Agenda item

The Committee received a presentation for noting on Local Business, Employment and Growth from Steve Carr, the Assistant Director for Economic Development and Growth. The following arose from the discussion of the presentation:

a.    The Committee commented that two-thirds of businesses were in Tottenham and enquired what was being done to ensure that there were similar opportunities and support mechanisms in other parts of the Borough. In response, officers acknowledged these concerns and suggested that major inward investment in a particular location was determined by a multiplicity of factors; including the availability of large sites and existing land use.

b.    In response to a question around the activities being undertaken, officers outlined a proposal for a joint undertaking between Haringey’s library service and the British Library to provide enterprise support across all of the Borough’s libraries. Officers agreed to provide more details on this proposal as it progressed. (Action: Steve Carr).

c.    In response to a question around micro-businesses and what was being done to encourage young people and women to set up businesses, officers advised that there was an entrepreneurship bursary scheme being run in conjunction with the University of Westminster to encourage minority ethnic businesses to come forward. Similarly, there were also mentoring opportunities available.

d.    The Committee raised concerns with the fact that the economic strategy was from 2015 and therefore out of date in some respects. In particular the Committee suggested that the new strategy needed to incorporate some form of worst case scenario planning in relation to Brexit.

e.    The Committee expressed a view that the Council should be doing everything it could through its role as a landlord in attracting small businesses and providing ongoing to support them. Officers acknowledged the key role that the Council could play and the levers available to it, including as part of its ongoing regeneration programme. Officers agreed to come back to the Committee with a briefing on how the Council supported local businesses. (Action: Steve Carr).

f.     In relation to question around the town centre strategy and the potential for different town centres to be in competition with one another, officers advised that they were pulling together information on capacity studies for town centres. Officers also advised that a number of training and development sessions were being pulled together for Members on how to make town centres more resilient.

g.    The Committee enquired about the role of town centre managers in bringing in expertise and networking opportunities. The Director of Housing, Regeneration and Planning agreed to bring back a paper on town centre managers to a future Committee meeting. (Action: Helen Fisher).

h.    The Committee sought reassurance around what the Council could do to reduce red-tape around apprenticeships, particularly in terms of supporting the transition into a permanent role. Similarly, the Committee enquired what could be done to support pop-up businesses such as those at Blue House Yard. In response, officers advised that there were a number of pots of money available that the Council could apply for but these tended to follow GLA priorities and designated growth areas. Officers acknowledged that more work needed to be done on looking at how to connect up schemes like Blue House Yard and town centres. 

i.      The AD for Economic Development and Growth agreed to provide an update to the Committee on what the Council was doing to support apprenticeship schemes. (Action: Steve Carr).

j.      The Chair emphasised the role of place making in relation to economic development and the need to build places that worked for everyone and in support of all Haringey’s different communities. The Chair urged that how the Council thought about its places should be a key consideration when developing the new strategy.