PAPER
C
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, PLANNING,
TOURISM AND LEISURE SERVICES SELECT COMMITTEE – 1 APRIL 2004 ISLE OF WIGHT ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP ACTIVITIES REPORT OF
THE HEAD OF CORPORATE POLICY AND COMMUNICATIONS
COMMITTEE: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, TOURISM AND LEISURE
SERVICES SELECT COMMITTEE
DATE: 16 DECEMBER 20031 APRIL 2004
SUBJECT: REPORT
ON ISLE OF WIGHT ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP ACTIVITIES
REPORT OF
HEAD OF CORPORATE POLICY AND COMMUNICATIONS
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(i)
(i) To provide members with
information on IWEP activities for the period January - March 2004 July – September
2003 to enable scrutiny of the management of the contract with IWEP, by the Executive.
(ii)
To enable consideration by the Committee of what, if any, issues in
relation to the discharge of the economic wellbeing powers power the Executive.
(ii) .
(ii) To recommendask
Members to consider a change in
reporting arrangements for the financial year 2004 / 05 to enable more
wide ranging scrutiny of the approach to economic development by the Executive.
Select
Committee Members are requested to :
n
a) Note
the contents of the report.
(i) To receive information from the Partnership, the
Portfolio Holder and the Head of Corporate Policy and Communications, about the
performance, and management, of the contract with IWEP.
(ii) To receive further information from the same sources about
the discharge of the economic wellbeing powers by the Executive.
(iii) To make recommendations to the Portfolio Holder,
the Head of Corporate Policy and Communications and/or the Partnership about the performance and/or
management of the contract
(iv) To determine whether to add any enquiry
into the discharge of the economic wellbeing powers to the work programme of
the Committee. b) Consider whether in
the future they wish to have general update reports from IWEP at 6 monthly
intervals, with the option to request more detailed reports on specific
projects (eg Cowes Waterfront) at other times.
BACKGROUND
Having gone through
an extensive period of familiarisation and clarification, Members may now wish
to consider moving to a biannual reporting cycle for this committee in the 2004
/ 05 financial year. This would provide
the opportunity to receive a general report on IWEP activities twice a year,
with the option to request additional, more detailed progress reports on
specific key projects such as Cowes Waterfront at other times.
These factors were
reflected in the target profiling for this PSA. As
shown in the attached reports, there has been considerable activity carried out
by IWEP with no reason to believe that the targets will not be achieved.
Other IWEP
activities Members may wish to note are:
·
Work to link the Island Future’s LSP and the Area
Investment Framework (AIF) and to support the LSP in establishing and
delivering an Island Vision.
·
Cowes Waterfront – progress in securing tenants
and the timetable for shortlisting candidates to undertake the master
planning exercise.
·
Broadband – the Island is the first area in the Country to use
the newly
appointed Regional Aggregation Boards to procure the Island’s needs in this
high profile project.
·
The IWEP’s financial forecasts are on target for
the first nine months of the financial year.
·
Regeneration programmes – all of these have met
the targets and the profiles set in their delivery plans. Note:
Sandown Bay Regeneration Strategy is the subject of a separate report at this
meeting to
be presented by the Head of Community Development.
Members may wish to
note, in particular, the changes on funding programmes on the Island, with SRB
V and the Rural Development Programme (RDP) ending in March 2004. It is a credit to the IWEP in generating
activity on the Island that the monies for both of these have been fully
committed, with an extra £400k made available under the RDP. This will fund projects which have been held
in reserve, details of which will not be available until they have been
confirmed by SEEDA. It is worth noting
that other areas have not been so successful in using their funding.
Cowes Waterfront
continues to progress well and is seen as a flagship development for the
Island. This is a wonderful
opportunity to demonstrate that with the right support the Island has the
ability to develop and deliver a complex, long term project in a planned and
strategic way, with the active participation of a range of partners.
Other items worth
noting are:
·The
Isle of Wight branding and marketing initiative is gathering momentum and
support from a range of key organisations on the Island.
·The
Area Investment framework (AIF), into which the Council has had considerable
input. Papers have gone to Director’s
Group to ensure that priorities put forward will meet the objectives of Island
Futures and the Council. These will
require endorsement by the Executive.
RELEVANT
PLANS, POLICIES, STRATEGIES AND PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
The
work undertaken by IWEP contributes to the following:
·
Economic Development Best Value Improvement Plan
·
Economic Development PSA Targets.
