|
Memorandum
submitted by
1. Summary
This response considers only those responses in which Norwich City Council either plays a direct role, or is involved a delivery partnership.
The
Norwich City Council therefore, along with its partners, takes a strong interest in local economy and has been pro-active in monitoring impacts and identifying interventions which it thinks can make a difference.
There has been a whole raft of Government responses aimed at providing additional support to businesses and people impacted upon by the global recession. The council is able to provide some anecdotal feedback to some of these but on the whole it is probably too early to accurately assess all their impacts. However, we are also able to draw your attention to a number of initiatives that the council has led on which are contributing to much needed support in the local economy.
There are a number of issues that we think that the Government should be aware of however:
· Business does not on the whole feel well supported by the banks and this needs further investigation.
· There are some emerging initiatives that could be evaluated and rolled out as good practice if additional funding was made available.
· We would support an approach that now starts to evaluate what has happened and moves to a more strategic approach to the mitigation of local impacts.
2. Support for housing
Prior to the
recession
2.1 HCA initiatives There have been a range of packages and initiatives through the HCA to stimulate a stalled housing market such as the New Build Fund, the Kickstart funding and Social Housing Energy Saving Programme (SHESP)
2.1.1 The council is looking into the New Build Fund but has not decided whether it will apply yet.
2.1.2 The
Kickstart funding includes upfront investment support for infrastructure and
development costs available to a range of organisations who control land,
including housing associations and private sector developers. They will need to
put forward housing led schemes with a minimum of 50 homes (fewer in rural
areas or if the scheme delivers to Code for Sustainable Homes Level 5 or 6). As
the criteria for qualifying are quite tight it is unknown what impact this will
have locally. We have made developers aware of this funding and will be
discussing this with some developers of major sites in
2.1.3 The Social Housing Energy Saving Programme (SHESP) aims to help social landlords insulate hard to treat cavity walls, which would have not normally have been filled under the Decent Homes programme, thereby making more homes much more energy efficient. This initiative is welcomed, however evidence of impact is not yet available.
3. 3.1 Section 106 Prioritisation Framework: The Commission may be interested to note that the City Council has been developing and consulting on a proposal for a planning obligations prioritisation framework which will determine priorities for developer contributions in the event of a proposal being proven to be unviable and based on recouping further contributions once when uplift in values allows.
3.2 Business rates deferral: Norwich City Council is to allow business rate payers to defer payment of 60 per cent of the increase in their 2009-10 rates bills until 2010-11 and 2011-12 in order to give them the flexibility to help them manage their rates bills in the current economic climate. This is expected to go live by July 2009.
3.3 Payment
of Invoices: The City Council has
responded to requests from local businesses via the Federation of Small
Businesses in
4. Future Jobs Fund 4.1 The Future Jobs Fund was announced in Budget 2009, and is a fund of around £1 billion to support the creation of jobs for long term unemployed young people and others who face significant disadvantage in the labour market
4.2 Whilst a recognition of the potential role local government can play in tackling worklessness is welcome, the way this has been promoted (i.e. very hurriedly and with changing criteria) has the potential for confused and uncoordinated local planning. Without clear guidance to potential bidders about how the bids should be developed locally there is a potential for a multitude of bids from any one area. Some steer for bidders to work through an LSP would help coordinate applications. This would also help join-up bids with mainstream provision. Again this fund is a recently-announced initiative which may prove to be extremely valuable-however, its impact cannot yet be judged.
5. Real help for Business Now Following the Government's announcement in the November 2008 pre budget report, a package of support to address the cash flow, credit and capital needs of small businesses has been launched under the Real Help for Businesses Now campaign. 5.1 Real Help With Finance is a package of financial measures that will help enable banks to continue or resume lending to viable small and medium sized enterprises during the current economic downturn. The support package consists of loan guarantees and a new Enterprise Fund aimed at helping companies struggling to access finance for working capital and investment. The package includes an Enterprise Guarantee Scheme which is in fact a re-branded Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme which has been around for some years and has not been particularly successful-banks have never pushed the scheme or fully supported it because it does not fully cover their risk. 5.2 There is also an option to defer payments to HM Revenue & Customs (such as national insurance, VAT, tax) to assist cashflow-there is anecdotal evidence to suggest this is working well but caution should be used as interest is payable on deferred payments so businesses need to use them for the shortest time possible. 5.3 Government has launched a new "one stop shop" easy-to-use web portal. The portal, on the businesslink.gov website, will direct companies to the most appropriate form of support and help them ascertain their eligibility for a range of government support. 5.4 In the East-addition to the real help with finance set out above, Business Link have made all their workshops free of charge until Sept 09 and are offering free business "healthchecks". 5.5 Overall little of the above support measures are altogether new products, most being rebranded or slightly repackaged existing products. The brunt of delivery and referral resource is taken on by Business Link and HM Revenue & Customs as appropriate. There is considerable anecdotal feedback from local business to say that the fundamental problem faced is of access to financial services and that banks are still (despite assurances to the contrary) not lending or providing services as freely as pre-recession. We have numerous examples of businesses who have had long-standing overdraft arrangements reduced or removed completely at short notice and who are unable to access lending.
6. Local This government initiative aims to release the economic and productivity potential of the most deprived local areas across the country through enterprise and investment thereby boosting local incomes and employment opportunities, and building sustainable communities.
