Agenda item

To consider the first draft of York’s Local Area Agreement and endorse both the Economic Development and Enterprise Block text and outcomes framework.

Members considered a report on the first draft of York’s Local Area Agreement (LAA) and which sought endorsement of both the Economic Development and Enterprise (EDE) Block text and outcomes framework.

The report advised that the LAA was a 3-year agreement (refreshed annually) made up of outcomes, indicators and targets, and was effectively a medium-term delivery plan for an area’s community strategy. The outcomes framework was structured around four blocks:

·        Children and Young People

·        Safer & Stronger Communities

·        Healthier Communities & Older People

·        Economic Development & Enterprise

The first draft of the Economic Development & Enterprise Block of York’s LAA was attached at Annexes A and B. Annex A provided an overview of the key issues facing York in relation to economic development, transport and environmental sustainability. Annex B contained the outcomes framework for the Economic Development & Enterprise block. This matrix detailed outcomes to be achieved during the period 2007-2010, and associated performance indicators, targets, lead partners, and potential sources of funding. The full outcomes framework (covering all four LAA blocks) currently contained 52 outcomes with an average of 4 indicators per outcome (totalling 212 indicators). This met Government Office’s expectation that the full LAA would contain 40-60 outcomes.

The full first draft of York’s LAA would be agreed at the meeting of the LSP on 28 September and submitted to the Government Office for Yorkshire and the Humber (GOYH) in early October.

An updated version of the LAA was circulated at the meeting. Officers informed members that the Press article regarding the Skills and Inclusion section of the LAA had misunderstood the figures in this section. Officers reported that the article claimed that the percentage of people in York with NVQ level 2 was lower than the regional average. However the figure was lower because there were more people at levels 3, 4 and 5, and therefore were  better qualified.

The following points were made:

·        Concern was raised about how well cross cutting issues joined up across the four blocks and that some issues were not as well coordinated as they could be.

·        EDE2 lacked some definition and needed more refinement. It was suggested that ‘maximised’ be replaced by ‘optimised’.

·        EDE5.9 or EDE8 should contain an indicator relating to the five areas in the city where residential properties were experiencing high air pollution to show progress made on improving air quality in the areas. It was agreed that this would be picked up in the final draft.

·        The wording for EDE6.1 should be altered to show that the quality of events rather than quantity was a concern.

·        EDE6.3 could be amended to become a more broader measure consisting of figures from all attractions regarding number of visits.

·        It was queried whether new European funds had been taken into consideration or if there was any government funding available. Officers reported that the new European funds probably hadn’t been taken into account and at the moment there was no government funding proposed for a successful LAA although there could be future funding streams available.

RESOLVED:             That the first draft of both the EDE Block text and outcomes framework be endorsed.

REASON:                  To progress work on the first Local Area Agreement.