Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Cllr Darren Byford, Cllr Julie Heselwood Cllr Naheed Mather, Mike Danby, Marie Gilluley, Professor Lisa Roberts (represented by Martin Stow)  and Neville Young (represented by Karen Lodge)

There were no declarations of pecuniary interests at the meeting.

There were no items which required the exemption of the press and public,

The last meeting of the Panel held on 27 February 2020 was inquorate, so formal minutes were not taken.  However, a discussion around the climate emergency and the role of the Panel in supporting those ambitions, particularly the importance of innovation will be picked up at future meetings.

The Panel was asked to approve the minutes of the Business Innovation and Growth Panel held on 28 November 2019.

Resolved:  That the minutes of the Business Innovation and Growth Panel held on 28 November 2019 be approved.

The Chair said that since the last (informal) meeting a Devolution agreement was successfully achieved with signing happening just before lockdown.  Work is still progressing to achieve the timetable of getting the mayor in place by next May and progressing workstreams that were agreed as part of the deal.  Importantly the CA is being treated as a Mayoral Combined Authority as of now which means a seat at the table with the other MC’As and everything else that comes with that.

Covid 19 then hit and the discussion at this meeting would be around immediate response and planning for economic recovery and the challenges and opportunities to be faced.

The Chair welcomed new members to the Panel Richard Paxman, Paxman Coolers, Andy Peterson, Communisis and Dave Sidlow, Borg Warner.

Resolved:  That the Chair’s update be noted.

The Panel considered a report on the progress of the delivery and development of products and services in response to the COVID-19 crisis and due to the fast-moving nature of this agenda item, verbal updates were also given at the meeting.

The Panel was asked to note the progress in response to the Covid-19 crisis and approve the work to deliver and further develop products and services.  The Panel was also asked to comment and provide feedback on key questions being considered for the recovery plan in meeting these existing challenges.

·       How should we measure a successful recovery?

·       How targeted should the interventions be?

·       Where should we concentrate interventions?

·       What is the priority for spending?

Resolved:

(i)             That the contents of the report on the progress on the development of products and services in response to the Covid-19 crisis and verbal updates be noted.

(ii)            That the work to deliver and further develop products and services in response to Covid-19 be approved by the Panel.

(iii)          That feedback on the developing recovery work in response to the key questions set out in 2.21 was provided by the Panel.

(iv)          That a further meeting be held in response to Covid 19.

The Panel considered a report with an update on business support activity and plans undertaken since the last meeting of the Business Innovation and Growth Panel in February 2020 which included the LEP Growth Service, the Business Growth Programme, the Resource Efficiency Fund and REBiz, Access Innovation & Connecting Innovation, Strategic Business Growth (extension and new programme), Travel Plan Network, the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, #Grow and Investment Readiness and was also given a verbal update.

The Panel was asked to note the progress to date on delivery of the above business support projects, programmes and services.

Resolved:  That the contents of the report and verbal update be noted.

The Panel considered a report providing an update on Trade and Investment activity since the last Panel meeting in February 2020 and was also provided with a verbal update.  The Panel was asked to note and provide comments on the progress made to date on the delivery of Trade and Investment activity.

Resolved:

(i)             That the contents of the report be noted

(ii)            That the Panel provided comments and feedback on the progress made to date on the delivery of trade and investment activity.