N/A
FINANCIAL
IMPLICATIONS
For
the financial year 2003 / 2004 the Council have contributed £104,000 in cash,
in addition to which they have seconded staff as per the Service Level
Agreement. The Council continue to
honour their agreement to pay the rent on Enterprise House should IWEP be
unable to do so. This amounts to
£135,000 per year paid in quarterly instalments of £33,750.
LEGAL
IMPLICATIONS
Legal implications are
as laid down in the Service Level Agreement between the Council and IWEP, and
the legal agreements between the same parties relating to the Council
guarantees for rent on Enterprise House and the Innovation Centre.
Taking steps to promote
the economic wellbeing of the Island is a discretionary executive function of the
council under Part 1 Local Government Act 2000. Discharge of that function by the
Executive is susceptible
to overview and scrutiny under s13 of the same Act.
Appendix 1 Summary of IWEP activities for the period
January –
March 2004 uly – September 2003.
Appendix 2 Progress Report on
PSA Target 11 – Over 50s Employment
1
Service Level Agreement between the Council and IWEP
2
Legal Agreements between the Council and IWEP
undertaking to guarantee payment of the rent on the properties known as Enterprise
House and the Innovation Centre, St Cross Business Park, Newport, should the
IWEP be unable to do so.
3
Agreements for IWEP to deliver PSA Targets 4 and 11
on behalf of the Council
Contact
Point : , F John Bentley
Lesley Williams
Head
of Corporate Principal Policy and CommunicationsOfficer
Ext 3797346
APPENDIX
1
IWEP
ACTIVITIES – QUARTERLY REPORT JULY-SEPTEMBER 2003
Summary
1 The regeneration programmes are currently
delivering to projected profiles for the year 2003-04. Several Grant programmes will end in March
2004 and work is well underway to access monies from the single pot (SEEDA) and
from other funders, for future regeneration activity through the Area
Investment Framework.
2 A very
positive development in terms of Inward Investment and the Ambassadors scheme
is Island Call, setting up a call centre in Ryde, creating up to 20 jobs in the
first instance.
3 Ryde
Development Trust has secured a stage 1 approval for £750,000 of Townscape
Heritage Initiative funding from Heritage Lottery Fund.
4 Quarterly
returns containing key indicators, outputs and outcomes for the Quarter 2
period (July – September) have been completed and sent to SEEDA at the end of
October.
5 The SRB V
programme is due for completion at 31 March 2004 and all monies in this round
are fully committed.
6 The
underspend of £638, 936 in SRB VI at the end of 2002-03 was carried forward
into 2004-05 and 2005-06 and not into the current year (2003-04) as was first
envisaged. Spend in the current year is
ahead of profile due to accelerated delivery of projects.
7 Mike
Wheeler has been appointed a project manager for all public realm work in Ryde
for the next 18-24months. Ryde
Development Trust has secured a stage 1 approval for £750,000 of Townscape
Heritage Initiative funding from Heritage Lottery Fund. This funding will enable work to be carried
out on shop front and building improvements in Ryde.
8 Ian
Stephens is now the IW Council representative on The Ryde Development Trust
Board. The Ryde Development Trust is
due to expand membership which will create a further position for the IWC.
Rural
Development Programme
9 This
programme will cease in March 2004 and all monies are already committed. We have just been advised that a further
amount of £400,000 is to be made available to the Island for spend this year. This is as a result of underspend elsewhere
in the Region. These funds are
committed to meeting the spend of some existing projects and further projects
which have been brought forward from a reserve list. These have yet to be confirmed with SEEDA.
10 A considerable number of projects are coming
through this programme and a further 17 projects have been approved over the
last quarter, with funding totalling £1,371,834 and match funding of £993,978.
These include the Rural Training Bus, Photographic Courses at Dimbola Lodge,
Rural Support for the Blind Society and Chale Nursery.
11 A review
of the MTI delivery has taken place during the last quarter and it has become
clear that existing staffing arrangements were not meeting the needs of the
towns. As a consequence, key IWEP staff
have taken a lead in working with the towns to manage the local strategic
framework.
