Meeting documents

The Executive
Tuesday, 20 April 2004

EX200404-10

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ITEM EX10

EXECUTIVE – 20 APRIL 2004

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ACTION PLAN 2004/05 – 2006/07

Report by Head of Sustainable Development

Introduction

  1. This report presents an Economic Development Action Plan for the period to 2007 (annexed) (download as .doc file). The plan builds on the economic strategy agreed in 2002, the changes in the structure of the Directorate for Environment & Economy made in 2003, the Council’s aim in the Oxfordshire Plan of sustaining prosperity and the decision by Executive in April 2003 to produce an Economic Development work plan. It also makes proposals about the delivery of the action plan and the use of the Council’s Economic Development Initiatives budget.

    2. The Context

  2. Following agreement last year that an economic development work plan should be developed for Oxfordshire, a brainstorming session involving officers and a seminar with both members and officers were held to discuss economic development in the county. The seminar strongly confirmed the importance of issues such as the quality of education, social inclusion and environmental quality in contributing to the continued success of the economy. A draft plan was then developed and meetings held with groups of officers from all of the Council’s directorates. The result of this process is not only the plan that is presented here for approval but also an increased understanding by officers across the whole of the Council, of how their work contributes to economic development and sustaining prosperity in the county.

  3. The Economic Development Action Plan illustrates how social inclusion and environmental quality are necessary conditions for sustaining prosperity for all in the county and takes account of the work going on to develop the Structure Plan and the South East Regional Spatial Strategy. The term "economic development" is therefore used to refer to this approach that fully integrates social and environmental aims into the goal of sustaining prosperity.

    4. Proposals for 2004/05

  4. Directorates across the Council have control of various "levers" affecting economic development. These levers include the Council’s role as the largest employer in the county bringing people into the workforce and developing their skills, the use of the Council’s own land and property assets, the purchasing of £200 million’s worth of goods and services annually, the transport and broadband infrastructure that it has responsibilities for, the regulations that it is responsible for enforcing and the institutional partnerships, ways of working and data collection that it is so actively involved in. Responsibility for using these levers to actively promote economic development is spread between almost every service in the Council. As such, delivery of the Action Plan will depend on directorates taking account of their role in sustaining prosperity in the county.

  5. Most of the actions in the Action Plan are not therefore new – but the formal link between them and economic development often is. The members’ seminar, for example, concluded that the top priority for improving the economic development of the county was to strengthen the county’s education services.

  6. The priority for the coming year is the implementation of the Economic Development Action Plan through the provision of support, encouragement and leadership to cross-Council and cross agency working on issues that relate to economic development in the county. Developing our skills of working in partnership both between directorates within the Council and with agencies outside the Council is acknowledged in the prority framework agreed by the Council on 10 February as important in relation to all the identified priority objectives for 2004/05. It is also consistent with the need to prepare the organisation for negotiating the next round of Public Service Agreements as of March 2005. An important driver of this internal and external partnership working will be a greater use and sharing of data and research allowing different departments and agencies to work together more effectively on the basis of shared analysis of the problems they are seeking to address.

  7. To complement and support the work done across the Council the Economic Development Initiatives budget will be used to support the implementation of the Economic Development Action Plan. The base budget for Economic Development Initiatives has been fixed by the Council at £150,800 for 2004/05. There is no carry forward from 2003/04. The proposed programme to utilise these resources reflects the objectives of the economic development strategy and the priorities in the Oxfordshire Plan.

  8. Expenditure on economic development from this budget is divided into six broad areas of work, as outlined in the following paragraphs. The funding is used to support projects that either try out new ideas and initiatives and/or help bring organisations together in more effective networks and partnerships. Our past involvement in the Bioscience cluster, the Oxford Trust, the Oxfordshire Investment Opportunity Network and Thames Valley Energy are all examples where this strategy has enabled new organisations to attract their own funding and to substantially contribute to the success of the county in developing new businesses in the high tech sector.

    1. Strengthening institutions in the county that improve competitiveness and an entrepreneurial culture Proposed Allocation £44k

  1. This includes a range of support provided to help exploit the innovative ideas being generated by the universities and existing knowledge intensive industries in Oxfordshire and turn them into viable new businesses. This will be provided by support to clusters that develop synergy in the IT and Bioscience sectors, support to Venturefest (which helps to show case new initiatives) and by funding of, and participation in, networks that facilitate economic development in the county: the Oxfordshire Investment Opportunity Network, the Oxfordshire Economic Partnership, the Oxford Trust and the Sustainable Business Partnership.

  2. Oxfordshire has a lot of good practice to build on but in a globally competitive market it needs to continue to identify and respond to gaps in support for increasing competitiveness and promoting an entrepreneurial culture. Support to developing an entrepreneurial culture in other sectors of the economy is provided in the form of support to Oxfordshire Business Enterprise, the Ethnic Minority Business Service and through support to organisations involved in promoting social enterprise. These latter organisations are also critical to the issue of social inclusion for those who are not prospering in line with the success of the economy as a whole.

