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3
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EVIDENCE FROM THE
WITNESSES
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3.1
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The
panel heard from a number of witnesses.
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3.2
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Evidence from Paul
Dickinson, CEO, Carbon Disclosure Project
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Paul
Dickinson began by telling the panel that he had worked full-time
on climate change for 9 years. He believes that this issue, at the
top of the G8 agenda, is the defining challenge of this
age.
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He is
concerned that it is a deeply held view by the public and general
technical people that there is nothing to worry about. However he
thinks that there is the potential for there to be such a
significant change to the climate in our lifetime that it could
lead to the loss of 80% of the population.
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However the situation
presents a significant opportunity for Brighton:
- As an alternative
holiday destination, as people restrict their airplane travel
abroad
- As a vegetarian
destination – the silicon valley of alternative lifestyles
e.g. Infinity Foods
- To invigorate
industries such as making loft insulation
- A good place for home
working
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Paul
Dickinson reminded the panel of the view of Oxfam that half the
world will not have food and water by 2030. He then finished by
highlighting his business Eye Network which is Europe’s
largest video conferencing service. It is based in Brighton, but
has never been used by Brighton and Hove City Council
(BHCC).
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Thurstan Crockett said later that the unitary status of
the council, operating within a dense city well-served by public
transport meant video conferencing had few, if any, applications
here.
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3.3
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Evidence from Jae Mather,
Director of Sustainability, Carbon Free Group
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Jae
Mather works in the field of delivering carbon free buildings and
living. He believes that this issue needs to be dealt with now and
a key method is economic stimulus packages. Here in Great Britain
we have the second lowest level of governmental economic
stimulation of environmental industries, alongside Italy. Unlike
Korea and China who have realised that the majority of their
efforts need to go into this sector.
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In the United Kingdom
there is a great generation of innovation, but the government is
not doing anything to support them. Jae believes that the public
sector is too risk averse and not good at making things happen and
offered examples relating to local and central
government. He feels that if BHCC wants
to take a lead it must support small and medium enterprises
(SMEs) in the sector and buy their
products.
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The Eco Enterprise
Project found that there were hundreds of SMEs working in this sector in Kent and East
Sussex. The Carbon Free Group formed out of a consortium of the top
10 organisations that were identified. It is an umbrella group for
people to work under and now has 28 members ranging from a one
person business to a top engineering firm. However they are finding
that prize winning businesses are in danger of going out of
business because the government does not procure their products or
services. He feels that the public
sector disproportionately punishes failure and kills
innovation.
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3.4
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Evidence from Nick
Hutchinson, Director, Ecosys
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He explained that
Ecosys is a small Brighton-based
consultancy that focuses on resource efficiency and supporting
SMEs. He was involved in producing the
Sustainable Eco-Enterprise (SEE) Directory. The 2007 edition for
East Sussex included sixty seven SEE businesses in Brighton and
Hove (36%) (B&H), the majority dealing with waste
efficiency.
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The project leaders at Business Link Kent
analysed feedback from over 100 business reviews carried out by
partners in East Sussex and Kent to build up a picture of their
business development needs. They found the following results:
Main opportunities:
- Changing legislation
i.e. regarding waste (48%)
- Public sector
contracts recognising the economic benefits of using green
organisations (40%)
- Economic benefits of
SEE (39%)
- Greater public
awareness of the issue (34%)
- Rising fuel costs
(33%)
- New build projects
(27%)
- Economic growth
(21%)
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Key challenges:
- Small size of
eco-businesses (finding it difficult to grow) (43%)
- Fluctuations in
public perception e.g. the recession is reducing this as a priority
for the public (40%)
- Disreputable
suppliers (28%)
- Inconsistent
government policies (26%)
- Public procurement
process (26%)
- Lack of marketing
skills (21%)
- Lack of skilled SEE
sector workers (21%) e.g. sustainable construction skills. However
this means there is the opportunity to up-skill the
population.
