

      Costs of dealing with the wastes produced by businesses and inhabitants

       

      Diverse economy that is therefore not over reliant on any one sector

      The costs of congestion and pollution if the infrastructure is not put in place and the costs of the infrastructure and pollution if it is

       

      Globally recognised brand of "Oxford"

      The costs of providing the mobility required by citizens, commuters and businesses as their needs continue to increase

       

      Attractive environment that attracts mobile entrepreneurs and academics

      The lack of affordable housing that is making recruitment and retention of staff a problem

       

      Convenient location for access to international airport

      The low level of exploitation of Broadband in all parts of the county

       

       

      Coping with polarisation between the prosperous, knowledge intensive part and the low paid, low skill, labour intensive part of the economy

       

       

      The implications for land use in the face of future demands from inhabitants, visitors and businesses

      (c) Detailed action plan

      10. The full list of actions is attached at Annex 1 (download as .doc file), showing;

        1. Progress to date;

        2. Proposed new actions and new outputs for 2005-2006 – shown in italics and shaded; and

        3. Agreed targets for actions where applicable.

      Results of 2004/05 Review

      (a) Process

      11. This review was a valuable opportunity to identify and report back on areas of good progress to build on in the coming year. The review also highlighted some of strategic objectives that were not being met by OCC work.

      12. EDAP reflects the work done by staff across the entire organisation. The majority of this work is not seen by those doing it as "economic development", but the detailed notes in Annex I (download as .doc file) reveal that a huge amount of detailed work has been done by many different services that affect economic development.

      13. The Environment Scrutiny Lead Members Review Group suggested that the plan be structured around the three key aims of the OEP’s Economic Development Strategy for Oxfordshire and that more attention be paid to the first of those aims, namely to increase the competitiveness and innovation of the Oxfordshire economy.

      (b) Good progress to report:

      14. A number of External Partnerships have been created or grown during the year:

        1. Oxfordshire Sustainable Business Partnership (1 of 7 in the South East, supported by GOSE and SEEDA)

          2. Signposting to a network of practical environmental information from leading agencies to help businesses in Oxfordshire realise savings or engage in new business opportunities through managing their environmental performance.

        2. Oxfordshire Community Partnership – Data Observatory and Understanding Oxfordshire.

          3. Bringing together a range of publicly available statistics and information about Oxfordshire citizens. The publication of An Economic Profile of Oxfordshire by SPED is providing the basis for a wide discussion about the County’s economy that will feed into the renewal of the OEP’s Economic Development Strategy during the course of the coming year.

        3. Regeneration Arc

          4. A network of the deprived/disadvantaged areas and regeneration agencies in Oxfordshire are working together with seed funding from SPED to produce an area based investment framework for future regeneration programmes. This is informing and being informed by work within OCC to join up its many different interventions in communities into a more coherent programme.

        4. Tourism

          5. An effective partnership with the District Councils has led to a renewed countywide approach to tourism and the start of effective implementation through strategic funding of shared evidence gathering and brand development work being done by Tourism South East.

        5. Oxfordshire Market Towns Initiative

      A countywide network and decision making body has been established to allocate funding to economic regeneration projects in market towns. Henley and Carterton have made considerable progress towards being able to apply for the programme’s funds, while in Chipping Norton the necessary partnership has now been set up but the "action plan" remains to be completed.

      15. Improvements have been made in cross-directorate working:

      (1) Workforce Development Forum

      The main question this forum seeks to answer is whether Oxfordshire can meet the needs of Oxfordshire employers including OCC in the future; and what needs to be addressed in order to meet the needs of a changing social and economic structure.

      (2) Future First project

      Aims to reduce the Council’s own environmental footprint.

      (3) External Funding

      Work involving both the Resources and E&E Directorates has clarified the Council’s procedures for both managing and seeking additional resources through traded services, external fundraising, volunteering and sponsorship. Recommendations concerning how to strengthen fund seeking across the Council will be made before August 05.

