Agenda item

Executive Councillor C J Davie made the following announcements:-

·         Reflecting on the tourism season he stated that every time that he had attended the North Sea Observatory during the summer it was busy, often with queues for the good quality food that was served there. This showed that there was a clear demand for quality premises and quality food and drink. More people were visiting high quality venues between October and March than during the summer months. He stated that he had spoken to local businesses on the east coast and they had informed him that the summer coastal tourism season had fallen between 15% and 25%.

·         The budget's emphasis on the importance of investment in local authorities and in our towns was starting to be properly understood again in Whitehall. Part of the Council's job was to make sure that the commitments made by the Chancellor last week brought a benefit to Lincolnshire, to our businesses and our communities.

·    The local labour market was due to be discussed on today's agenda.  There were some great career opportunities for young, and not so young, people in our county. The Government's commitment to extra funding for the Further Education sector would help to provide the training that was necessary for people to take advantage of those opportunities.

·         One of the many big announcements made by the Government over the past couple of weeks was funding for towns. Holbeach, Grantham, Lincoln, Skegness and Mablethorpe were all in line for substantial government grants if they produced strong bids. There was the opportunity to attract more than £100m to the county, so he would be working with the staff teams and colleagues in the LEP, district councils and in the business community to make sure that as much of these grants could be drawn down as possible. The Government had recognised that places like Lincolnshire needed investment and we would be ready to use that investment effectively.

·         The presentation on Lincolnshire's creative industries would be very useful. We needed to make sure that communities within the county had good quality communications infrastructure in place to make the most of the opportunities associated with the creative industries. This was something the Council had been working on through the rural broadband initiative. It was important to recognise the creative industries sector as one which reached into all communities. Many successful creative businesses ran from very small villages. The creative industry liked to collaborate and so creative hubs were a good way of encouraging collaboration.  With that in mind, I am delighted that we were a partner with private businesses in the new creative hub that had opened in Thomas Parker House, Lincoln.

·         The East Midlands Property Awards took place this week and it was good to see that a wide range of Lincolnshire businesses were being represented at the awards. Next week I would be speaking at a Team Lincolnshire event in Boston where we would be showcasing investment opportunities in their PE21 initiative.  Finally, in mid-October we had the Team Lincolnshire in London event which had already sold out, it was well supported by Lincolnshire based investors and their clients who hopefully would see the benefit of investing in Lincolnshire.

·         Despite the uncertainty around Westminster at the moment there were plenty of opportunities and strengths for us to build on here in Lincolnshire in the coming months.

In response to a question about the effects of Brexit, Executive Councillor C J Davie stated that the uncertainty caused needed to be resolved as soon as possible as businesses wanted certainty before investment could take place.  The public was demanding that Parliament resolved Brexit as the matter had been debated too long already. He had every confidence that the UK would prosper outside of the EU and Brexit would provide some excellent opportunities.