York Business Forum

York Business Forum

Terms of Reference.

The Future York Vision is:

‘A special city to live in, an ambitious city to work in, a spectacular city to visit.’

The York Business Forum has as its main aim to build on the work of the Future York group, taking the vision as its starting point.

Background

The Future York Group Report identified the need for increased interaction between the City of York Council and a wider group representing York’s business interests across all the sectors of its economy.

The key recommendations taken from the Future York Report which are concerned with economic development are:

P1: It is essential that City of York Council re-invigorate the role and membership of its partnerships, to ensure that they are effective in delivering the Future York Vision and the oversight of economic development and place shaping activities. We recommend to business and business organisations in the city that they commit themselves to support the new partnership and consultation arrangements and actively participate in them.

E1: City of York Council and its partners adopt ambitious plans for the future economy of York, with the aim to double the city’s economy by 2026. (Future York asked City of York Council and its partners to create an economy which supports knowledge led businesses; which develops its tourism and retail industries to achieve higher added value; which promotes financial and professional service activities; and which creates a supportive business environment

To support these recommendations the city has sponsored the creation of a new business to business group to be called the York Business Forum. It is made up of approxiamately100 senior representatives, recruited from businesses and business facing organisations, and covering all the main sectors of the economy which operate in York. The main objective of sponsoring the creation of this group has been to provide a knowledgeable ’sounding board’ for the city councils executive to consult with, and seek advice from, on all aspects of York’s economic development strategy over the short, medium and long term. The Business Forum will also work with the City of York Council’s executive and members, to provide knowledge and expertise to inform and shape this strategy for York across a number of key economic and city development themes.

York Professionals, as a well established business facing organisation, have been awarded a one year contract to provide support to the City Council in administering the Forum over the first three meetings.

The Terms of reference of the York Business Forum:

The aim of the York Business Forum is to provide an informal but structured environment where information and knowledge can be shared at the most senior level between the executive of York City Council and a representative group of individuals. The membership has been drawn from a wide range of York businesses and business facing organisations operating in York. The Forum is expected to meet on up to two to three occasions per year with the following aims:

-the principal task of the Forum will be to provide a means to air views, in an informal but structured setting, on the state of the York economy and provide advice on how the City’s economic development strategy should be progressed.

-to advise on the inhibitors to business development and growth for those businesses operating in the City.

-to share views on what is required to make the City a better place in which to work and live, thus enabling the economic development strategy to be updated and remain relevant.

-to provide targeted advice around specific topics or themes relevant to business issues when they arise and as they impact on the development of the city and its infrastructure.

-to use the views and the information gathered through the Forum discussions to inform the strategies and activities of partners interested in improving their own processes. For example, this could impact on the design of training programmes to meet specific skills and expertise needs identified by the group, or to test out ideas in the early stages of development.

-To create a group of ‘economic development champions’ to develop a wider dialogue within their networks enriching the information resources of the Forum.

-With the time commitment of Forum members being limited updates on the Forum’s activities will be provided, and opinions sought and shared, through a dedicated web site hosted by the Without Walls partnership. The internet and email will be the main method of contact in periods when meetings are not scheduled or if there was a need to elicit specific views on an issue of the moment.

Reports, including the recommendations and outcomes from these meetings, will appear on the Without Walls website under the Business section and directions to this area will be provided from the City of York Council website.