      16. Strategies that enable economic development have been developed or strengthened in the following areas:

        1. Social Inclusion strategy and Implementation framework developed;

        2. Procurement strategy that takes account of the effects of procurement on the environment and local businesses. County Council is also signed up to the SME Concordat;

        3. Social Enterprise;

        4. The Oxfordshire Social Enterprise Forum is a network of agencies involved in supporting social enterprise development. Consultation through a series of workshops is currently underway to complete this strategy; and

        5. Providing a shared evidence base to strengthen understanding of the issues facing the county and its economy.

      (c) Areas for Improvement in promoting Economic Development in Oxfordshire

      17. The following areas have not progressed as well as others and are definite areas for improvement in the coming year.

        1. Partnership working with employers to address skills shortages and needs

          2. Discussions at various forums, including the Scrutiny Committee, have indicated that although there are skills shortages in key economic areas such as retail, tourism and healthcare, such shortages are difficult to quantify and are liable to sudden change. SPED is investigating with a view to becoming heavily involved with two initiatives to improve both our knowledge of and response to issues in this area. Working with JobCentrePlus on a Local Employment Strategy and the Local Skills for Productivity Alliance – currently run out of the Learning and Skills Council will complement an increased involvement in linking business with educational issues.

        2. Improving secondary school results

          3. One of the major drivers of economic development is the education of post 13 year olds. Vocational work experience and studies are crucial to the development of this age group in preparing the range of skills they will require to be part of a productive and competitive workforce. SPED is working alongside colleagues from across County Council directorates and the PCTs to develop the Economic Wellbeing aspect of the Children and Young People’s Plan. The presentation by the Director of Learning and Culture to the OEP Board and discussions between Business In The Community and SPED have contributed to the possibility of increased involvement of the business community in skills issues in the year to come.

        3. Rural economic development

          4. While the Village Shops Programme and the Oxfordshire Food Group are performing well, the lack of clarity from central government about how it intends to respond to the Haskins recommendations to consolidate agencies dealing with rural issues, e.g. some functions of the Countryside Agency moving to either SEEDA or Government Office of the South East, has meant that policy work has made less progress. Our participation in the newly established Oxfordshire Rural Development Group and the recent decisions concerning the future of the Countryside Agency will allow progress in this area in the year to come. Initiation of the Oxfordshire Broadband Partnership also has the potential to help rurally based businesses overcome problems of access to their customers and suppliers.

        4. The policy context for promoting competitiveness and innovation

      EDAP proposes actions to strengthen the policy framework for work in the areas of promoting the sustainability and social inclusiveness of economic development in Oxfordshire (i.e. the second and third objectives of the OEP’s strategy) but it does not address the policy framework to promote the competitiveness and innovation of the county’s economy. The Lead Member Review Group saw this as a weakness and asked that it be addressed. Actions to do so are detailed in the annexed detailed report and will make use of the opportunities provided by the updating of the OEP’s economic development strategy and by the continuation of the Scrutiny Review of the Council’s work on economic development.

      18. New or strengthened areas of work for 20005/06 therefore include:

    1. Supporting the renewal of the OEP’s Economic Development Strategy for Oxfordshire;

    2. Inclusion of work by the Waste Management Group to reduce commercial waste;

    3. Inclusion of a broader range of Countryside Unit work that affects economic development;

    4. Inclusion of Trading Standards and Registration Service work that affects economic development;

    5. Strengthened plans to link economic development work and skills development’;

    6. The development of more coherent work with communities; and

    7. Management of the soon to be created Oxfordshire Broadband Partnership.

    SPED Expenditure on Economic Development

        (a) Expenditure 2004 - 2005:

      19. Annex 2 (download as .doc file) outlines the allocation of SPED’s financial resources to economic development projects during 2004/05. This reflects the budget approved by the Executive last year and actual expenditure is likely to be similar to the budgeted figures. Expenditure is presented relative to the three OEP Objectives of competitiveness and innovation, sustainable development and social inclusion.

