Agenda item

The Director of Tourism, Culture and Inward Investment will give a presentation to provide an update on Business Support (slides attached).

Councillor Clair, (Deputy City Mayor with responsibility for Culture, Leisure, Sport and Regulatory Services), introduced this item, stressing the importance of the support that was provided for businesses in the city.

The Head of Economic Regeneration then gave a presentation, a copy of which had been circulated with the agenda, updating the Commission on the Business Support projects.  During the presentation, he drew attention to the following points:

·           The current business support projects delivered by the Council and partners had all been funded by the European Regional Development Fund;

·           These projects included the Council led ‘Collaborate’ project, the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership’s (LLEP’s) Business Gateway and the ‘Digital Growth Project’ managed by the East Midlands Chamber;

·           The Collaborate project had actively engaged with 475 businesses, with a £1.2m capital grant fund proving particularly popular. The popularity of the support being offered meant that targets already had been exceeded; and

·           Work to identify further funding and business support was ongoing.

In response to concerns that businesses owned by Asian and Black people were not being reached with support, the Head of Economic Regeneration advised the Commission that these sectors were being reached.  One example of this was the support provided to the textiles sector by the Collaborate project, where the lead officer had engaged with over 140 businesses, many of which had Asian business owners, so he was aware of the issues faced by those businesses.  Opportunities also were taken to deliver events and workshops in community settings where this would increase engagement.

Some concern was expressed that identifying businesses by ethnicity was unnecessary, as any success in building any business should be celebrated and opportunities taken to learn from the owners of those businesses. In addition, a preference for providing repayable loans for businesses, rather than grants, was expressed, in order to make support services sustainable and to ensure that an uncompetitive situation was created where businesses not receiving support found it difficult to increase their profits to match those of businesses receiving grants.

Some disagreement ensued on this.  Members agreed that grants should be equally available to all businesses and noted that although the grants provided were small they could trigger success.  However, businesses failed in all markets in many different circumstances and it could be difficult to identify whether lack of access to Business Support projects was a factor in this.

Members also asked for assurances that checks were made to ensure that businesses supported in the textiles sector had good health and safety practices and paid at least the national minimum wage.  The Head of Economic Regeneration explained that the Council looked for independent industry accreditation with recognised auditing mechanisms to verify the credentials of businesses seeking support.  No grants had been provided to businesses where illegal practices had been identified.  Where such practices occurred, those businesses would be referred to the relevant enforcement agencies for investigation.

AGREED:

1)    That progress with the Collaborate business support project be noted;

2)    That the submission of the full European Regional Development Fund bid for the Growth Hub project be noted;

3)    That the East Midlands Chamber’s “Digital support for business” project be noted; and

4)    That the Director of Tourism, Culture and Inward Investment be asked to ensure that reviews of the Business Support projects include analysis of diversity, such as the ethnicity of business owners using the support.