Issue - meetings

To receive a report from North London Business and Economic Regeneration on the  Haringey City Growth programme, its evaluation and outputs.

Members sought information regarding the independent evaluation that had been carried out regarding the city growth project which ran from 2006-09. 

Members were concerned that the report did not reflect or deal with the outcomes or recommendations of the external evaluator, the LDA. Members found this to be unacceptable and asked that a revised report be submitted to the next meeting with at least a minimum of three pages highlighting the outcomes and comments from the external evaluator. They wished to ascertain the key objectives of the scheme, the main outputs on each sector and whether it had made a difference. Effiong Akpan from LBDC stated that businesses had not been properly engaged, and consequently the LDA had changed the scheme to be more business led in order to generate and sustain employment and create more job opportunities. The scheme was seen as flawed as it was an American scheme which did not lend itself to the style of UK businesses. One of the conclusions from the project was that greater funding was required to support businesses and groups across the borough.

A new initiative that has arisen was the finance summits held with local banks to help SME’s to gain finance.

RESOLVED:

That a revised report be prepared for the Panel to reflect an update on the discussions and comments from the LDA.