Agenda item

[Report to be presented to the Panel]

The Head of Policy and Strategy stated that they aimed to support the development of sustainable communities, enable an inclusive low carbon transport network, and secure the potential of the City and the town centre. They had a challenge of a lack of available land for future developments. To improve productivity in the area they planned to help businesses and organisations increase productivity, in particular Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with targeted support, to collaborate with businesses and the University to foster a creative ecosystem, and maximise the investment potential of the City. A Steady increase in skills in the City had occurred over the previous 10 years, to further improve the local populations ability to gain work, they were going to carry out a holistic life approach to education and skills development, try to improve health and well being to remove barriers to employment, and grow community wealth through the Wolverhampton Pound scheme.

The Head of Policy and Strategy remarked they were in the process of developing a new economic performance framework and were working with the Black Country Economic Intelligence Unit to this end.  They had done mapping and data gathering to enable them in the future to deliver a support framework for businesses which would be easy to obtain. Signposting businesses to the right support for them would be the Council’s primary role in the future. The Head of Policy and Strategy then set out the strategy framework key business growth priorities:

·       Business support and finance

·       Leadership and management

·       Workforce development

·       Technology and innovation

·       Green business support

·       Internationalisation

She confirmed they would be bringing a more formal overview of the Business Growth Plan at the next Economy and Growth Scrutiny Panel.

A Panel member stated he felt what was missing from the growth strategy for the City was from the private sector, he stated that he did not feel the Council should rely solely on public works and grant funding. He said i54 was an anomaly to this, he said the i9 was not fully let.  He wanted evidence that showed private businesses were looking to Wolverhampton to invest in and grow the economy. He said he welcomed the devolution deal from the West Midlands Combined Authority but that the City needed more private investment. He criticised the Council’s business support, he said in his opinion they had sent out the wrong message with how they had handled the traders on Victoria Street. He also cited the report from the Wolverhampton Business forum as another example of where he felt the Council was failing. He said these actions sent out the wrong message to businesses at a crucial time when the City needed private investment. He felt the presentation and associated documents did not represent this and wanted the Head of Policy and Strategy to take note of his comment.

The Leader of the Council replied that it was a difficult time in the country, economically, and because of this investors and businesses were more likely to be risk-averse. He said because of this and because of Wolverhampton’s specific conditions they were having to work to create the right proposal for the City centre to attract private investment. He noted the Panel members comments about money received from the Government through the WMCA but he said the Council had had to fight hard to receive this money as the Government’s approach to granting money was one of competition which generated winners and losers. He said the government had repeatedly not given them the amount of money they had asked for and this created a short fall. He said he wanted the City to focus on re-skilling the local population, especially in the Green economy. He felt the Council was doing well in this and still had work to do.

The Director of Regeneration gave a number of examples where private investment had expanded in the City to evidence that the private sector was involved and was investing.

A Councillor referred to the strategy around place, people and productivity. She wanted to know if there was joined up working in reference to place. She wanted to know if more in depth investigations were done after businesses had failed. She cited the difficulties small businesses faced when larger companies moved in. In reference to people, she wanted to know what the target figure was for the amount of residents and businesses the Council was going to survey. She felt the Council needed to ensure they reached a large amount of people to ensure the sample pool was a fair representation of the City of Wolverhampton’s populace. She referred to business growth priorities, she wanted to know if there was any joined up working with the University of Wolverhampton, local colleges and local industry to ensure there was funding for Green Industrial Revolution. She wanted the jobs to be generated for people who lived in Wolverhampton over those who would travel in from outside of the City for work. She also wanted to know what the plans were around inward investment.

The Leader of the Council said licensing and planning was a challenge as the Council could not over ride government policy. He felt this needed looking at.

The Director of Strategy stated that they were focused on ensuring the economic eco system of the City was as favourable as possible for people to do business. She said the strategy was a one Council approach, which meant joined up working towards the same goal by all departments. There would be delivery plans to give specificity to each department to ensure the work was carried out correctly.

The Head of Policy and Strategy stated that they employed various methods and outlets to reach people for their surveys and tried to make it as accessible as possible. She said they did not have a set figure or target that they worked towards. She said they did try to ensure they had a representative sample by getting responses from people with different backgrounds, ie age or ethnicity.

The Director of Strategy said that the internationalisation question was difficult to answer on the spot but stated that it was driven by the West Midlands Growth company. She gave several examples to explain internationalisation was much broader than import-export. She said they had learnt a lot from events of an international character which involved the City, such as the Common Wealth Games 2022.

A Councillor praised the plan and said he was positive about the City’s businesses. He felt the visitor economy was starting to pick up more and gave several examples of new businesses catering to that. He stated that whilst some business groups had been critical of the Council, others had praised it.

A Panel member pointed out a campaign to get an additional rail line and station built in the Tettenhall area and asked if the Council backed that campaign.

The Leader of the Council stated he had campaigned for connectivity of rail in multiple areas, but they had not been able to gain support from the West Midlands Combined Authority or Government. He said he welcomed increased connectivity across the region. He felt the train services would be more beneficial if they could stop the franchisation of the railways, as well as the bus services.

There was discussion and general consensus between members of the Panel, the Chair and the Leader of the Council about the need for increased and improved rail lines and services.

Resolved: The Panel require an in depth look at the transport infrastructure plans as they interact with the economic strategy for growth.

A Councillor stated that the West Midlands Combined Authority’s estimated economic growth models were based off of the completion of High-Speed Rail 2 (HS2). Now that HS2 had been cancelled, she wanted to know what the alternatives were and how this was factored into economic planning in the future. She argued that the Head of Policy and Strategy needed to adopt a target based model to consultations when surveying public opinion. She stated that often there was a strong disinterest from people to respond, meaning small sample pools. She said the communication needed to be improved and that Councillors should be used to engage with constituents with the surveys.

The Leader of the Council disagreed and said he felt it would be foolish to have a set target, he said the ideal target was a 100% response rate but that this was not achievable. He said they could not force people to respond to a consultation. He said giving people an opportunity to have their say was the best they could do. He compared it to electoral voting which had low turn outs. He said he had enquired about HS2 with the WMCA and that he had received no response.

Resolved: The Strategy team return to the Panel with further updates on progress with their work in the future.