Roundtable – What have Economic Development officers learnt from the pandemic response and what are the opportunities for the future?

Tuesday 24 May, 10am-12pm

Chair: Paul Clifford, Head of Economic Development, Barnsley Council

Introduction

The purpose of this roundtable was to reflect on the lessons learned from the pandemic and share insights into how councils are now moving forward, adapting their strategies to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic whilst looking to build resilience in the future and create a place where people can live, work, and study.

The roundtable was chaired by Paul Clifford, Head of Economic Development at Barnsley Council who also shared a scene setting case study about the work carried out in Barnsley during the COVID-19 Pandemic, through the delivery of an Economic Renewal Action Plan (ERAP).

Case study

At the beginning of the pandemic, Barnsley Council wanted to develop a programme that would be evidence based to support their economic recovery. They carried out two local economic impact assessments to understand the impact on the high streets and centres across the borough. It highlighted that there was a possibility of a significant contraction to the business base as well as an increase in unemployment. The true extent did not manifest but it gave them a starting point to build their recovery programme on. This took place in the context of the national support available through government grants and the council wanted to adopt a programme to compliment the national support packages available and build long term resilience.

It was against this backdrop, that they developed the Economic Renewal Action Plan, which was a £2 million programme, £1 million was funded by Barnsley Council and £1 million was match funded by the Combined Authority.

Some of the activities carried out through the ERAP include:

• Grants to support local independent retailers to build an online presence
• installation of lockers in the town centre so people can ‘Click & Collect’ goods they have ordered online from local retailers via the ShopAppy app
• support for 60 businesses (including in hard-hit hospitality and visitor economy sectors) to receive e-commerce consultancy support
• a Retail Tech Accelerator bringing 13 global companies to Barnsley to deploy digital and technology solutions to solve challenges faced by the retail sector.
• Support for the VCS sector to receive one-to-one coaching and deep dive support on issues specific to them.

Throughout the ERAP programme, two gateway reviews were carried out to reflect on the impact of the programme. The reviews highlighted the positive internal cross team collaboration that helped to deliver the programmes. It was also strongly aligned to national and regional responses and enabled the town centre to benefit from some of the highest footfall in the country during the pandemic, with Barnsley ranking in the top 10 town centres with the highest footfall. However, with more time there could have been stronger partnership engagement levels and getting organisations to engage more in the programmes.

However, overall, the impact has been positive and through the ERAP programme, 73 jobs have been created, 153 jobs safeguarded, and 538 businesses supported.

Read the full Barnsley case study.

The key points from the discussion

The key points discussed at the roundtable are highlighted below:

• The rise in remote and hybrid working has presented a shift in how town and city centres as well as market towns and rural areas are used but with the impact varying. There is a demand for leisure and experience-based offers replacing retail with councils grappling with how to respond to these challenges.
• The government grants were useful in supporting businesses particularly micro businesses and SMEs. However, rising inflation has led to more cautiousness amongst larger developers and construction industries which is creating a challenge in developing commercial properties. Therefore, closer partnerships are needed between the public and private sector to generate investment.
• The distribution of government grants has resulted in more engagement between businesses and councils and there is an opportunity to capitalise on this to build closer working relationships to generate investment.
• Councils can work flexibly by both repurposing old buildings through private sector developers as well as carrying out commercial developments through their own commercial portfolio.
• Creating mixed use developments is predicted as being key to building resilience across all towns and city centres as well as more rural and market towns. This is in response to rising remote working patterns and a demand for experiences in place of retail as well as more residential properties in these centres.

These points are expanded below.

The rise in remote and hybrid working has presented a shift in how town and city centres as well as market towns and rural areas are used but with the impact varying. There is a demand for leisure and experience-based offers replacing retail with councils grappling with how to respond to these challenges.

The COVID-19 pandemic presented several challenges for councils including generating footfall in their towns and cities, adapting to retail vacancies and shop closures, and distributing government grants. However, the impact varied from region to region across different rural, coastal and urban areas.