      (b) Expenditure 2005 – 2006:

    1. Annex 2 (download as .doc file) also includes an indicative allocation of funds against the three OEP objectives. The total value of funds requested to date for 2005-06 is £168,454, which exceeds the grants budget for 2004/05. We will seek to address this by either making savings elsewhere in our operational budget, and/or by seeking funds externally.

      2. (c) Grant Making Procedure:

    2. In order to increase the transparency and accountability of our grant making we will be finalising and then publishing criteria that we will use for choosing which organisations and projects to fund. The draft criteria for comment are:

      • The contribution the project or organisation will make to achieving the OEP economic development objectives;

      • The track record or credibility of the organisation or project in delivering outcomes that contribute to the economic objectives;

      • A balance of funding, where possible, between the three economic development objectives; and

      • A balance of funding, where possible, between different areas of the county.

    Individual grants will be approved in consultation with the Executive Members for Sustainable Development and for Transport.

    1. The Executive is asked to approve the grant making procedure subject to its finalisation in consultation with the relevant Executive Members.

      2. Embedding Economic Development within Oxfordshire County Council

      1. Mainstreaming effectively:

    2. The experience of reporting on EDAP 2004/05 and developing plans for EDAP 2005/06 illustrates the need to ensure that sustaining prosperity is sufficiently integrated into the mainstream thinking and work of services in all directorates across the Council to reflect the fact that it is one of the Oxfordshire Plan’s top level strategic objectives. Work on other cross-organisational objectives such as promoting social inclusion and improving our environmental practices faces similar challenges of how to ensure that these issues are an integral part of the work of all Council staff rather than of a small and separate service. How, in other words, do we ensure the mainstreaming of such cross organisational issues? Lessons will be shared with those leading these and other mainstreaming programmes to ensure that we are as effective as possible.

      3. (b) Structure and Implementation of EDAP during 2005/06:

    3. The following steps will be taken to build on the work that has been done this year and to address the areas for improvement identified above:

        1. Review the analysis and priorities using the evidence and views coming from consultations such as on the South East Plan, on OEP’s Economic Development Strategy for Oxfordshire and on the structure plan;

        2. Re-structure EDAP around the 3 key aims of the OEP’s Economic Development Strategy for Oxfordshire;

        3. Conduct more frequent monitoring meetings with the services responsible for delivering the action plan, to increase the attention they pay to sustaining prosperity throughout the year;

        4. Support to the Scrutiny Review of Economic Development planned for 2005/06;

        5. Produce the next annual report on EDAP in May/June 2006; and

        6. Contribute to the research, analysis and drafting of the new OEP Economic Development Strategy for Oxfordshire for the period 2006-2011.

      Financial Implications

    4. The project grant will be funded from the operational budget of the SPED unit, from funds raised externally and by choices between the funding requests. This means that the work will not have any additional impact on the Council’s budget.

      5. RECOMMENDATION

    5. The Executive is RECOMMENDED to:

            1. endorse the re-alignment of the EDAP priorities around the three core objectives of the OEP’s economic development strategy as outlined in the report (Competitiveness and Innovation, Sustainable Development and Social Inclusion);

            2. support the new actions shown in shaded and in italics in the 2005/06 Economic Development Action Plan in Annex 1 (download as .doc file); and

            3. authorise the Head of Sustainable Development, in consultation with the Executive Member for Sustainable Development:

              1. to finalise a procedure and criteria for the allocation of economic development grants, based on the principles outlined in the report;

              2. to approve individual grants in accordance with the finally agreed procedure and criteria.

    CHRIS COUSINS
    Head of Sustainable Development

    Background Papers: Nil

    Contact Officer: Jasmine Pandher, Tel: 01865 815539

    April 2005

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