  3. The Council’s European work mainly involves ensuring that people around the Council and in the voluntary sector are aware of funding opportunities that are arising that they could exploit. The Learning & Culture Directorate and Blackbird Leys Community Development Initiative have benefited from European Social Funds during the past year.

      ii. Tourism Proposed Allocation £30.8k

  1. Having been designated a Centre of Culture for 2008, Oxford and Oxfordshire will be having a major series of events and projects that culminate in that year. In responding to the tourism implications of this, and in collaboration with SEEDA and the City Council, the Council is supporting a jointly appointed post at the City Council and will provide funding to specific initiatives designed to improve the service that tourists receive in Oxfordshire.

      iii. Environment and rural issues Proposed Allocation £46.8k

  1. In both urban and rural areas economic change driven by forces arising from outside the county are leading to the need for economic renewal as particular sectors of the economy decline while others grow.

  2. Supporting rural businesses remains a priority; this is done in partnership with other agencies, such as the Oxfordshire Rural Community Council, ORCC, which administers the village shops support scheme, and the LEADER+ funded West Oxfordshire Network. This has supported a number of projects including Oxfordshire Rural Broadband to provide broadband services to two groups of communities without access to BT broadband services. It has also supported a rural craft project, mini-village appraisals in West Oxfordshire, and local food supply chain network meetings for local businesses.

  3. Follow-up work from the Oxfordshire Farming Study continues. The Council led work to form the Oxfordshire Food Group to promote local food in Oxfordshire. The group, established in 2002, is now supported by a range of agencies including SEEDA, Business Link, the Oxfordshire Economic Partnership, district councils, Buckinghamshire County Council and councils in Berkshire. In a new three-year contract with SEEDA the group’s remit will now extend to Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. A full-time local food project manager is working with farmers, supermarkets, village shops and other outlets.

  4. Carterton and Faringdon have undertaken health checks, and now employ market town managers, and a healthcheck is under way in Thame. Henley and Chipping Norton have conducted similar planning processes and all of these towns will be eligible for follow on funding from the market towns initiative (being re-named as the Small Rural Towns Initiative.) Funding for this follow up is dependent on SEEDA.

  5. TV Energy, the renewable energy agency for the Thames Valley, has made progress in promoting renewable energy projects in Oxfordshire, including a proposed project for hydro electric generation at Sonning Mill and an energy crops project in Clanfield.

      iv. Urban regeneration issues Proposed Allocation £10k

  1. With Single Regeneration Budget funding for Barton, Blackbird Leys and East Oxford in the process of ending and with diminished prospects of future funding, these and other agencies involved in aspects of urban regeneration in Oxford are coming together in what is provisionally called the "Regen Arc". The County Council is keen to support this as a way of building on the work done to date, sharing best practice and creating an organisation that has the prospect of being financially sustainable.

      v. Affordable and key worker housing Proposed Allocation £7k

  1. Having identified affordable housing as a key issue in sustaining prosperity in Oxfordshire, and having recruited a new post to champion this area, progress has been made in developing partnerships and analysis to take this work forward.

      vi. Data, research and knowledge Proposed Allocation £12.2k

  1. The Council provides census information to the many agencies within the county that need to have a clear evidence base to their work. Through collaboration with other members of the Census Users Group (City and Vale Councils, Thames Valley Police, Primary Care Trusts and all the Directorates in the County Council) and arising from work done for the Social Inclusion Working Group, the Council is about to acquire a data tool which will allow all the participating organisations to develop and share data profiles of the county. This will help drive partnership working, by providing a common evidence base concerning the issues facing the county that will underpin policy discussions within and between agencies.

    2. Staff Implications

  2. Most of the work of the Economic Development Action Plan is not new and will be done by existing staff in Directorates across the whole organisation. The additional work implied by the plan consists of the a continued emphasis on partnership working internal and external to the Council, a pulling together of data and research concerning economic development issues and processes to bring together work on economic development into a coherent programme. This will be done through a process of monitoring and support that will involve occasional meetings to discuss progress and future priorities. The management of the Economic Development Initiatives budget will be done by existing members of the Strategic Policy and Economic Development unit in Environment & Economy.

    3. RECOMMENDATIONS

  3. The Executive is RECOMMENDED to:
          1. approve the Economic Development Action Plan 2004/05 – 2006/07 annexed to the report; (download as .doc file)

          2. approve the proposals for the expenditure of the Economic Development Initiatives budget for 2004/05 as set out in paragraphs 9-20 of the report.

 

CHRIS COUSINS
Head of Sustainable Development

Background papers: Nil

Contact Officer: David Waller, 01865 810813

April 2004

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