Agenda item

To consider a report by the Corporate Director: Economic and Community Ambition (copy enclosed) which sets out the context and aims of the review of Economic & Business Development function of the Council.

11.30 a.m. to 12.05 p.m.

 

A copy of a report by the Corporate Director; Economic and Community Ambition (CDECA), which set out the context and aims of the review of Economic and Business Development function of the Council, had been circulated with the papers for the meeting.

 

The report detailed how the review would support the Council’s Corporate Plan priority for developing the local economy and the vision set out in the Economic and Community Ambition Strategy.  The Council faced a budget reduction target of £17M over the next 2 years with savings totalling £11m having been identified, leaving a balance of £6m with there being little prospect of improved financial settlements in the foreseeable future.  The current budget reductions were on top of over £20m cuts made since 2009, and the scale of challenge meant that Council services faced significant changes.  The review of the Council’s Economic and Business Development function had been undertaken within this context and principles applied had been included in the report.

 

Presenting the report on the restructure of the Service the Leader and the CDECA emphasised that the Council had developed a very ambitious Corporate Plan and set itself extremely challenging targets in its Economic and Community Ambition Strategy, some of which were to be delivered by 2017.  In recent months the Council had given an undertaking that it would strive to deliver the Plan and Strategy despite being faced with unprecedented cuts to its budget for the foreseeable future.  As a result of these severe financial cuts services had to be tailored to deliver the expected outcomes in the most effective and efficient way, hence the reason for the restructure of the Economic and Business Development Service.  Both the Leader and CDECA reassured Members that the new cross county management and delivery structure was aimed at delivering the three headline targets in the Economic and Community Ambition Strategy's Delivery Plan - more people in work, higher household incomes, and more and healthier local businesses.  The roles of the posts within the structure, along with the additional post in the Business Improvement and Modernisation Service, were outlined.  Responding to Members' questions the CDECA and Leader confirmed that:-

 

· the responsibility for delivering both the corporate priority relating to economic development and the Economic and Community Ambition Strategy were not the sole responsibility of the Economic and Business Development Service, all Council services had a stake in them and a role to play with their delivery;

 

· Town and Area Plans would in future become focussed delivery Plans.  The Town Champion's role would be reviewed with a view to strengthening it and Heads of Service would be allocated actions or aspects of Town and Area Plans to be delivered within specific deadlines.  They would be held accountable for delivering these projects as they would feature in their Service Plans;

 

· the Town Champions and the Economic and Community Ambition Board had been consulted on the restructure proposals;

 

· certain aspects of the economic development corporate priority were being progressed at different levels e.g. educational/employer skills development, electrification of the North Wales railway network, promoting the region as an area for business were being progressed regionally via the North Wales Economic Ambition Board, whilst other more local aspects such as promoting Denbighshire as a good location for business were taking place at county level.

 

· WG was not always taking heed of local authorities or regional bodies' advice on what would deliver the best economic outcomes for the area.  At times this compounded local authorities' efforts to drive forward economic development, therefore local authorities had to be creative and innovative in their approach;

 

· in future European funding would be administered on a regional, North Wales, basis.  Confirmation was still awaited on where the European funding team would be located and on when community funding from large infrastructure projects such as wind farms would be available.  As the Council was no longer in a position where it could employ staff until funding streams had been confirmed or became available it had to work with what was currently available to it, hence the restructure of the Service which had been undertaken on the basis of what was currently available and known future availability;

 

· a separate report on potential future community funding, including wind farm and European monies, was due to be presented to Partnerships Scrutiny Committee on 19 March 2015.  Whilst the administration of European funding would move to a regional base it was not anticipated that Denbighshire would lose out on any money as it was one of the areas identified to benefit from EU Structural Funds for the period 2014-2020.  However, going forward, the Council and communities would need to refine their practices, and work more closely together, when developing projects in order to maximise the benefits from available funds;

 

· the Service restructure was underway and should be completed by May, 2015.  The reduced number of posts was in no way an adverse reflection on present postholders' capabilities.  The basis of its establishment was the 'good enough' concept within financial means to facilitate the delivery of the Council's vision and intended outcomes;

 

The following views and opinions were expressed by Members:-

 

- whilst supporting the aims of the Economic and Community Ambition Strategy they questioned whether the Council was setting itself targets which were too ambitious, particularly with respect to the digital infrastructure, as such matters were not within the Council's control;

 

- whilst acknowledging that the Service's management structure was an operational decision, expressed reservations on the pace of the process and the extent of staffing cuts, and whether the governance structure was right;

 

- emphasised that whilst a lot of activity had taken place during the last three years, the number of projects delivered to date seemed low.  Therefore, going forward, there needed to be much more emphasis on delivering tangible outcomes, all of which would need to be evidenced;

 

- raised concerns about the perceived incremental regionalisation of administration, governance and funding of economic development matters and the potential impact on economic development locally. 

 

- questioned whether the new structure would have sufficient resources to effectively deliver the Economic and Community Ambition Strategy and corporate priority to a 'good enough' standard;

 

- emphasised the need to strengthen the role of the town champions with respect to delivering the town and area plans;

 

- registered concerns on whether the Council was realising a return on investment from all regional economic development organisations with which it was involved, and whether all major developments in the region, despite being marketed as opportunities/projects for Wales, were actually nothing more than projects in Wales with the majority of the staff transferring in from outside the region.  

 

It was confirmed that the impact of the Service's restructure in delivering outcomes would be measured by the 'Cutting Our Cloth' Task and Finish Group through its work on the impact of the budget cuts on the deliverability of the Corporate Plan.

 

Following an in-depth discussion it was:-

 

RESOLVED – that, subject to the above observations, to support the rationale for, and the expected outcomes arising from, the review of the Council's Economic and Business Development function.