Agenda item

(To consider an update report from Dan Quinn, Assistant Director – Corporate Recovery, on Covid-19 and its economic impact)

Consideration was given to an update report from the Assistant Director – Corporate Recovery and the Assistant Director – Growth, on Covid-19 and its economic impact. The report provided an overview of the work by the Local Resilience Forum (LRF), partners and Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) to manage Lincolnshire's response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The significant disruption created by Covid-19 had forced authorities and communities to change their behaviours and routine working practices, which  had demonstrated what was achievable through collaborative working. The  Council and its strategic partners aimed to ensure that positive outcomes  were maintained to help inform future service delivery to improve services. As well as serious implications for people’s health and public services, Covid-19 was having a significant impact on the economy and the response / recovery approach would need to be considered against an uncertain economic backdrop. This issue was compounded by increased demand in areas of service activity such as social care teams, wellbeing services, infection control etc.

Since the meeting in October, there had been a significant resurgence of the disease nationally and this had been reflected locally with a significant increase of infection within the communities in Lincolnshire. On the 5^th November 2020, the UK began a second period of lockdown. The new measures would apply nationally for four weeks up to and including Wednesday 2^nd December. At the end of that period, the UK may return to a regional approach, based on the latest data.

The report highlighted the recent data which included the number of cases and number of deaths. The report also made reference to activities on homelessness, vaccination roll-out plans, communities and volunteer coordination, mortality planning, education, business and exit strategy post lockdown.  The Assistant Director, Corporate Recovery, updated the Board on the latest figures relating to Lincolnshire for Covid cases and made comparisons to neighbouring areas. He suggested that the curve of infection rates was flat lining and that some areas of the County had shown signs of decreases, although Boston. Lincoln and East Lindsey were slightly above national average rates. He reported on the positive discovery of a number of vaccines and plans underway for roll out, possibly later in the year.

Consideration was given to a report from the Assistant Director – Growth, which described:- the economic impact of Covid-19 as currently known; set out the actions that had already been carried out by Lincolnshire County Council (LCC), the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), and other partners to reduce the impact; and explained the priorities of the midterm economic recovery strategy which the LEP had co-ordinated and would communicate to Government. The report outlined the main economic impacts of Covid-19 as: rising unemployment, tightening labour market, reduced business investment, rapid digitisation, and localised impacts particularly on the tourism and hospitality sectors which provided a high proportion of jobs/business activity. Also outlined was the detail of the mid-term strategy which was structured around three headings: protect, progress, and prosper.

The report also outlined examples of support given to businesses as follows:- District councils had distributed more than 19,000 grants with a value of £227m to businesses; LCC's Business Growth Hub had provided advice to 600 businesses and provided web based information that had been used by 42,000 users; redundancy task forces had been designed by the LEP and trained so that they could stand up should significant redundancies occur; the Local Enterprise Partnership had attracted £26m of infrastructure grant funding which was being invested in accelerating schemes like LCC's Holbeach Food Enterprise Zone; weekly assessments of the economic impact in Lincolnshire had been produced and government officials had been briefed weekly.

It was noted that there was a significant risk that young people with no qualifications would find it more difficult to enter the labour market. It was also noted there had been a reduction in part-time jobs available.

Members discussed the report, and during the discussion the following points were noted:

·               The report was welcomed as informative and detailed.

·               It was noted that the relationships between Lincolnshire County Council, the District Councils and other partners had been strengthened due to the large amount of joint working to mitigate the impacts of Covid-19. Also digitisation of some functions had happened more rapidly than expected or planned for.

·               It was noted that the Environment and Economy Scrutiny Committee had discussed the report of the Assistant Director – Growth, and had come up with a number of suggestions. These included for example:- Could LCC and District Councils spend more money in the local economy? Were the LCC procurement powers being used in the most optimal way? How could self-employment be promoted further? There had been support for assisting businesses with their digital offering and moving to online trading and for looking at repurposing the high streets.

·               It was acknowledged that the broadband signal was poor in some areas of the County and there was a need for rapid improvement.

·               There was disappointment that there had been no testing facilities for the coastal areas.

·               Publicity would be required to alert the public and businesses of any changes to Covid rules and guidelines and other information which came to light. This included information about supermarkets as being a high risk area for spreading Covid and the time it was suggested to leave between obtaining a Flu jab and receiving a Covid jab for example.

·               It was noted that businesses had found it difficult to plan for Brexit due to the Covid pandemic and also because there were no details available as an agreement had not yet been reached on a final exit deal. Reference was made to the support being provided by the Business Lincolnshire Growth Hub.

·               During the meeting it was reported that Lincolnshire would be in tier three following the end of the national lockdown on 2^nd December and plans would be firmed up accordingly as a result of this.

·               The Board expressed a preference for regular reports on key areas going forward with oral updates at the meetings on the latest information.

The Chairman, on behalf of the Board, thanked Dan Quinn, Assistant Director – Corporate Recovery, for his hard work and dedication to the work of the Board and the Council's response to the Covid pandemic and wished him well in his new position in another local authority.

RESOLVED:  That the report be noted and an update be presented to the next Board meeting on 17^th December.