Agenda item

The Executive Councillor for Economic Development, Environment and Planning announced that the forthcoming White Paper would announce government’s policies and measures to support the Levelling Up agenda by setting out a plan to transform the UK spreading out ways to restore pride, regenerate places and deliver economic growth and opportunity across the country. The Executive Councillor was determined that the Council would maximise opportunities for Lincolnshire.

Officers were working with stakeholders to gather intelligence to place Lincolnshire in the best possible position of preparedness to access funding and investment to help realise the County’s economic potential.

The Executive Councillor was pleased to report that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had expanded by 0.9% in November, putting total UK GDP above pre-covid levels for the first time since the pandemic began. This had largely been driven by strong growth in construction by 3.5%, in transport and storage at 3.8% and professional scientific and technical activities at 2.5%. Services (0.7%), production (1.0%) and construction (3.5%) output all increased between October and November 2021; this meant that services and construction output were both 1.3% above their pre-coronavirus levels while production remained 2.6% below.

Local business owners continued to highlight significant challenges around increasing costs, recruitment and supply chain issues. The Council continued to offer a significant level of support across the sector, some of which included the finalisation of the last contract for the Invest for Future fund resulting in 32 businesses receiving commitment of £1.6 million of grant funding as part of our COVID Recovery Fund; £621,856 of this fund has already been released to projects; aligned to this. The roll off Business Grants continue to support 112 businesses with £1.3 million having been released to date. These funds have a positive impact across many sectors from health and wellbeing, to land based  businesses and the Visitor Economy; a new website to support business with their digital and business skills in the Visitor Economy. The Executive Councillor was pleased to see many businesses within the County flourishing and welcomed Members to champion this website (www.visitlincolnshire.com) that features over 60 master class videos, fact sheets, downloadable templates, all of which are presented in a non-jargon manner

The Committee was advised that since April 2021, the Council had received 82 inward investment enquiries with 66 being from foreign investors from a diverse range of sectors with 36 being from the Agri-food sector, a significant number of which are being supported by Officers with finding suitable sites. Many businesses who are here continue to see the value of working together for Greater Lincolnshire through Team Lincolnshire. There were now 137 Team Lincolnshire Ambassadors. Recently we have been joined by Global Berry Ltd, Ambitions Personnel, LIVES, VPI Immingham Ltd., Phillips 66 and Lloyds Bank, who have all joined Team Lincolnshire.

Officers at the Business Lincolnshire Growth Hub continued to provide vital support to a whole range of businesses. In quarter 3, 343 businesses had been supported, with support through the LCC COVID grants and uptake of some of our specialist support programme such as the Supply Chain Programme and Manufacturing Transformation Programme.

The Council’s Adult Learning team continued to help build skills across the County. The 2020/21 data was now finalised and a total of 1,395 courses were delivered to 5,535 learners across Lincolnshire. Since the 1st of August 2021 641 courses had been delivered to 2,197 learners.  There also continued to be an increase in the number of qualifications undertaken. 108 qualification courses had been delivered so far, this academic year in subjects such as English, maths, bookkeeping, customer service, payroll, food production and food preparation, all of which supported Lincolnshire’s priority employment sectors and helped to provide the skills and learning to equip learners for work.

The Committee was invited to ask questions, in which the following points were noted:

• To ensure that Members had access to the data shared in the update. The Executive Councillor would look to include such data in an economic newsletter which could be shared with Members.
• The Council had not yet formally responded to any of the solar applications that had been submitted. The process was lengthy, and the Council was only in the initial stages and was commissioning work to look at the carbon balancing argument between development versus the cost of installing