12 The
Ventnor delivery plan has been approved by SEEDA and projects are ready for
appraisal/approval under this plan. The
Sandown & Shanklin delivery plans have been reviewed by IWEP staff, in
conjunction with the Community Partnerships and revised versions are now being
put to SEEDA for approval.
13 The 19
projects have been reviewed by members of the management and advisory group,
together with the HLP staff. Discussions are continuing as to how to make the
programme sustainable and recommendations will be shortly be made to NOF
(current funders) that they should release further funding to the programme in
2004.
Enterprise & Investment
Cowes Waterfront
14 In just 1
year the partnership between the Council SEEDA and the Isle of Wight
Partnership has achieved the following:
-
Commission of development framework Sept 2002
-
public consultation with an 85% approval rating
-
strong commitment from both the public &
private sectors
-
supplementary planning guidance adopted by the IWC
in July 2003
-
substantial cash investment
-
significant investor interest
-
and the purchase of 2 key sites, GKN North Works
& Three Gates Rd
15
In addition, we have re-branded the Project to
Cowes Waterfront. This was launched during Cowes Week and has already gained
acceptance. The reasoning behind the name change is simple; as we put more
effort in to the marketing of the Project we wanted to market a destination and
not a project. We will be formalising the marketing plan during November.
16 We have
also re-branded Ellen MacArthur’s boat Kingfisher; she is now called “Team
Cowes”, and is entered in a race from Le Havre in France to Salvador in Brazil.
This will be the first time the names of Cowes and the Isle of Wight will be
marketed on an international basis.
17 Cowes
Waterfront shows what can be done in just 12 months when a strong commitment is
made by all of the parties involved.
Inward Investment
18 As
previously stated, our inward investment projects do not move significantly
from quarter to quarter. The number of enquiries is increasing probably due to
our work under Cowes Waterfront.
19 We
anticipate that 1 of our projects will come to fruition during November. This
will create up to 20 jobs in Ryde, (see Ambassadors section). The company
recently ran a recruitment piece in the County Press.
Innovation Centre/Enterprise Hub
20 The
Innovation Centre continues to thrive with one new addition and one new
prospect. Criterion, a company who specialise in the testing of mobile phone
networks moved into the Centre during September. We have just started a real marketing push on the Centre working
with key influencers such as banks, accountants and solicitors.
21 Our Hub
activities include working with the composites industry on R&D requirements
and waste management requirements. We are also hosting a composites brainstorm
to discuss the future of the industry on the Isle of Wight.
Ambassadors Scheme
22 We have
now developed our initial list of IoW Ambassadors. We have many notable names
willing to help us with our efforts to promote the Island. I anticipate
publishing the names as and when our web-site is launched.
23 We will be
releasing the marketing material during December and are currently beta testing
our web-site. The Site allows us to e-mail ambassadors on a regular basis with
good news stories about the IoW. It will also provide case studies on different
facets of the island.
24
An example of how
the scheme should work is highlighted by our most recent inward investment,
Island Call. Island Call is setting up a call centre in Ryde initially with 20
jobs. This was a direct referral from contacts we have been working with for 18
months, Andrew Austin and Andrew Morris. Their recommendation and promotion of
the Island and the workings of the IoW Economic Partnership has had the direct
benefit of much needed jobs in Ryde. This is exactly how I explained the new
scheme would work, i.e. we would concentrate on creating jobs and attracting
new investment rather than expensive promotion and high profile dinners.
25 Areas
where I believe the Ambassadors scheme could develop are covered in our
Branding Strategy for the Isle of Wight. This paper will be submitted to the
Executive for consideration.
PSA Targets
26 PSA targets are reported to the Isle of Wight
Council under separate cover. The following are the highlights from the
reports.
27 Target
3, Job Creation.
The
jobs target has been profiled as a linear 33.3 jobs per quarter. (this may
change in time to better reflect reality). Against Q1 we achieved 27 jobs and
Q2 43 jobs; therefore we are slightly above profile. These figures do not
include the new tenant in the Innovation Centre or our new inward investment.
28 Target
11, over 50’s employment.
There
have been no jobs created against this theme as yet, however there are 2
reasons for this, 1) a re-profiling of the targets and 2) a significant bid for
ESF funding via SEEDA for in the region of £1 million to build a much larger
scheme. Obviously the work on the bid has precluded us from the initial
delivery of the target.
