To provide the opportunity for representatives of the Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), Lorna Carver and James Weld, to address the Committee on what the work of the LEP entails, how the Partnership operates and its relevance to the work of the Committee. A presentation will be made by the Service Director – Economy to complement this.
So as to stimulate debate, the Chairman encourages members of the Committee to give some thought as to what they might be minded to ask the LEP representatives on the day, in order to have a better understanding of the relationship between the Committee and the LEP and how what it does might could play a part in benefitting how the Committee operates.
Minutes:
The Committee received a presentation from representatives of the Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), Lorna Carver, its Director, and James Weld, its Vice-Chairman, who explained what the LEP was, its purpose and how it operated.
The Committee’s attention was drawn to how the LEP’s Board was composed and operated, what their responsibilities and objectives entailed - in promoting economic growth and jobs - and how the value of the organisation was of benefit to the whole of Dorset. The importance of housing, infrastructure, planning, employment and productivity in actively contributing to fulfilling economic prosperity was acknowledged. The significance of skills being realised was essential in fulfilling potential, in being best placed to meet economic challenges and for Dorset to be competitive - locally, nationally and globally. It was considered that there should be focus on how Dorset could be best placed to be competitive in its own right, rather than there being competition within the County.
In order to achieve this, the LEP had developed a Strategic Economic Vision to determine the quality and importance of sectors, to be used as the basis to establish criteria on which the assessments of bids would be based, in order that improvements were realised and targets met.
Mr Weld used the principle of destination management to explain the evaluation, analysis and assessment of bids submitted was the core business of the LEP, in acting as a means of determining which bid should benefit from funding in order that the strategic economic objectives were met and projects delivered meaningful and positive outcomes. Projects had to be assessed as being viable, deliverable and beneficial in order to succeed.
The Committee was informed what the Growth Deal process entailed, how the Dorset Growth Deal was evaluated and implemented and the benefits the Growth Deal Achievements already realised brought to Dorset. Whilst Growth Deals 1 and 2 had been seen to benefit the south east conurbation mainly, with big ticket items such as the A338 resurfacing improvements, Bournemouth International Growth Programme around the airport and its associated infrastructure and the Port of Poole benefitting from this, Growth Deal 3 submissions were hoped to predominantly attract funding for projects in the rural west of the county. Mr Weld stressed that the importance of unlocking the potential of the Airport and its enterprise zone was critical in benefitting opportunities throughout Dorset.
The principles of the Growing Places Fund was explained, this being a loan scheme which allowed investment to be made in those projects in order for them to be able to start. The Growth Hub provided a means for penetration into the each district so that the most rural areas benefited too.
The LEP emphasised that there were opportunities for any project to submit a bid to attract funding and benefit from the Growth Deal or Growing Places fund and actively encouraged applications for this to be made. Part of the bidding process was to demonstrate how the project would deliver beneficial outcomes. Positive examples of what progress could be made in this regard was the Western Dorset Growth Corridor, Jurassica and the AgriTech initiative at Kingston Maurward College.Other delivery mechanisms designed to ensure that funding was allocated to those projects which would deliver optimum benefits were highlighted.
The Director emphasised that whilst the LEP provided the mechanism for projects to attract funding and be developed, the part that the County Council played in enabling projects such as the A338 improvements to be delivered was significant and should not be underestimated. He was pleased that the County Council had such a positive working arrangement with the LEP in delivering projects.
Critical to the work of the LEP being successful was the partnership and collaborative arrangements they had in place with local authorities, other public stakeholders and, in particular, the Dorset Local Nature Partnership. To this end, members were informed of the considerable collaborate work being undertaken with partners to ensure that the county was as competitive as it could be and the County Council’s inward investment team contributed significantly to this. Having a joint economic vision with the Dorset Councils Partnership was an essential contributory factor in this being realised.
The Service Director – Economy saw these relationships as being essential in benefitting economic growth throughout Dorset and considered that this was more readily achievable and likely to be successful on a macro scale, in order to attract the necessary funding and cooperation.
