Issue - items at meetings - Recovery Update: Economy

Report of the Executive Director Economy, Environment & Culture (copy attached)

RESOLVED: That the Sub-Committee –

(i)             Noted the latest position with regards to the city’s economy and the impact of the pandemic;

(ii)            Noted the contents of the Greater Brighton Sustainable Recovery Plan (appendix 1), and the update on delivery of that plan (Appendix 2).

43.1    The Sub-Committee considered the report of the Executive Director Economy Environment & Culture which updated members on some key indicators as to how the city’s economy is being affected by the Covid 19 Pandemic, as well as some of the activities that were happening to better understand that impact and to work towards a sustainable recovery of the city’s (and city region’s) economy.

43.2    Councillor Clare noted that the City had an above average number of both people who were home working and who had been furloughed and asked if that could impact on how the City could recover.  The Executive Director Economy Environment & Culture said that furloughing staff had been helpful for the hospitality sector and had secured jobs although it may some time for the visitor economy to recover, and the City had a high number of residents who were self-employed or were sole traders which could have increased the number who were working from home.

43.4    Councillor Yates noted that the report made no mention of getting shops back into use. The Executive Director Economy Environment & Culture said that the Council were working with Brilliant Brighton to look at using empty shops and some suggestions were to allow short term pop-up shops, or to engage local artists to show case their work in shop window displays. More information on that would be provided in future meetings.

43.5    Councillor Miller said that there were 144 grant applications still to be decided and asked when that would be done, and noted that the Government had recently announced an further one-off grant scheme which would pay an additional amount of between £4k to £9k to businesses and asked when that would be paid. The Executive Director Economy Environment & Culture said that applications were being processed as quickly as possible and there were currently 96 being considered but that number did change on a daily basis, and with regard to the extra grants it was hoped that they would allocated in the next couple of weeks.

43.6    Councillor Platts asked whether as part of the ongoing strategy, officers were looking at shared working space. The Executive Director Economy Environment & Culture said that people were wanting to commute less but still wanted to meet colleagues in person and so that was something which would be looked going forward.

43.7    RESOLVED: That the Sub-Committee –

(i)             Noted the latest position with regards to the city’s economy and the impact of the pandemic;

(ii)            Noted the contents of the Greater Brighton Sustainable Recovery Plan (appendix 1), and the update on delivery of that plan (Appendix 2).