Nick also referred to the need to improve
regulatory and professional awareness e.g. planners. Ecosys have worked successfully with the Sussex
Innovation Centre (SInC) and Business
Link on this issue. He stressed the need for SEE businesses to be
able to maintain the momentum.
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Main areas of requested
support:
- Promotions/increase
in public awareness (52%)
- Planner/regulator
awareness/issues (36%)
- Professional/Trade
awareness (28%)
- General business
advice (26%)
- Marketing skills (25%)
- Financing advice
(25%)
- Public procurement
access (22%)
- Technical
training/accreditation (20%)
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Nick Hutchinson felt that
his contact with SEE businesses has been inspiring and that there
is real innovation and commitment from these businesses in Brighton
and Hove and East Sussex. According to the South East England
Development Agency (SEEDA), it is one of the fastest growing
sectors in the South East.
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He finished by outlining
what he feels are the attributes of Brighton and Hove:
- Clear cluster of
businesses
- A lot of good
practice
- Really significant
developments in the pipeline e.g. offshore wind farm
- Very good resource
efficiency programme in the area
- Significant active
networking e.g. Transition Brighton & Hove, Food
Partnership
- Very good public
transport system
- Strong council
support
- An engaged
public
- Need for practical
innovation
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3.5
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Evidence from Tony
Mernagh, Director, Brighton and Hove
Business Forum
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Tony Mernagh began by stating that his concern is
whether enviro-industries are a good
fit with the local economy. If yes, then they must be
pursued. The Low Carbon Industrial
Strategy consultation was published last week which highlighted 4
key drivers:
1. Energy efficiency. How this
relates to Brighton and Hove –much of the commercial and
housing stock here was built when energy efficiency was not a
consideration. The University of Brighton has the Centre for the
Sustainability of the Built Environment which has an international
reputation. It also has good links with Europe and Australia, which
is important as other countries are so far ahead of us.
2. Low carbon infrastructure -
There is patchy commitment from central government so B&H need
to be careful when committing its resources. In his view wind is
the only realistic option open to the UK in the short term. Other
regions such as Yorkshire are more advanced in this field.
Investment in wind is precarious, as the London Array experience
proved.
3. Low Carbon Vehicles
–Ricardo, based at Shoreham, is considered a world leader in
the development of low carbon automotive transport and Elektromotive based at the University of Susses is
at the cutting edge of no-carbon transport infrastructure. He
thinks that the aerospace industry will continue, so Brighton could
have an advantage with the aero-thermal systems centre at Sussex
University.
4. Place to locate –
when people are decide whether to relocate to B&H,
especially attracting people from the
rest of the world, they will be guided by 4 factors:
a)
Do they have they have the workforce? Our universities combined are the 4th
largest and are very adaptive. They are able to tailor courses to
engage with business
b)
Quality of physical workspaces and capacity for
expansion. B&H falls down badly on this. Manufacturing does
not really exist here, so we need a functional arrangement with
Adur which still has a significant
manufacturing sector.
c)
Affordable accommodation for the workforce.B&H
has relatively high housing costs. Family housing is expensive and
in short supply.
d)
Standard of living/cultural offer. B&H scores
very highly on this factor.
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However it is very
difficult for any local authority to heavily influence who locates
here. The digital media decided to locate to Brighton before the
local authority began to nurture this sector. However Mr
Mernagh believes that the Wired Sussex
model of support and inward investment is a good model to work from
for other potential clusters.
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3.6
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The Panel members then
asked the witnesses to come together round the table and asked
questions.
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Cllr Randall: How do you feel that a network could be developed for these
industries?
Tony Mernagh replied that business advice is already
provided by Business Link. However this arrangement is being
restructured and there will be just one body for the South East
rather than six.
Jae Mather felt that
sustainable business support could be tailored towards the creation
of clusters e.g. making office space/meeting rooms/hot desking.
Paul Dickinson said that
the key was to create a buzz and the council should communicate
their excitement and openness to change. Jae Mather agreed that
change is only made by people being unreasonable e.g. the Merton
Rule. 85% of all employment in the UK is from SMEs and their employment and innovation is
essential.
