Issue - meetings

To undertake a verbal Q&A with the Cabinet Member for Council House Building, Placemaking and Local Economy on the areas of her portfolio that are relevant to the main committee, namely:

· Jobs and skills

· Local business

· Town centres and high streets.

The Committee undertook a Q&A Session with the Cabinet Member for Council House Building, Placemaking and Local Economy.

The following arose as part of this session:

• Haringey had a diverse business base with a diverse population and independent businesses. Most businesses were small and medium sized enterprises.
• Haringey economy was boosted by its diverse food offers, diverse cultural and diverse entertainment.
• Around 36% of Haringey business owners were also Haringey residents.
• It was noted that during the pandemic, it was not an easy time for the business community and around 90% of Haringey business owners have said that cost of living crisis was having a negative impact on their business.
• Unemployment in the borough remained at 6.8%, which was one of the highest rates in London.
• It was noted that high levels of unemployment were mainly around the Tottenham side of the borough and the borough also had the highest number of jobs that pay below the London living wage.
• The Council launched “Opportunity Haringey” throughout the pandemic years.
• The Council had an economic strategy which was geared towards ensuring that businesses survived as best as they could through the pandemic, and ensured businesses received the support they needed.
• Since the pandemic the Council had created a new strategy which evolved around “Opportunity Haringey. This was done by going through extensive consultations and Co-produced the strategy with businesses. This was launched on the 22^nd of February.
• The strategy focused on a few themes which included job creation, investment, good work and skills, high streets and industrial estates, workspaces and workplaces and spaces.
• There were also other support services like “Haringey works”, which is free at the point of access to help drive employment in the borough. The Committee noted that this initiative had been successful as around 599 of 1440 residents had found work through Haringey Works last year. Officers added that many of these residents found work in the Council.
• Another service was “Haringey learns,” which helped residents to rescale and upskill people who wanted new qualifications.
• There was a Market strategy in place which supported easy entry into businesses. There were a few markets across the borough and they all operated in different ways, so the service was looking to develop an overarching strategy for that to see whether there was capacity for expanding markets.
• Officers added that the vacancy rate in Haringey was relatively low. Haringey’s vacancy rate was 7.64%, across London it was 9.2% and nationally it was 11%.
• The Council had networks for each of the high streets and was keen to develop those networks further. This would contribute to bring businesses together and people would be able to network, work with each other, and would have the synergy of businesses that would develop and sell to other local businesses.
• In response to a question regarding how Haringey Works was being funded, Officers advised that the Council had lost the Europe funding but managed to replace that with funding from the UK Prosperity  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9