Issue - meetings

Report of the Deputy Leader, Cabinet Member for Economy and Skills.

The Select Committee had requested regular updates from the Cabinet Member for Economy and Skills on the economic health of the county and progress against the Staffordshire Economic Recovery, Renewal and Transformation Strategy. The unprecedented nature of the Covid-19 crisis had meant that the County Council had had to react quickly to support businesses and residents. The Strategy was flexible enough to respond appropriately to a range of scenarios. The successful delivery of the Strategy in achieving the vision and aims that it set out would be dependant on many factors. A range of interventions had already been made by the County Council, Stoke on Trent and Staffordshire LEP (SSLEP), the Government and other partners to respond to the immediate crisis whilst the development of the supporting delivery plans for the Strategy was ongoing. Existing activities would continue to be refreshed and reviewed against Strategy priorities and new programmes developed where there are gaps.

The Select Committee had identified an important role in scrutinising delivery and performance of the Strategy.

By way of introduction, the Chairman suggested that the August performance figures showed Staffordshire to have one of the highest level of furloughed staff – 25% of working age people compared to neighbouring authorities.

The Cabinet Member believed that the next quarter monitoring report would be defining in terms of the impact of Covid-19 on the Staffordshire economy. He acknowledged that the county had a high level of furloughed staff due to the economic profile of the county and many remained furloughed also the unemployment rate (5.1%) which had crept up, remained lower than the regional and national average.  It was too early to identify whether the rise was due to seasonal variations or the start of a trend. It was inevitable that there would be an increase in unemployment as the furlough scheme wound down. The Cabinet Member said that what mattered was the County Councils response – what action was taken to minimise the impact and ensure the county builds back stronger.

The Cabinet Member drew to members attention various interventions which were ongoing or completed as part of the response. The county wide Redundancy Task Group established to support businesses and individuals facing redundancy was now active around the county and had significant capacity. £0.500m emergency grants scheme had been made available and had helped over 200 micro-businesses to survive the crisis by providing a grant to help pay outstanding supplier bills in the short term. Funds had been identified to support new business start ups in priority sectors – currently there were 300 participants on the scheme and 200 new businesses established in a year. The Cabinet Member believed that times of economic hardship – post recession - often prove to be a good time to set up a new business.

In addition to local interventions, an enhanced communications campaign ‘Staffordshire Means Back to Business’ and further measures had been put in place by partner organisations and Government. The SSLEP were allocated £23.7m from the Government’s  ...  view the full minutes text for item 95