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Paula Murray: How can we move things move forward, like with the cultural
sector? Rather than BHCC coming in late and which are the winners
for us to back?
Nick Hutchinson replied that there is a
cluster, but it is not as coherent as the digital media sector, and
includes:
- Renewables (installers rather than
manufacturing)
- Sustainable
construction and maintenance e.g. sustainable building, design and
architecture, conversions
- Consultancy
- Waste and recycling
e.g. Magpie
- Materials
recovery
- Education and
training
- Other services
(including furniture, printing, cleaning, food, travel and design
etc.)
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Cllr
Davis: I am concerned that the idea of picking winners
has been a national and local government issue for so many years.
This is an old concept and the question at the heart of all
government support for key industries.
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Nick
Hutchinson explained that the businesses in the cluster are all at
different stages. The majority are at the Research and Development
(R&D) stage, so it is not possible to tell if they are winners
- but they do have merit. However the sector as a whole has enough
merit to be worth nurturing.
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Jae
Mather told the Panel that an eco-friendly business park
(SuSCon) that had been planned to
exhibit best practices had gone awry as a project. However the
project had done a lot of work on establishing what the market is
for environmental industries. They have a huge amount of data which
could be replicated.
He said
that he believes the best way to support environmental industries
is to procure their goods and services.
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Paul
Dickinson told the Panel that there were some amazing stories in B
&H. You could use £1m to advertise these successes and
this would result in 100 businesses you could sell to the world.
The money would be being used to sell the brand of Brighton as a
green silicon valley, including councillors pledging that they will
save the world.
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Cllr
Harmer-Strange: If 85% of the economy is made up of
SMES, how many of them are we getting to in Brighton &
Hove?
Tony Mernagh
explained that B&H and SEEDA are putting together an Innovation
and Growth Team (IGT). They have taken the top 250 highest growth
organisations (including global growth and Gross Value Added (GVA))
in B&H and East Sussex. The IGT will be established in January
2010 and the business plan is currently being put together. The IGT
could be very useful for this area, but green industries will be
considered in the same way as other industries.
He highlighted the example of CERES Power
based in Crawley. They are using cutting edge technology to produce
domestic Combined Heat and Power Units for replacing traditional
boilers. Any form of new technology such as this will have 3
stages:
- R&D to develop
the product and ongoing R&D to perfect/improve it
- Construction (B&H
is unlikely to have a role in this as it will probably be done in
the Far East, unless it is highly technical construction e.g. Ceres
has opened a plant in Horsham.
- Installing and
maintaining (where B&H could have a big role)
There is scope for B&H to play a role in
stages 1 and 3 and, as a knowledge-based economy, this is what Tony Mernagh believes we should be preparing
for.
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However, Paul Dickinson felt that we should
not limit ourselves to just those stages, as environmental
industries are not the same as other industries: our future is
reliant upon their success.
Tony Mernagh then
restated his belief that even if environmental industries have
great growth potential, they should be looked at in just the same
way as other industries.
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Cllr
Randall: Is there any potential for us carrying out
manufacturing in B&H?
Tony Mernagh told
the panel he thought that this kind of work could be encouraged in
Adur and Newhaven which have a
manufacturing history and still have manufacturing capacity albeit
generally low tech. Cllr Randall suggested that it could be a
constructive way forward to work with East Sussex. Tony
Mernagh suggested that representatives
from East and West Sussex needed to be invited to work with
B&H. This work could enhance both our relationships with
neighbouring businesses and authorities and their perception of
B&H.
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Paul
Dickinson felt that the future of manufacturing should be –
don’t do it. He used the example of the North Laines as the future of retailing as the money
stays in B&H.
According to Nick Hutchinson, B&H is not
likely to be a big part of manufacturing, so need to skill up for
installation and maintenance. For example, there are high level
boiler functions and people do not know how to use them. We could
consider small scale high renewables
such as wind turbines.
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Cllr
Randall: Is it possible to source locally for
sustainable housing?
