Agenda item

The Business Growth Manager provided an update on the main Business Growth Strategy to Members.

This was the first briefing to the new committee and outlined the priorities for the Development Directorate for 2019-23.  When considering the six priorities, the following was noted:

• Building Back Better – this strand was focussed on nature recovery, sustainable transport, and carbon reduction.
• Enabling Housing Growth – this was being delivered via Dragonfly and included Council housing via Bolsover Homes and construction of commercial sales properties via Dragonfly Development Ltd.
• Increasing Revenue Streams – This included projects such as the development of the Crematorium, Dragonfly Development Ltd., and local growth plans for Shirebrook and Creswell.
• Making the Best Use of our Assets – a key deliverable under this strand had been the review of Council garage sites.  Over £1m had been secured via disposal or redevelopment and teams were now assessing other assets to go through a similar review process.  A dedicated officer had now been appointed to assess proposals for development of the Pleasley Vale site.  This would involve complex consideration of listed buildings, the conservation area, and a variety of stakeholders including Mansfield DC and Nottinghamshire CC.
• Promoting the District and Increasing Tourism – the new Tourism and Place Manager had now started in her role, and it was hoped to move this area forward swiftly due to her past experience working for the Council on tourism.
• Working with Partners – the team were now able to move forward with this area of work because of the UKSPF monies allocated by the Leader’s Executive & Partnerships team for business support and development.  This commenced in April.  The team were also working with partners from One Public Estate (OPE) as part of a countywide exercise looking at the future scope for publicly owned buildings within Bolsover town centre.  The team hoped it could lead to the Council being able to access additional funds.

The Business Growth Manager also noted that following the recent District Council election, it would be appropriate to review the Strategy and Action Plan as it came to the end of its lifecycle to ensure that new Members priorities were being addressed.

A Member queried the four areas of delivery under the Working with Partners strand.  The officer directed Members to the action plan appendices for further detail - the four areas were Business Support, Business Engagement, Social Value Index, and OPE.

A Member queried who was part of the OPE team.  The officer noted that this was a national team.  As a result of the unsuccessful LUF bid the area had been identified as having public buildings and land which could benefit from redevelopment.  By taking part in the current consultation exercise this would put the area in a strong position when future funding was announced.

A Member questioned why Dragonfly had no clear target dates assigned within the Enabling Housing Growth action plan.  The officer noted that these could be included in future updates once they had been decided.

The Monitoring Officer advised Members that service level agreements between the Council and Dragonfly were currently in production including specification of services, all KPIs and targets, with a target date of completion by the end of August to then enable approval by Executive in September.

A Member noted that when looking at industry development within the District, there seemed to be limited focus on promoting the opportunities in the immediate vicinity of M1 junction 28.  The officer noted that there was no availability of land for start-ups within that part of the District, however, the Development team were aware of opportunities across the border within both Mansfield and Ashfield.  The Council hoped to instead use revenue budget to create a support package offer for all businesses within that part of the District to include business support, engagement, cost of living support, and streamlining of processes.  The Council would like to create a stronger online presence to engage with businesses and this would benefit from further support from Members.  The Development team had seen a significant increase in business engagement because of the pandemic and were trying to maintain the links created.

A Member suggested using a business-to-business scheme to encourage greater networking and development of support networks.

A Member asked for clarification on how the £1.9m UKSPF monies was distributed across the four strands outlined in the Working with Partners action plan.  The Senior Economic Development Officer (Growth & Investment) advised that the funding allocated to the Development team was split as follows:

Tourism and Culture                                                             £78,000

Business Growth Grants Scheme                                     £228,212

Net Zero Hyper Local Innovation programme                 £300,000

Small Business Support Scheme                                       £95,000

Visitor Economy Business Support                                    £88,000

The Business Growth Manager reminded Members that the £1.9m was being managed by the Leader’s Executive & Partnerships team with only a portion being delivered by the Development team.  The other monies allocated were being directed towards youth engagement work and diversionary activities amongst other projects.  Furthermore, the monies allocated for redevelopment of Oxcroft House could now be reallocated due to the site being let.

A Member was aware of resident concerns in relation to future development at Pleasley Vale, particularly in relation to potential conversion of buildings or development of flats.  They were aware that this was not the only option available and asked for greater clarity within the service level agreement with Dragonfly Management so that the objectives and targets in relation to the site were clear to all.  The Business Growth Manager noted that consultation would take place with both residents and tenants.  Specific work on flood modelling had also been commissioned to establish the full-scale of potential development.  The team was benefiting from the Pleasley Vale officer’s planning knowledge to ensure that development proposals identified were sustainable in the long-term for both the Authority and the community.

Moved by Councillor Phil Smith and seconded by Councillor Janet Tait

RESOLVED that the report and feedback on progress be noted.

(Business Growth Manager, Dragonfly Management (Bolsover) Ltd.))