Deputy Leader and Cabinet
Member for Economy and Skills
Minutes:
Decision– That the oral report of the Deputy Leader
and Cabinet Member for Economy and Skills giving an update on
“Staffordshire Means Back to Business” activity
including the following matters be noted:
The claimant count in Staffordshire saw an
increase of 420 claimants over the last month, with the total
number of claimants in the county now standing at 14,535.
This increase is similar to the rise seen nationally, with the
claimant rates for Staffordshire increasing from 2.6% to 2.7% and
England seeingthe rate rise from 3.6% to
3.7% of the working age population.
Theyouth
claimant count in Staffordshire saw an increase of 105 to a total
of 2,675 young people. This is similar to what has happened in
the last month across England as a whole. The proportion of young people in Staffordshire
aged 18-24 that are claiming work-related Universal Credit has
increased this month from 4.0% to 4.1% compared to 2.7% for the
working age population and 4.7% nationally where the rate increased
from 4.6%.
We have
now supported 493 individuals through the Staffordshire Start Up
Programme, commissioned through the Staffordshire Chamber of
Commerce since it started in June 2020.
228 of these have decided that self-employment is for them and have
started their own business. Get Started
and Grow has supported more than 80 business owners this year who
have been trading up to 5 years with professional services support
in marketing, finance or digital marketing. The programme is
looking to expand in 2023 to areas such as Human Resources and the
County Council will continue to procure established Staffordshire
businesses to provide this support. A
series of peer-to-peer Networks is also being launched for new
businesses who want to take the next steps in their journey to
success.
Recently
released information from the Office for National Statistics show
our efforts are bearing fruit. In 2021,
a thousand more businesses were born in Staffordshire than the
previous year. Our business birth rate
has therefore improved substantially and is now, for the first-time
ever, in-line with the national average. Businesses born within Staffordshire also remain
far more likely to survive compared to the national
average.
We also
continue to make great strides in supporting higher-level skills,
with work ongoing on the £16m Institute of Technology which
is scheduled to open in 2024. St.
Modwen Logistics, one of the UK’s leading logistics
developers and managers, is the latest partner to join the
Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group led consortium of education
providers and employers from across the Midlands to form the
IoT.
Looking forward to
the year ahead, there are several significant projects that we
continue to work on and will be delivering. Our Hydrogen Technologies Valley proposal remains
one of our biggest opportunities and has the potential to play a
major role in supporting a more productive local economy, but also
can help to address some of our greatest national and global
challenges including energy security and climate
change. Whilst the Government has
decided not to proceed with the previous investment zone policy for
which we submitted a proposal covering the corridor, we are
expecting this to be relaunched in light of the Chancellor’s
Autumn Statement and work is already underway to ensure we are well
placed to take advantage of this when the opportunity
arises.
Through our economic
growth programme, we continue to support developments that create
jobs within the county. The main
earthworks have now started on the Chatterley Valley West site with
the first development platforms expected to be made available in
mid-2023.
Our tourism sector is
a big part of the Staffordshire economy and our Visitor Economy
Action Plan, which was prepared in collaboration between local
authority and private sector partners that make up our Destination
Management Partnership, was unanimously endorsed by the
Staffordshire Leaders Board at the beginning of
December. This includes several key
actions to boost our visitor economy including encouraging more
people to work within the sector, addressing emerging skills
challenges and supporting the development of the local
accommodation offer.
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