The closure of large retailers such as Debenhams and Arcadia highlighted challenges around what to do with vacancy rates in high streets and in town and city centres whilst questions have also been raised around utilising development sites to increase footfall. Local authorities are grappling with the challenges of how to adapt their economic development plans against the long-term impact of the pandemic and predicting what the demand would look like in the future as shifting patterns that have emerged during the pandemic begin to set. This includes the decrease in office workers using town and city centres as remote working increases.

However, some areas have reported a positive impact from the pandemic such as an increase in footfall in market and commuter towns and rural areas. But across all areas the pandemic appears to have accelerated the decrease in demand for retail with councils now adapting their economic development plans around the experience economy which prioritises food and drink and leisure-based offers. Therefore, responding and adapting to these changing work patterns and acceleration in demand for leisure and experience offers is creating challenges for councils to respond to whilst leveraging investment to deliver on their economic development strategies for the future. 

The government grants were useful in supporting businesses particularly micro businesses and SMEs. However, rising inflation has led to more cautiousness amongst larger developers and construction industries which is creating a challenge in developing commercial properties. Therefore, closer partnerships are needed between the public and private sector to generate investment.

The government grants have been helpful in supporting businesses to stay open and revitalise high streets and town and city centres. Examples were shared where the Welcome Back grant has been used to great effect to dress up shops and provide outdoor spaces for cafés to make the atmosphere busier and attract higher footfall.

Some delegates also reported seeing an appetite for investment particularly amongst SMEs who were extremely adaptable and resilient throughout the pandemic. Some delegates shared that their council provided grants to these businesses to act as a buffer and this provided confidence and demonstrated that with some assurance in place there is still a willingness to invest. And whilst there is a decrease in the use of larger commercial units as a result of the increase in remote working, there is still a demand for flexible co working and remote working spaces particularly from home workers, micro businesses and SMEs. However, there is a significant shortfall in investment which is needed to provide these spaces.

It was suggested that larger businesses were more cautious during the COVID-19 pandemic which has been exacerbated by inflation and as a result industrial and commercial markets have become more stretched. Therefore, undertaking commercial development is a challenge as investment is needed from the private sector as public sector money is not enough to cover these costs.

As a result, there is a lack of sufficient workspaces for micro businesses and SMEs as the cost of entry is too high and there is a lack of provision due to the lack of confidence in developing commercial spaces from the private sector. Developing closer public private sector relationships is needed to provide flexible working spaces for smaller businesses and to maintain investment levels in the area as well as to carry out large scale developments.

The distribution of government grants has resulted in more engagement between businesses and councils and there is an opportunity to capitalise on this to build closer working relationships to generate investment.

The distribution of government grants resulted in stronger relationships between councils and their local businesses and generated goodwill. Businesses were also getting more involved in their local communities, supporting local supply chains as well as providing services to local schools and hospitals. Delegates shared that businesses also became more aware of the different services that councils offer including their economic development functions. One delegate reported that their council had a weekly e-bulletin for businesses before the pandemic with 800 subscribers which rose to 2700 during the pandemic as more people began to sign up to find out about grants.

An example was also shared where in Kent, the council coordinated a helpline which was run by the Chamber of Commerce which allowed businesses to pick up the phone and ask questions directly. The Chamber’s advisers helped point them to relevant grant forms or provided advice on various things like insurances and legal matters. Similarly, Portsmouth had a business support helpline for grant funding advice which brought colleagues in infrastructure, business rates and Licensing together to provide a holistic support to businesses.

It was suggested that utilising these partnerships and creating a forum for businesses and public sector officers to work together can create opportunities to lobby for investment particularly as government grants require evidence of close partnership working.

The Reading Business Network was established during the COVID-19 lockdowns to work out how to create a framework for local “neighbourhood” economies and business recovery, shaped through a town wide business network. Its goal is to build a network of businesses across Reading that do more business and win more contracts locally and has a voice in discussion around policy and economic development in Reading. It has also developed web-based tool kits to support each other.

