Agenda item

To seek Cabinet’s approval to enter into a Collaboration and Funding Agreement with the local authority partners that together comprise the North Essex Economic Board (NEEB), and to allocate 10% of the North Essex Councils’ Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) funding in support of the Board’s COVID-19 recovery interventions.

To also seek Cabinet’s agreement to give authority to the Portfolio Holder for Business & Economic Growth and the Portfolio Holder for Corporate Finance and Governance to approve future projects agreed by the NEEB that fall within this 10 percent of the District’s ARG funding.

RESOLVED that Cabinet -

(a)    approves the maximum allocation of £293,000 from the Additional Restrictions Grant Fund (ARG) to Essex County Council for the purposes of delivering the projects identified by the North Essex Economic Board (NEEB) on the terms and conditions, as set out in the Collaboration and Funding Agreement, attached as Appendix A to item A.5 of the Report of the Business & Economic Growth Portfolio Holder; and

(b)    authorises the Portfolio Holder for Business & Economic Growth and the Portfolio Holder for Corporate Finance and Governance to agree future projects agreed by the NEEB that fall within this 10 percent of the District’s ARG funding.

Cabinet had before it a report of the Business & Economic Growth Portfolio Holder (A.5) which sought its approval to enter into a Collaboration and Funding Agreement with the local authority partners that together comprised the North Essex Economic Board (NEEB), and to allocate 10% of the North Essex Councils’ Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) funding in support of the Board’s COVID-19 recovery interventions.

The Cabinet’s authority was also sought for the Portfolio Holder for Business & Economic Growth and Corporate Finance and Governance to be authorised to approve future projects agreed by the NEEB that fell within this 10 percent of the District’s ARG funding.

Members were aware that the Government had made funding available to local authorities through its Additional Restrictions Grant scheme (ARG) in order to support businesses that had been severely impacted by COVID-19 related restrictions.

It was reported that, at its meeting held on 11November 2020, NEEB had determined (subject to constituent member approval) to establish a pool of top sliced ARG funding (10 percent of each District’s allocation) in support of sub-regional (North Essex) business support and skills interventions approved by the Board in order to support the area’s COVID-19 recovery. Ten percent of Tendring District Council’s (TDC) ARG grant equated to £293,000.  However, it was not expected that this full amount would be required as TDC and other Councils had already spent funds on ‘Click It Local’ which had formed part of this agreement and Essex County Council (ECC) was currently taking forward the Business Support element of the programme which had come in below the anticipated budget of £150,000 per Council thereby reducing the budget to £120,000 per District for this programme. In addition, Braintree District Council were leading the skills element of the programme.

Cabinet was informed that, with all North Essex Councils contributing to the ARG pool, the Board would have a project fund of £1.65m.  ECC had not received ARG funding, but had contributed a further £220,000 to cover elements of the programme that the ARG could not pay for such as staffing and marketing costs.

Members were reminded that NEEB was a partnership of local authorities comprising: Braintree, Maldon, Tendring, Uttlesford, Colchester, Chelmsford, and Essex County Council.  TDC’s representative on the board was the Portfolio Holder for Business and Economic Growth (Councillor Mary Newton) plus Officer support from the Council’s Economic Growth Team.

By pooling resources it was felt that the partners would be able to implement a range of sub-regional project interventions that together would have a positive impact on the economic recovery of North Essex. Interventions would also focus on the delivery of skills necessary to support businesses and to get residents of working age back into employment.

It was reported that the partners had endeavoured to provide business support that complimented localised projects currently running within their Districts which included such schemes as Tendring’s Business Support Service which had been delivered by Colbea.  The programme of support to business had been developed to align with the Council’s Back to Business Delivery Plan, helping the District of Tendring to recover from the challenges of the pandemic.

