Agenda item

To receive an update from David Cook, Chairman, and Victor Nicholls, Assistant Chief Executive on the work of the Economic and Skills Development Partnership, and progress in implementing the Economic Development Strategy.

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.