Across Devon, Plymouth, Torbay and Somerset, there is also a Growth Hub, Better Business for All, which is a partnership that brings together businesses and public regulatory bodies in these areas together. BBFA created toolkits throughout the pandemic to promote local economic prosperity, whilst maintaining public protection.

strong>Councils can work flexibly by both repurposing old buildings through private sector developers as well as carrying out commercial developments through their own commercial portfolio.

It was suggested that councils need to be flexible and work with the private sector to bring in investment to local areas and find the right partners to carry out developments. However, there is also an opportunity for councils to also invest in their own commercial property and act as ambassadors to encourage investment and provide confidence for private developers. Old buildings that are no longer used can also be utilised and repurposed for other uses. Examples were shared where both private developers and councils have acquired old buildings such as historic jail buildings and repurposed them.

For example, a private developer is converting the Old Portsmouth Gaol into residential homes whilst another private developer is converting the old site where HM Prison Bullwood used to be in Essex into housing and apartments.

Further examples were shared where old buildings have been redeveloped into visitor attractions for example the Oxford Castle and Prison development and the National Justice Museum in Nottingham which is rated as the best tourism offer in the city.

In addition to repurposing existing sites and buildings, some councils have shared examples of where they have carried out their own mixed use developments in their centres and market towns. For example, in Somerset one of its market towns, Bridgewater, is undertaking the development of a leisure centre to extend the high street and increase the number of visitors to the town. Similarly, in Barnsley they have undertaken a town centre development, The Glass Works, which provides retail, restaurants, cafes and leisure offers as well as work spaces in the town centre.

Creating mixed use developments is predicted as being key to building resilience across all towns and city centres as well as more rural and market towns. This is in response to rising remote working patterns and a demand for experiences in place of retail as well as residential properties in these centres.

Overall, one of the key messages that was also highlighted during this roundtable discussion is the need to create mixed use spaces in town and city centres. This includes providing more liveable spaces as well as business and innovation districts and leisure experiences to build resilience.

As the number of office workers using these spaces begins to decrease, this opens up space for new residential units to be built or old offices to be repurposed into homes. It was suggested that residents will be the new office workers as they begin to work from home more often and will service local cafes and restaurants in the area. In Barnsley they are looking to create 75 new dwellings in the town centre whilst in Reading it is predicted that the number of people living in the town centre will increase from 4000 to 20,000 in 10 years.

This is a trend that is taking shape across different geographic areas including both city and urban areas as well as rural and commuter towns. For examples with less people working full time in larger cities, people are now spending more time in their local towns, and some delegates reported that larger chains like Pret and Gails have opened up new branches in these areas as they now have a bigger customer base there. Therefore, developing economic development strategies which incorporate mixed use developments in town and city centres can create long term resilience by creating an offer which accommodates home working, and an appetite for leisure experiences.

In addition, undertaking cluster development can help create an enterprise hub and generate inward investment. In Somerset for instance they are undertaking cluster developments in partnership with Connecting Places Catapult with a view to generate inward investment. There is also an opportunity to incorporate social value into these developments by introducing local labour agreements. Somerset Council have incorporated these in their development projects to bolster the local supply chains to maximise local benefit. Similarly in Essex, they have created a developers guide to help ensure local jobs and apprenticeships are offered on major residential developments.

LGA support offer and additional resources

The LGA will be hosting more events including roundtables and webinars as part of our Economic Growth Support offer. For more information on all of our upcoming events and publications on Economic Growth please visit the Economic Growth Support Hub webpage. The LGA has also released guidance for councils to support them in undertaking their economic development plans, engaging with businesses as well as planning their local economic recovery. The links to the publications are included below:

• Creating resilient and revitalised high streets in the ‘new normal’
• Public-Private Partnerships: Driving Growth, Building Resilience
• Supporting councils with business engagement
• How well do you know your microbusinesses?
• Local Economic Recovery Planning: Playbook for Action
• Dealing with empty shops – a good practice guide for councils

For further information about the LGA’s Economic Growth support offer, please email [email protected].