Agenda item

This report provides a progress update on City of York Council’s work to develop a new Economic Strategy for York.

Resolved:

(i)           That the contents of the report be noted.

(ii)         That the draft economic evidence base and plans for engagement activity be noted.

(iii)        That business engagement activity be undertaken on the Council’s Economic Strategy in late spring/early summer 2021.

(iv)        That efforts be maintained to ensure that York’s voice was heard on national infrastructure programs, that the use of Government funding be maximised and reported in the economic quarterly update and that work to assist young people into employment be endeavoured.

Reason: To support York’s economic recovery from Covid-19.

The Executive Member considered a report that provided a progress update on City of York Council’s work to develop a new Economic Strategy for York.

The Corporate Director of Economy and Place, the Head of Economic Growth and the Manager of Economic Growth were in attendance to provide an update and respond to questions.

The Executive Member noted that:

·        The timetable for developing the Strategy had been impacted by the subsequent national lockdown (November 2020 and January 2021) and the rapidly changing Tier restrictions. The restrictions had a significant impact on the workload of the Economic Growth Team and businesses could not be expected to meaningfully engage with the Council on medium or longer–term economic matters at a time when business survival was paramount.

·        Business engagement would progress in late spring/early summer, with a new strategy brought to Executive in the autumn for sign-off.

·        The twin track approach to the new strategy would continue the long established focus on developing higher paid jobs in key sectors across the economy, while developing a clearer approach to inclusive growth across our economy. These two priorities would be underpinned by two cross-cutting themes, the notion of 21st century jobs, built flexibly around the needs of employees, and supported by continuous learning to improve individual mobility, and a focus on a green economic recovery, addressing the Council’s low-carbon commitments and York’s world-leading bio-economy, life sciences and agri-tech innovation assets.

·        Officers had been focused on reviewing and refreshing the economic evidence base, attached at Annex A of the report,  which included gap analysis work to ensure that the impacts of Covid 19 were incorporated into the evidence as well as identifying additional themes requiring further research, analysis work or engagement.

·        Work was underway to ensure that the engagement activity dovetailed with and informed other planned engagement taking place across the Council’s Economy and Place Directorate during 2021, including My City Centre, Local Transport Plan 4, Climate Change and the Councils Skills Plan.

The Executive Member agreed that due to the pandemic it was very difficult to conduct this work and he appreciated the support officers were providing to those businesses who were currently focused on their day to day survival.

In answer to the Executive Members questions, officers confirmed that although the strategy was being postponed significant national capital investment on infrastructure programmes, including carbon reduction, green jobs and rail transitions, would continue and apprenticeship programmes would still be made available.

The Executive Member noted that an update would be brought to a future Decision Session and he thanked officers for their report.

Resolved:

(i)           That the contents of the report be noted.

(ii)         That the draft economic evidence base and plans for engagement activity be noted.

(iii)        That business engagement activity be undertaken on the Council’s Economic Strategy in late spring/early summer 2021.

(iv)        That efforts be maintained to ensure that York’s voice was heard on national infrastructure programs, that the use of Government funding be maximised and reported in the economic quarterly update and that work to assist young people into employment be endeavoured.

Reason: To support York’s economic recovery from Covid-19.