Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Apologies were noted as above.

It was noted that as from 1^st April 2020 there were no Non-Constituent members on the Committee.

This item would be removed from future agendas.

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RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 30^th January 2020 be agreed as a true record.

Note meeting previously scheduled for 15 October 2020 has now moved to 29 October 2020 at 2.00 pm

With regard to item 13, the Committee was informed that the Bus Review was ready to be published, but due to the Covid-19 lockdown, publication had been delayed until such a time that the review could receive proper public attention.

It was noted that the meeting scheduled for the 15^th October 2020 would now be held on 29^th October 2020.  The next meeting of the Committee would be on 23^rd July 2020.

There are no papers for this item; a presentation will be given with the latest information.

F Kumi-Ampofo gave the Committee an update on the SCR’s Economic Renewal Plan.

Officers had consulted with the four local authorities and the private and third sectors to ensure that all views were considered when building the Renewal Plan.

The presentation detailed the engagement undertaken and a summary of the challenges presented by the Covid-19 crisis.

The draft objectives of the Plan were:

• To mitigate the worst effects of the crisis and deliver immediate socio-economic relief to the region’s people, places and businesses.
• To accelerate the recovery from the economic recession currently underway.
• To drive a renewal of the socio-economic fortunes of South Yorkshire.
• To ensure full alignment with the SEP which was designed to address the longstanding fundamental, structural and systemic economic challenges holding back South Yorkshire.
• To help realise the LEP and MCA’s three policy objectives of economic growth, inclusion and sustainability.

Significant engagement had taken place over the last few weeks, contacting over 100 people and approximately 40 organisations.

The presentation detailed feedback from the local authorities and businesses.

Businesses had been forthright in their responses, making clear the huge impact the crisis had on the way they did business; there was a risk of significant insolvencies and the worst case scenarios suggested that 30% of SMEs could close.

To understand the potential impacts or challenges presented by Covid-19, officers had developed two scenarios for what the future could look like to set the backdrop for the Renewal Plan.  These were detailed within the presentation.

Analysis showed that people and places that were worse off before Covid-19 hit were likely to be a lot worse off after.

Lessons learned from the 2008 recession showed that people entering the labour market at the time of a recession were significantly disadvantaged and for some it took up to a decade to close the gap and catch up with peers who had entered the labour market earlier.

Members noted that through the collation of extensive research and analysis, and stakeholder engagement, the challenges could be summarised based on the impact Covid-19 would have on the region’s skills and jobs, businesses and organisations and places and people.

Places – with the long-term closure or failure of high street retailers the region’s urban centres faced an uncertain future.

People – the significant loss of employment and training opportunities in the immediate term, which continued into the medium to long-term.

Employers – the widespread closure of businesses, including both SMEs and large corporations due to a lack of demand and/or inability to operate in the wake of Covid-19 impacts.

These were the three proposed priorities for the Renewal Plan and the presentation detailed measures for immediate relief for economic recovery and future adaptation for renewal and resilience.

The immediate focus would be on relief and sparking an early and substantial recovery.  Medium to longer term interventions would evolve further as more evidence came to light.

D Smith informed the Committee that the next stage was to use the priorities to generate detailed proposals  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26.