Author: John Brace

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Economy and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee 7th November 2011 Part 8 Child Poverty Strategy, childcare, Bidston, Claughton, Joint Strategic Needs Assessment

The Chair thanked Paula Basnett and said that if councillors had a couple of hours that Invest Wirral was well worth their while visiting. The Chair, Cllr Johnston said he hoped councillors had read the Child Poverty Strategy and Action Plan Progress Report and that Jane Morgan was here to answer any questions. He asked … Continue reading “Economy and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee 7th November 2011 Part 8 Child Poverty Strategy, childcare, Bidston, Claughton, Joint Strategic Needs Assessment”

The Chair thanked Paula Basnett and said that if councillors had a couple of hours that Invest Wirral was well worth their while visiting.

The Chair, Cllr Johnston said he hoped councillors had read the Child Poverty Strategy and Action Plan Progress Report and that Jane Morgan was here to answer any questions. He asked councillors if they had any questions? They didn’t, Cllr Johnston asked about the timetable for the action plan.

Jane Morgan said in the appendix it was not detailed as there were things to develop further regarding childcare where they wanted to understand the issues. There would be work done on this over the next couple of months, there were already meetings in the diary, it would go back to scrutiny in the New Year and Cabinet which would define what would happen for the next three years.

The Chair said he had attended an event at the Floral Pavillion, but what were they doing regarding engagement.

Jane Morgan explained that following the event people would be invited to targetted workshops involving providers and practitioners. Through the website they were trying to get people to be champions.

Cllr Realey asked if Bidston/Claughton was the worst in Europe for child poverty? Jane replied that it was the highest on Wirral with 72% living in poverty in parts of Bidston & Claughton.

Cllr Realey asked where Prenton was in the statistics. Jane Morgan pointed Cllr Realey to the detailed needs assessment which was a “complex technical document”.

Economy and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee 7th November 2011 Part 7 relationship managers, IT, construction, business forum (a local forum for local businesses), inward investment manager, Birkenhead Town Hall

Cllr Mountney asked where the relationship managers were from and what their skillsets are? Paula Basnett said some were from industry and the others were long term local authority employees. Two were long term local authority officers and three were fairly new but all of them had degrees. One was based on the IT sector, the construction sector relationship manager was a woman (who previously had had no background in construction but had learnt over the last two years). The other three had been longer in the team but had had no sector experience except for the last two years. In future they wouldn’t recruit local authority officers but buy in from sector experts instead.

Cllr Stuart Wittingham asked about the business forum. Paula Basnett replied that it is password protected, but they check the address and contact details. They had had lots of enquiries from Liverpool companies with offices in Wirral, but it was only for Wirral companies and businesses.

Cllr Pat Hackett said it was hard to find investment. Cllr Phil Davies arrived. Cllr Pat Hackett asked if there was proactive matching done between investors and businesses to invest in? He said it was important not to rest on their laurels and to have vision, strategy and ideas.

Paula Basnett said the appointment of an inward investment manager would help them to work closely with investors, to go out and be proactive and make organisations aware of the development sites on the Wirral. They also supported indiginous businesses. An investor was looking at Birkenhead Town Hall which had been a referral from Cllr George Davies. The investment manager would develop the inward investment strategy which would identify potential investors.

Economy and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee 7th November 2011 Part 6, manufacturing, business forum website

The officer said that they [Wirral Council] also worked with the Manufacturing Advisory Service on culture and had made eighty-one referrals in the last year. They go in with MAS who had a list of practitioners who helped with office or shop culture and worked to add value to the business, attract industry and keep the manufacturing base. Manufacturing hadn’t gone from Wirral, Teledyne CML and Cammell Lairds were examples of positive news on jobs.

Cllr Simon Mountney commented that it was getting increasingly difficult for businesses.

Paula Basnett said their aim was to increase membership on the business forum. According to their CRM system they had had contact with four thousand businesses over the last decade. Their aim was to have an extra five hundred register each year for the business forum, but it as getting difficult to get new business users.

Cllr Mountney asked if it was a local or national target. She replied it was a local target. Cllr Mountney asked how many hits a month it was getting.

Paula Basnett said it was password protected but they measured how long visitors spent on the site and what areas were of interest to them. Cllr Mountney asked how long on average each visitor stayed for?

The Chair, Cllr Johnston asked for a report on this to a future meeting.

Economy and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee 7th November 2011 Part 5, apprenticeships, cashflow, business angels, interest rates, inward investment, engineering

An officer said that some businesses were not doing well and some were leaving the Wirral. One had made a decision to move to Hungary and Wirral Council was working with the hundred and eighty staff affected.

The forty-six apprenticeships were not just for young people. They also went into companies that they heard were experiencing trouble, to try to alleviate any cashflow problems. The project manager would look at the books and try to keep abreast of any financial problems.

Cllr Tony Cox asked about the profile of those chosen to be business angels, was a maximum percentage rate of interest agreed or was that between the business and the investor?

Paula Basnett said that they just coordinated it, but they could check out the background of business angels with Companies House. The interest rate was between the investor and the investee.

A councillor commented that first tier aerospace engineering as well as second tier precision machine engineering was coming back to the UK. A council officer said that Cllr Davies had been at an event about this a month ago organised by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport called “Give Yourself the Edge” in Bromborough. They were also working with the new management at North West Precision Ltd which was part of the manufacturing base. Wirral Council had also advertised the post of Inward Investment Manager, the closing date had been last Friday. He said managers go into engineering businesses and suppliers of engineering businesses so that Wirral keeps its engineering base and grows it when the conditions are right.

Economy and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee 7th November 2011 Part 4 Invest Wirral, Wirral Direct, jobs, investment, planning, vetting

Paula Basnett said that since 1993 (Invest Wirral had formerly been called Wirral Direct), it had been involved with 941 investment projects and sixteen thousand jobs had been created or safeguarded.

In 2010/11 Invest Wirral had been involved with £13 million of investment covering 652 jobs, had an average of engaging with 800 companies a year and in the last three years had helped with £50 million of investment covering 3,000 jobs.

She finished by giving the contact details for Invest Wirral which were invest@wirral.gov.uk, telephone 650 6915 and their website.

Cllr Denise Realey asked if they helped fund planning applications?

Paula Basnett said they didn’t reduce planning fees, but they could help businesses attract business rate relief on their business rates.

Cllr Denise Realey asked about the over 2,000 businesses registered on the website. She asked how they check they do good work, had they been into every business or did they just rely on the information the businesses had given? What would they do if the businesses were not doing a good job? How did they check these businesses out?

Paula Basnett said they ask for turnover, contracts and employees. If they are receiving support they measure this over six months and twelve months to see how it’s changed.

Cllr Realey asked again if any of the businesses work was actually checked.

Paula Basnett replied that for businesses that just register, they don’t vet them for the online forum as they’re not Trading Standards.