David Cook, Chairman, presented a report
setting out the work of the Economic and Skills Development
Partnership since the Partnership’s last update to the
Commission in March 2013. The report
included updates on key actions, an overview of its current
priorities, a summary of future plans and a summary of key
performance data relating to the local economy.
It was noted that the Partnership was business
led with representation from 3M, Waitrose, Bracknell Chamber of
Commerce and the Transport Research Laboratory on its membership.
It was reported that the Partnership had made considerable progress
over the past year. Of the
Group’s 46 agreed actions, 35 were either complete or on
track however due to resource issues some of the outstanding
actions had been reshaped or postponed until such time as resources
were available for example the roll out of a marketing plan
intended to raise awareness of Bracknell Forest as a place to do
business had been delayed. The business
community was aware of Bracknell Forest and wanted to engage more
with the Council.
Key priority areas for the Partnership
were;
- Business retention
- Engagement with businesses
- Attracting new businesses to the
area
- Supporting small businesses, Small
and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurs
- Encouraging people to recognise that
supporting businesses was everyone’s job
Arising from the Commission’s questions
and comments the following points were noted:
- Recruitment for a new Economic
Development Team was taking place and it was hoped that once the
Team was in post work would progress
- The Government definition of
‘Superfast’ Broadband speeds specified speeds of 24
megabytes however this was significantly lower than the general
public’s expectation of speeds in excess of 100
megabytes
- The Thames Valley Local Enterprise
Partnership, which had received increased funding, looked at the
economics of the Berkshire Thames Valley region as a whole while
the Partnership focused on Bracknell Forest. The two organisations worked together to encourage
business growth, investment and economic development in the
region
- The proposed development of a
co-ordinated impartial centre for careers advice would take the
form of a ‘one-stop’ shop in the town centre with
advisors from a range of organisations including NACRO, Advizor,
Job Centre Plus and Bracknell and Wokingham College
- Encouraging South West Trains and
Network Rail to install reliable wi-fi on their trains would help
those using the service
- Provision of free wi-fi internet
access in the regenerated Bracknell town centre would be a key
piece of work to encourage people to Bracknell
- There needed to be greater focus on
the STEM subjects, Science, Maths, Technology and Engineering in
educational settings
- Softer skills for example team
working, project working and communications skills were considered
by employers to be as important as formal qualifications
- A Sub-group of the Partnership had
been exploring the subject of apprenticeships and were trying to
ascertain what business requirements were
- A key aspect of the City Deal
project would be the creation of 1,500 work experience placements
and 300 new apprenticeships across Berkshire
- The Borough had received a low
ranking for the numbers of residents who were classified as being
part of the economically active workforce. It was agreed that would be investigated and
further information sent to members
- The cost base related to the overall
cost of a business locating itself in an area
- The Local Futures rankings where
positive for Bracknell Forest in many ways
- Whilst Bracknell Forest had a high
level of corporate space it had low levels of availability and
range of industrial and commercial space and this impacted in the
Borough’s ranking for its infrastructure
- Members thanked the Partnership for
the work that it and the Thames Valley LEP were doing to improve
journey times by rail to London Waterloo
- Crossrail would be a challenge to
maintaining Bracknell’s position in terms of train access to
central London
- Members observed that Bracknell was
less congested than Reading and encouraged officers to develoo0p
schemes to assist the movement of people around the Borough for
example by using cycle ways
The Commission thanked David Cook and the
Assistant Chief Executive for their update.