Suggested Key Areas for Investigation Into Areas for Improved Working for the Regeneration

(EIT) REPORT TO REGENERATION

AND TRANSPORT SELECT COMMITTEE

18TH JULY 2011

DEVELOPMENT & NEIGHBOURHOOD SERVICES

REGENERATION & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Suggested areas for EFFICIENCY, IMPROVEMENT AND TRANSFORMATION OPPORTUNITIES FOR the Regeneration AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Service

These EIT opportunities are being considered either through changes in market conditions, i.e. reduction in Government funding and other sources of funding for regeneration, or changes in priorities, and changes in the economy.

The model below represents a high-level functional view of the Regeneration and Economic Development (R&ED) Service as is, covering the key aspects of work areas and delivery.

This doesn’t suggest that the functions are carried out in distinct boxes or silos, but that the very nature of regeneration work involves a cross-cutting and holistic approval in order to maximise sustainability and benefits for the community.

The model will be further developed to reflect the revised nature of the structure achieved through this review.

Strategic Leadership

The Service will have a key role in strategically leading on analysing and interpreting economic and regeneration intelligence, as the evidence base for economic policy and strategy development to support the economic growth of the Borough, securing appropriate funding where available, e.g. Regional Growth Fund and Joint Venture Vehicles, and in maximising the strategic opportunities and benefits of European financial programmes.

There is a need to review the known workload in projects that are underway and those that are being developed, and to define a role for the R&ED Service within those projects along the lines of:

Primarily, the role for the R&ED Service should be that of strategic leadership in supporting the economic growth of the Borough and defining those growth needs based on a sound economic understanding of our existing and future position.

Major Projects

In recent years, there have been a large number of major projects which required management or involvement by the R&ED Service. Many of these have been facilitated by a mixture of SBC and external funding from organisations such as One NorthEast, Sport England, and the Homes and Communities Agency amongst others. Examples of regeneration projects include Splash Extension, Billingham Forum, Tees White Water Course.

There are other projects which are still underway and under development particularly in Stockton Town Centre and the Central Area, however, it is worth reviewing the R&ED Service’s role within these projects in the sense that its responsibility may well be more of a strategic leadership role leading on specific projects and participating as part of the project group on others. Further examples of other projects include Northshore, Bowesfield and Northern Gateway.

Other projects will still need to be completed such as Thornaby Town Hall, Billingham House, and others may come forward which will necessitate a strategic leadership role for the R&ED Service. For example the leadership and development of an Integrated Health Centre or an alternative approach for a one-stop shop in Billingham.

Town Centres

The economic climate in previous years meant that we were in a position to secure Development Agreements with major developers for the regeneration of Thornaby Town Centre and Billingham Town Centres. The Thornaby development is now virtually complete, and requires minimal input from ourselves. Billingham is not at such an advanced stage, however, work is underway through Stockland and our role is that of maintaining momentum with Stockland in their development plans. Yarm already represents a success story with its vibrant High Street, low vacancy rates, and mixed, attractive shopping offer.

The future for Stockton Town Centre is for a thriving market town with high quality public spaces and a growing retail offer that serves the needs of the residents in the Borough. Our aim is for Stockton to be a focal point for cultural activity, to conserve and enhance our historic buildings and build upon the asset of the River Tees to provide a high quality setting for new businesses. A major development role is planned for Stockton Town Centre with the launch of the Prospectus in March 2011. The development vision outlined focuses work around delivering and integrating the physical projects with the opportunities for heritage, new retail, business support and liaison, and enterprise creation.

Service Support

The current Service Support function is based around a technical administration role and has been partially involved in supporting housing regeneration schemes and general all round administrative duties. Impacts have already been felt through the review of the Housing Service and transfer of the Housing Regeneration team from the Regeneration and Economic Development office in Municipal Buildings to the Housing section in 16 Church Road. The Admin EIT Review has resulted in a separation out of the basic administration service, so there is a need to re-define the functions from being purely administration to a higher level support function in facilitating delivery of the strategy and projects within the Service. There will also be a need to support the Service in its performance management on a more detailed basis, in liaison with the D&NS Performance and Business Team. This function should also provide the senior management team with strategic support.

