Agenda item

The Portfolio Holder for Economic Development advised that as the Council was in its final year, a number of reports listing the Council’s achievements for residents and businesses would be presented to District Executive.

The Specialist for Economic Development introduced the report on the Council’s economic and business response to Covid 19.  He noted that although this was an economic development report they had been supported by many other council services and credit should be given to the whole council.

The presentation covered key projects (presentation slides in agenda papers):

-          Business Grants

-          Food and Drink Directory

-          Supporting high streets and town centres

-          Oscar Mayer redundancy support

-          Business Support Week: Recover, Restart and Grow

-          Broadband Directory

-          Employment Hubs

In response to questions from Members, the Specialist for Economic Development advised:

·         The number of people attending the Employment Hub open day who were referred by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) or via social media would be provided to Members.

·         The majority of funding for the projects listed in the report came from Central Government although SSDC had funded some of the business support events and the Market Town Investment Group (MTIG) fund contributed to re-opening high streets safely.  The DWP had contributed to the opening of the Employment Hubs.

During discussion, the following points were made:

·         Council staff had continued to assist residents during the pandemic and worked across services to deliver grants and food parcels.

·         Thank the economic development team for their assistance to the employees of Oscar Mayer in Chard to help them find alternative employment.  The employment hubs were also providing an excellent service.

·         The Government should also be mentioned for their swift roll out of grants to businesses affected by the pandemic.

·         The Government had recognised that local government were able to respond rapidly to deliver services to residents.

The Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee said they had raised a number of questions on the presentation and the following responses were provided after the meeting:

·         Had SSDC returned any of the unspent grant funding to the Government and if so, how much?

During the course of the pandemic South Somerset District Council received £84,854,810 from Government for the use of Covid 19 Business Grants and distributed £72,142,766 (85%) of this. This percentage is in line with the national average. We were required to return any underspend, meaning that £12,712,045 was returned to Government

It is important to note that:

• Government allocations were made on Valuation Office data which later transpired to be inaccurate and this was a contributing factor to underspend.
• We were required to follow strict Government guidance when administering the funding and could only award grants to eligible businesses.
• Government allocations did not account for ineligibility due to State Aid / Subsidy legislation which excluded a number of larger businesses.
• We are aware that some businesses did not want to apply for reasons they did not state.
• South Somerset were awarded £6.2m of discretionary funding all of which was fully spent.

·         Had SSDC funding contributed to any of the achievements listed in the report?

Please note, these only refer to the projects listed within the report and not additional Covid 19 support.

The Lead Specialist for Finance agreed to provide the financial information to Members.

The Portfolio Holder concluded by noting that Economic Development was now integrating as the 5 Somerset Councils moved towards a Unitary Authority and work was taking place on effective public transport and business innovation and productivity. 

The presentation was NOTED.