Members were made aware that NEEB had identified six ‘quick win projects. These were as follows:

·         Click it Local

·         Digital Support

·         Importing & Exporting

·         Financial & Debt Management

·         Start-up Support

·         Business Navigation

Cabinet was reminded that the first of the projects supported by NEEB had been Click it Local, albeit given the need to set-up the Collaboration and Funding Agreement, this had been contracted separately by each local authority partner rather than through a single contract. Members recalled that the Click it Local scheme had been launched in the Tendring District on 27^th April 2021. The scheme provided an online platform enabling local independent shops and retailers to be able to compete with the likes of Amazon on convenience and choice.  NEEB partners had determined to extend this initiative until the end of the financial year (i.e. March 2022) and to keep it free of charge for those businesses signed up to the platform.

Members were advised that, following the launch of Click it Local in Districts across North Essex, the partners had initiated a procurement exercise (led by ECC) to secure contractors to provide a range of Business Support and Skills related interventions tailored to meet the needs of businesses across North Essex. To this end Officers representing the seven local authority partners had recently evaluated the tenders received vis-à-vis five support programmes. Those had included:-

Business Navigation Support

The aim of this procurement was to appoint a specialist organisation to deliver free business navigation support across North Essex. Its primary purpose was to increase the number of businesses accessing business navigation services from within the NEEB area. It was expected that additional dedicated Business Support Navigators would be used to help North Essex businesses to identify relevant programmes, initiatives and/or funding schemes currently on offer across Essex and to assist in accessing the support available.

Pre-start and start-up business support

This procurement was for the business start-up support element of the programme.  The aim was to deliver free advice and support to individuals who had ambitions to start a business and to assist a start-up business during their first 12 months of trading. The service would include the provision of learning, advice, mentoring and networking.

Specialist importing and exporting advice

This procurement was for the free importing and exporting advice support element of the programme. The service would provide free, structured one-to-one and one-to-many bespoke advisory support to businesses who currently traded, or who wanted to begin to trade, both within Europe and with the rest of the world.

Financial and debt management support

The primary purpose of this procurement was to provide free, one-to-one financial and debt management support and advice to businesses, alongside navigation services which signposted businesses to other financial support programmes, in order to create and safeguard jobs and support business growth and survival across North Essex.

Business digitising and e-commerce support

This procurement was for the business digitising and e-commerce support element of the programme including cyber security. The aim was to deliver free support especially as digital transformation was key to the recovery of businesses, with the need to switch to online platforms as alternative and additional sales channels.

Overall, it was reported that partners’ ARG contributions had until now remained within the budgets held by each of the second tier authorities with the understanding that the monies would be transferred to ECC as required (subject to the approval of a Collaboration and Funding Agreement).

ECC was now seeking TDC’s agreement to the Collaboration and Funding Agreement and that the Council transferred 10 percent of its top sliced ARG funding to an account to be held and managed by ECC.

This allowed TDC two options:-

Option 1: To approve the terms of the draft Collaboration and Funding Agreement and agree to make available 10 percent of the ARG and continue to support the NEEB projects as agreed on the 17^th November 2020. This would allow TDC to continue its support for businesses via the six quick win interventions outlined above; or

Option 2: To not sign the Collaboration and Funding Agreement and withhold the ARG funding which the Council’s Board representative had approved, in principle, in November 2020. This option could irreparably damage the Council’s reputation and its standing with other NEEB partners.

Having considered all of the information, advice and proposals contained in the Portfolio Holder’s report:-

It was moved by Councillor Newton, seconded by Councillor G V Guglielmi and:-

RESOLVED that Cabinet -

(a)    approves the maximum allocation of £293,000 from the Additional Restrictions Grant Fund (ARG) to Essex County Council for the purposes of delivering the projects identified by the North Essex Economic Board (NEEB) on the terms and conditions, as set out in the Collaboration and Funding Agreement, attached as Appendix A to item A.5 of the Report of the Business & Economic Growth Portfolio Holder; and

(b)    authorises the Portfolio Holder for Business & Economic Growth and the Portfolio Holder for Corporate Finance and Governance to agree future projects agreed by the NEEB that fall within this 10 percent of the District’s ARG funding.