Agenda and draft minutes

At this point in the meeting, Members are asked to declare:

·        any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests

·        any prejudicial interests or

·        any disclosable pecuniary interests

which they may have in respect of business on this agenda.

At this point in the meeting, Members of the Task Group were asked to declare any personal, prejudicial or disclosable pecuniary interests not included on the Register of Interests that they might have had in the business on the agenda.

Councillor Semlyen declared a personal interest in the remit of the Task Group as she was self employed and had her own business.

No other interests were declared.

At this point in the meeting members of the public who have registered their wish to speak regarding an item on the agenda or an issue within the Task Group’s remit can do so. Anyone who wishes to register or requires further information is requested to contact the Democracy Officer on the contact details listed on the foot of this agenda. The deadline for registering is Thursday 11 September 2014 at 5.00 pm.

It was reported that there had been no registrations to speak under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

This is the draft final report on the work on the agreed scrutiny review of more productive and higher value jobs being undertaken by a Task Group on behalf of the Economic & City Development Overview & Scrutiny Committee (ECDOSC).

Members received the draft final report on the work on the agreed scrutiny review of more productive and higher value jobs being undertaken by a Task Group on behalf of the Economic and City Development Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Discussion took place around the report and in particular the Task Group’s recommendations.

It was agreed that the co-operation of Catalyst IT Solutions in the review should be noted in the report. It was also agreed that the recommendations should focus on measurable outcomes.

The Task Group acknowledged that there were problems with outcome targets as, in the current economic cycle, the city was expecting growth.  It was felt that the identification of specific sectors would help in measuring GVA (Gross Value Added) in the city as the overall figure could be distorted by tourism and retail.

There was also a need to focus on bringing graduates back to York as well as the retention of graduates in the city.

Discussion took place on a number of outcome measures that needed to be set out to address concerns raised and in order to reach the aim of the Task Group. These included:

·        Headline GVA

·        Targets around business stock and space availability for businesses to start up and grow in the city.

·        A realignment of car parking facilities at the University of York.

·        Further provision of business plan writing to support entrepreneurs.

·        Part time employment

·        The hollowing out of the age range available for jobs.

·        To produce an e-list of all the businesses in York for better communication purposes and to allow for the Task Group’s report to be circulated to businesses.

The Task Group noted that a Learning and Culture Task Group was currently carrying out work on entrepreneurship in schools and they requested that once this review was completed, the final report be shared with the Economic and City Development Overview and Scrutiny Committee.   

Resolved:  (i)  That the report be noted.

                  (ii)  That the wording of the existing recommendations be altered by Officers in line with suggestions made by Members and for this to be circulated to Members.

                 (iii)   That the report with amended recommendations be presented to the Economic and City Development Overview and Scrutiny Committee at their meeting in November.

Reason:   In order to conclude the work on this scrutiny review so the draft final report can be presented to the Economic and City Development Overview and Scrutiny Committee.