6.1 LEGI predates the recession (
6.2 The full range of LEGI
actions taken in response to the recession is outlined in the appendix. Almost
every element of LEGI Programme delivery has been altered or is currently under
development to respond to changes in demand and the economic climate. In
addition to changes in provision, the LEGI Programme and Economic Development
team will continue to work closely with business and employment support
agencies and local businesses to look for gaps and opportunities to use LEGI
funds to increase business start-up and the sustainability of small businesses
in
7. Partnership working 7.1 The
City takes a leading role in and works with its partners on the City of
7.2 The
City Centre Management Partnership is a public private partnership aimed at
ensuring that
8. Support for urban regeneration Norwich City Council has recently contributed to a request for information from the All-Party Urban Development Group. The scope of this was largely limited to spatial planning and the construction sector, however it is suggested that the following areas would benefit from intervention by Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) and the wider public sector: · LPAs may continue work on development of the policy framework for development, such as Masterplans, Area Action Plans. · LPAs can give clarity wherever possible on constraints on development · Some flexibility may be provided
on planning obligations due on developments. · Public sector can seek to address infrastructure constraints so as to facilitate future development · Use of Local Development Orders in some circumstances (such as to allow the use of vacant retail units for community or arts uses) may help protect the vitality and viability of existing centres. · Extensions might be given on the time limit on planning permissions (from 3 to 5 years) may help with enabling the sale of development land and bringing confidence back to the market.
20 May 2009 Appendix - LEGI response to the recession
LEGI delivery involves a number of partner agencies including · Business Link · Foundation East · The Prince's Trust · WEETU · Meridian East
The provision can be sectioned into several different key areas:
1. Business Start-up support
http://www.goforitnorwich.co.uk/
1.1 NEC has recently seen a significant increase in demand for business start-up training and advice and for 1-1 business advice. In anticipation of this LEGI funding has been used to support increased business advice sessions and start-up training workshops-all of these are free at point of delivery.
This provision is linked to the Business Link service and assists clients in accessing and using the £260 Business Link vouchers-these can be used to pay for any business support provision-accountant, lawyer etc - as desired/needed by the individual.
The business start-up support services that LEGI is able to provide from the Norwich Enterprise Centre (and other locations around the City) is the most comprehensive offer anywhere in Norfolk and the Business Support Alliance is currently looking at how they can try to provide a similar level of provision elsewhere in Norfolk.
1.2 Financial support · Norwich4Business A finance initiative supported by LEGI that provides finance for people who have been made redundant and who want to start up a business. · Foundation East Community Development Finance Institution This CDFI offers loans
to start-ups and small businesses who are unable to access mainstream bank
lending due to poor credit history or lack of collateral etc. LEGI funding has
provided ring-fenced loan finance for
1.3 Business start-up support for Young People The Prince's Trust currently provides business start-up support including a soft-loan scheme. It will almost certainly be even more challenging for young people to find jobs in a very competitive marketplace and this will further increase demand for college trade courses, driving lessons etc throughout 2009.
2. Employment and Skills Support
2.1 Skills support for individuals WEETU, A4E, Meridian East and Norfolk Learning Partnership have LEGI funding to deliver a range of services to people that are currently unemployed or claiming incapacity benefit, to increase skills, confidence and general employability-some clients are offered work-shadowing and work placements.
WEETU work specifically with women, Meridian East are specialists in providing skills to people with health and disability issues and Norfolk Learning Partnership are currently funded to work with young homeless people in local hostels.
This provision is complementary to JobcentrePlus initiatives and in WEETU's case connects individuals directly with the requirements of some key local employers. All these providers are currently working to develop their delivery for 2009-10 and are preparing to re-apply for LEGI funding.
The Prince's Trust also has £50,000 a year to provide Development Awards (small grants up to £500) to support young people to access training and employment opportunities-typically these Development Awards have paid for tools and equipment required to start a college course (e.g. Chef's whites), travel cards to enable attendance at college, fees for short courses (e.g. forklift training), and interview clothes.
3. Community support 3.1 BizFizz Coaching support for entrepreneurs. LEGI-funded BizFizz contracts (Mile Cross, Thorpe Hamlet and Lakenham) are in place until end of June 2009 and the Economic Development Team are currently looking at the medium to long-term future of such provision and its sustainability beyond the lifetime of LEGI funding. The Bowthorpe BizFizz Coach is currently funded by IiC and there may be a need to include Bowthorpe in any LEGI contracting arrangements and plans beyond June given current uncertainties on the IiC budget for 2009-10.
4. Support for existing businesses 4.1 Shaping This LEGI-funded project
will offer
In addition to this
project, we are able to capitalise on the relatively weak position of the
4.2 As explained in point 1.1 above, the Centre also provides information and support to existing businesses.
4.3 Buy Local This membership scheme promotes
growth and stability in the local
A procurement study was
conducted and completed in 2008. The study worked with
Activities in this area will now focus on supporting local companies in partnership with buy local to access procurement opportunities and develop tender-writing skills through a series of workshops in 2009. The format of these workshops is currently in development.
5. Other activities 5.1 Inward Investment LEGI is working to promote Inward Investment which needs to be sustained during a recession. The Programme has funded the new Norwich Fact file and a refresh of the marketing materials, which are disseminated widely.
5.2 Evolutive software, A commercial property search facility is being adopted through Property Services and will be launched shortly by Norfolk County Council and other Local Authorities who joint funded it with LEGI.
5.3 Genome Analysis Centre LEGI is making a substantial capital investment contribution. GAC will deliver five essential components in support of sustainable economic growth including job creation, new business opportunities for spin-outs and relocations, inward investment and profile raising for Norwich as a whole. Support for GAC is creating a legacy to stimulate job growth in the future.
|