Tourism

The Tourism Service has already been reviewed as an EIT Review and savings achieved. However, with the demise of Visit Tees Valley (vTv) and a sub regional role for Tourism there is the opportunity to review the way we look at the tourism agenda. In particular, the exit strategy for vTv was to enable the businesses in the tourism sector to operate their own network facilitated by the Local Authorities. The opportunity exists for us to view Tourism businesses as a part of the business support agenda. Events are handled by the Events team, and we have a dedicated programme of these. The Communications team take on the profile-raising of the Borough generally and, in particular, around events. Therefore, we should look to define a role for Tourism within Economic Development as a business growth opportunity, and a specific business sector.

Buildings

The Service currently runs, operates, and manages Stockton Business Centre on Brunswick Street, and the Shambles building on Stockton High Street. Both of these buildings are used to facilitate the delivery of a service. In the case of the Business Centre the service is that of providing a formal business space for start-up and growing businesses. In the case of the Shambles it is a High Street presence to encourage retailers to begin trading and establish themselves before hopefully moving into their own High Street premises. However, in both cases, the R&ED Service effectively owns and manages the buildings themselves as well as providing the services the buildings are required for. Appropriate linkages to the Asset Review should be considered throughout this process. We should consider whether it is a proper function for the R&ED Service to be fulfilling the role of landlord, or should this role be fulfilled in another way and the Service use the buildings for their strategic intention, which is facilitating the growth of new businesses, retail or otherwise.

Stockton-Middlesbrough Initiative (SMI)

This joint approach has been beneficial to both Stockton and Middlesbrough in securing opportunities to create city-scale developments and develop plans for regeneration for key brownfield areas between the two conurbations. Whilst there continues to be the strategic need for connectivity and a relationship between the two towns the major projects for this area are not, in the short term, fundable. A key project of SMI, the White Water Course, is now complete. Plans have been developed for a road by-pass system to alleviate traffic on the A19, and work has begun on a Master Plan for the Green Blue Heart and Barrage development sites, but in all cases the major funding required to bring these schemes forward is not available in the current economic climate. Consequently, the opportunity should be taken to review the functions of SMI.

Enterprise

The Enterprise function presently encompasses work with schools, support for individuals in the community interested in starting up in business, and much of this activity is currently funded by European funding and the Council’s Working Neighbourhoods Fund. So the opportunity needs to be taken to review these services to determine whether they should be allowed to cease in line with the funding or should we seek to mainstream them as parts of the service, based on the evaluation of their effectiveness.

Employment and Skills

We are currently contracted with three organisations to deliver employability work across Stockton through the Working Neighbourhoods Fund allocation. These contracts come to an end in March 2012. Our role is currently as contract performance managers as well as a strategic role on advice and guidance on employability issues. With the cessation of this funding and change in the external provision through Work Programme providers on a wider basis than the local providers we should take the opportunity to consider the future strategic role of this part of the Service. The review will also encompass the strategic role of Tees Achieve, particularly relating to skills, employability, and enterprise agendas. This will only look at the high-level opportunities for rationalising and maximising services, and will specifically exclude looking at the operational aspects (i.e. the delivery aspects) of Tees Achieve; which is fully funded by external agencies to deliver against agreed outputs, and operates within that funding at no cost to the Council.

Tees Valley Unlimited (TVU)

TVU is the new organisation which now represents the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) for the Tees Valley and is primarily funded by the 5 Local Authorities to deliver economic growth where added value can be gained at a sub regional level. Its role is set out in the Tees Valley Statement of Ambition with the two key priorities: Drive the transition to a High Value, Low Carbon Economy; Create a more Diversified and Inclusive Economy. The organisation now only comprises of just over 30 members of staff, which is roughly a third of the size of the previous constituent parts of the organisation (TVR, TVL, JSU, vTv). In order to capitalise on the opportunities that are presented by the new Coalition Government (Enterprise Zones, Regional Growth Fund) there is a need twofold: to help drive and steer the organisation; and on a more practical basis to support the delivery of new policies and support wider engagement. We should take this opportunity to review how we are able to actively give the support necessary to ensure the success of the LEP and TVU.

Business Support

In order to deliver the economic growth and increase the job creation required for the Borough it is important to have the resources to be able to support start-up businesses, growing smaller businesses, and those businesses wishing to expand within the Borough as well as support to help new inward investors locate where appropriate in the Borough (see also TVU section).

It is important that we are able to capitalise on all of these opportunities, particularly with the demise of Business Link, One NorthEast, and the creation of the new Government web-based business support service.

We should review our approach and resource allocation to ensure we are able to support these activities towards business growth within the bounds of available resources and effective service delivery.

Richard Poundford

Head of Regeneration and Economic Development

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