The Leader of the Council, who represented the County Council on the LEP Board reaffirmed that close working with the LEP through a countywide cohesive strategy was essential in ensuring that Dorset realised its full potential. He reassured the Committee that a more balanced portfolio of investment around the County would soon be evident.
The Committee took the opportunity to ask Mrs Carver and Mr Weld the following questions about the work of the LEP:-
· What emphasis and encouragement was being placed on training and relation in employment access?
The LEP emphasised that it was fully committed to the skills agenda in ensuring that employment needs were fulfilled and that readily available access to those jobs was key to this being achieved. Skills were being identified at an early stage, with schools being visited to explain what career opportunities were available. The creation of a careers and enterprise company for Dorset was well advanced.
· Given the perception from the LEP’s website that those projects benefitting were eastern/urban centric, how could rural parts of Dorset be reassured that there needs were being met?
The achievements from which the west had already benefitted were reiterated and it was explained that the website reflected those successes already delivered. These included the realisation of more readily achievable successes. The LEP anticipated that successes in the rural areas would be similarly reflected in time.
· What considerations were being given to projects on the perimeters of the County and how might these might be realised given the geographical constraints within which the LEP had to work?
Whilst the geographical constraints were determined by the DCLG and designed to attract European funding, how the funding was allocated and what criteria was met for bids to be successful was determined by the LEP and due consideration would be given to the merits of all applications, irrespective of where they originated.
· What plans were in place to liaise with the Combined Authority?
The importance of the Combined Authority, and any Unitary Authorities, was well understood as it was felt that the strategic arrangements of these were well placed to work collaboratively with the LEP on a startegic scale, taking into account the cohesive approach required for housing, planning and infrastructure strategies to succeed.
· What considerations were being given to the environmental assets in Dorset?
The environment was acknowledged as a critical asset to Dorset and that was why the collaborative work with the Dorset Nature Partnership and the local authorities was essential in maintaining this. Working with landowners in managing this valuable asset was essential. The part any proposed National Park could play in helping to managed this was seen to be a positive move.
· What impact Brexit was seen to have on the thinking of the LEP?
As elsewhere, Brexit was seen to bring both risks and opportunities and it remained to be seen how government was to manage these. On that basis, the LEP remained committed to ensuring that as many positive outcomes as practicable were achieved.
The Committee also considered that the LEP could play a part in acknowledging the need for affordable housing and how second homes were managed, the need for infrastructure to attract business into western Dorset and recognise what Portland had to offer. Mr Weld understood the importance of infrastructure in unlocking potential and he felt that there could maybe be a case made for the Weymouth Western Relief Road to be given further consideration in this regard.
The importance of digital infrastructure and its availability in order to access opportunities was seen to be essential in economic growth being successful and every effort should continue to be made to facilitate the provision of Superfast Broadband throughout the County. The County Council had demonstrated its continued commitment towards this and it was acknowledged that universal provision of Superfast Broadband was critical to the future economic prosperity of Dorset.
The Committee understood the importance of the relation between employment; housing; skills; infrastructure and the environment in enabling economic growth and success being realised. Whilst sophisticated technological business played a critical part in how economic growth might be achieved, including the essential part advanced engineering, financial and business services, manufacturing and the creative industries played, there was recognition too of the importance of tourism, agriculture, marine, fishing, mineral extraction and quarrying, and oil exploration and production in playing their significant part in benefitting the economy. Dorset LEP recognised the importance of this too.
Given the various means by which the County Council could play its part in facilitating economic growth across the County, the Committee acknowledged that there were significant opportunities for Dorset to achieve its aim of stimulating the local economy in order to galvanise its prosperity.
The Committee acknowledged the part that the Dorset LEP played in influencing economic growth and what benefits this brought and, on behalf of the Committee, the Chairman thanked Mrs Carver and Mr Weld for joining the meeting to provide them with a better understanding of what the LEP did and providing some meaningful answers to members questions.
Noted