IoW Branding &
Marketing
29 For
some months now the Economic Partnership has been working with our partners to
re-evaluate the marketing of the Island. As the body responsible for marketing
the Island as an investment destination the Economic Partnership was chosen to
put forward a draft strategy as to how this could best be achieved. The paper
will explain the following:
-
why we need an IoW Brand
-
the benefits of a Brand
-
the process we need to go through
-
suggested Brand values
-
how to promote the Brand
-
the roles of the various organisations
-
how to harness private sector spend
-
potential funding sources
30 The
following organisations have given their full support
IoW Council IoW Health Authority
IoW Tourism Wightlink
Wight Leisure Red Funnel
IoW Chamber of
Commerce
Skandia
Cowes Yachting SEEDA
31 The
establishment of an IoW Brand will attract the much needed investment in to all
of our business sectors, in particular tourism and leisure. It will also give a
true picture of how we wish the Island to be viewed. All other similar
destinations have either established their brand or are doing so, it is
therefore important for the Island not to be left behind.
Financial Report
32 The
financial forecasts made by the IWEP for the first half of the financial year
remain on target and the figures have been communicated to the corporate
finance department of the IW Council.
OTHER
ACTIVITIES
IWEP
33 An IWEP director has a place on the South East
Regional Assembly and has attended the Board meetings. We have facilitated responses from the
Island to a number of consultative strategy documents.
34 We have
also attended scrutiny committees to look at how SEEDA deals with Rural Affairs
and have had input into the Framework for Regional Employment and Skills Action
(FRESA). We have responded to other
surveys being carried out by SEERA in their scrutiny role over the activities
of SEEDA.
35 As one of
the 10 Economic Partnerships in the South East we are active members of the
South East Economic Partners (SEEP) network meetings where information and best
practice are shared between the partnerships, GOSE, SEEDA and SEERA.
36 We have
worked closely with Charlotte Dixon, SEEDA Director for Economic Inclusion and
Sustainability to support policy development for the delivery of AIF action
plans across the region and to address the Social Inclusion Agenda. We have attended a couple of network
meetings with all 10 AIF partnerships including the meeting on 7th
October to discuss the Draft Proposal for the development of an area network
for AIF development which includes Southampton, Portsmouth, Isle of Wight and
SEEDA to share information and find models of best practice. Although each of the areas is quite
different there are common themes and models that can be shared and there
should also be opportunities to develop joint projects across the Solent area.
37 We are
represented on the South East Rural Towns Partnership (SERTP) by Joanna Richards
our Rural Development Officer and she has been involved in the development of
the bid to SEEDA for the development of the Market Towns delivery through the
SERTP group.
38 We have
representation on the Regional Management Group for the Leader+ programme,
which is a European Programme managed through GOSE, RAISE through Sue Dovey,
Chief Executive of the Rural Community Council (RCC), and the SE England Rural
Forum through Councillor Harry Rees.
39 We attend
Board meetings of the Hampshire Economic Partnership as non voting
members. We have been able to look to
create joint working across the marine sector and are investigating the
potential for the Solent being used as the base for some watersports activity
for the Olympic Games bid. We are very keen to create the ‘Solent Triangle’
between Portsmouth, Southampton and the Isle of Wight as an area for
water-based activities. We have also had joint working on the rural agenda
through work with Sparsholt College. We
have attended Board meetings of VTS Careers and have been able to highlight
issues around the need for more Adult Guidance on the Island and provide
opportunities to link regeneration activities to the careers service.
40 We have
worked with Southampton SRB team to find opportunities for joint working and as
a result have made links with Southampton Institute. The outcome has been that the Institute are supporting the
delivery teams to look at evaluation of grant programmes as a mechanism to
support the continuous improvement process and identify issues that are
‘blocks’ to regeneration activity. We
are also looking to work with the Institute to develop better interfaces with
the community and carry out research to find effective media for delivering
learning opportunities within communities.
AIF
41 The AIF
Board is being established as a sub-group of the IWEP. It will include representation from the
following organisations yet to be nominated:
IWC Health
Private Sector Voluntary
Sector
Business Link Wessex GOSE
LSC SEEDA
42 Draft
action plan has been submitted to that group for discussion and further work
will be carried out for a submission to SEEDA in early December 2003. The IWEP have supported the IWC in running
the themed workshops for the Local Strategic Partnership. The priorities from the Island Futures plan
are being fed into the document.