Issue - items at meetings - Recreate Programme – Progress Update

Report of the Executive Director of Environment Development and Housing (copy attached)

RESOLVED - That the committee notes the progress made with the Recreate project and the outcomes achieved to date.

43.1    The Committee considered a report of the Executive Director of Environment, Development and Housing which provided the Committee with an update on progress made on the Brighton & Hove City Council element of the Recreate project. This was accompanied by a Power Point presentation given by the Economic Development Manager, Cheryl Finella.

43.2    The report and presentation detailed the approach which had been adopted and how Recreate had brought together creative entrepreneurs from the Arts and Creative industries. New collaborations had been made and support provided for new business ideas, and had helped new creative businesses to look at ways they could showcase and test their business ideas. This support had played a part in the growth of the Creative and Digital Information Technology (CDIT) sector, which had in turn brought regeneration to the city.

43.3    Councillor Morgan recognised the value of this project but expressed some concerns that this sum of money, albeit grant funding, had been focused on one central area within the city, when there were a number of deprived areas elsewhere in the city, which would also have benefitted from similar injections of funding. Councillor Robins concurred in that view, citing areas of his own ward in Portslade.

43.4    Councillor Randall stated that although funding had focused on the refurbishment of New England House as a creative hub, its benefits were city wide in terms of the training and employment opportunities it had and would continue to create, especially bearing in mind the links that had been developed with City College and local secondary schools.

43.5    RESOLVED - That the committee notes the progress made with the Recreate project and the outcomes achieved to date.