Jae Mather replied that the construction is
being done in Europe and the installation in the United Kingdom
(UK).He gave the example of Durham that has a dying industrial
centre that needs replacing. Financial support can be obtained to
support the extra cost (10-15%) of manufacturing in the UK. This
will be helped by the Local Multiplier 3 (LM3), which measures the
impact of spending money on the local economy.
Tony Mernagh
thought that we could manufacture high end products e.g. B&W
high-tech, hi-fi speakers are made in Worthing. However, the maintenance and servicing of products
may well be more profitable e.g. Rolls Royce makes more than 50% of
its profit from maintenance and servicing and this could be a vital
area for B & H to explore and where we should develop our
skills base especially at levels below NVQ4.
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Cllr
Harmer-Strange: Would it be possible for B&H to
create the space for manufacturing, even in the high end of the
sector?
Thurstan Crockett
told the Panel that Tony Mernagh has
spent ten years looking into how to develop more business space in
the city and recent opportunities have fallen down due to schemes
collapsing. Paul Dickinson stated his
belief that money can save all. Rich people want to spend money on
high end environmental projects, rather than Bentleys.
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Tony
Mernagh agreed that the space is not
here and can only be gained by collaborating with nearby towns. Jae
Mather suggested Hastings as having a large amount of space, but
Thurstan Crockett felt this was outside
B&H’s economic
area.
Paul
Dickinson emphasised the importance of creating environmental jobs
to protect our children, then suggested selling B&H as the
children’s city.
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Tony
Mernagh suggested that it was not
necessary to re-invent manufacturing when it was being carried out
next door. He said that B&H needed Adur, East Sussex and the Learning and Skills
Council to understand the need to deliver:
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R&D
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Manufacturing
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Maintenance
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Thurstan Crockett highlighted the role of City College
who had set up a ‘constructing futures’
pre-apprenticeship courses in the construction industry. Part of
the curriculum could relate to sustainable buildings. Tony
Mernagh suggested future development
schemes could provide a training ground. Low carbon energy
efficiency could be the area that B&H are most able to
exploit.
Jae Mather told the panel that Registered
Social Landlords are planning large renovation projects, concerned
by fuel poverty. They are also offering apprenticeships, some of
which are in East Sussex. The 2013 Code for Sustainable Homes could
currently only be met by 2% of the industry.
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Cllr
Randall: What can BHCC do in terms of
procurement?
According to Jae Mather, procurement is the
most important function that a Council can carry out in this
sector. This can include demanding sustainable materials. Examples
of robust policies can be obtained from ICLEI – Local
Governments for Sustainability, who help public organisations from
across the world. Good quality examples include Global to Local and
Procurement Plus. For example Maidstone BC who set up the first
sustainable cleaning contract, which has been used by BHCC, and led
to a 3% reduction in costs.
When Cllr Randall said that BHCC could show
off its sustainability to inspire the city, Jae Mather replied that
the policies were there but the procurement team needed to be up
scaled. There are so many tools that have come out of the UK, but
not often used in the UK.
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Nick
Hutchinson cited some examples of good practice in other local
authorities for the Panel to look at:
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Woking- radical innovation, local
energy production and distribution
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Camden
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Durham
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Merton
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Paul
Dickinson informed the panel that he was keen to encourage BHCC to
use his video conferencing business to cut down the use of private
and public transport. However he was not sure who to contact about
this. He felt that BHCC needed to employ people who had sufficient
time to procure products and services that had not been bought
before.
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Tony
Mernagh cited examples of where Local
Authority leadership had succeeded in B&H:
- The excellence of the
bus service which has an excellent reputation for
sustainability
- Jubilee Library
- One Brighton
When going down the path of green industry,
one must not pick things that are going to fail. This is because we
need 16,000 jobs and we are also losing jobs daily. So we need to
find the industries that have the best fit for Brighton and
Hove.
Paul Dickinson concluded by saying that the
evidence was piling up to show that the risks of this industry were
rather small.
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