Agenda item

Cabinet Agreed

1. To approve the new framework for Business engagement in Dacorum.

2. To approved the establishment of a high-level Strategic Hemel Business Board.

3. To approve holding a business event, hosted by the Leader, to launch the Hemel Business Board.

Cabinet

Decision

1. To approve the new framework for Business engagement in Dacorum.

2. To approved the establishment of a high-level Strategic Hemel Business Board.

3. To approve holding a business event, hosted by the Leader, to launch the Hemel Business Board.

Corporate Objectives

Building strong and vibrant communities

Ensuring economic growth and prosperity

Statutory Officer Comments:

Monitoring Officer

There are no specific powers for local authorities to engage with businesses generally however section 1 of the Localism Act 2011 provides a general power of competence which can be relied upon to implement the proposals in this report.

Under section 137 of the Local Government Act 1972, the Council has the power to incur expenditure, which in its opinion is in the interest of and will bring direct benefit to its area or any part of it or all or some of its residents.

Deputy s151 Officer:

The financial investment to support these proposals are minimal and can be funded through existing approved budgets in 2022/23.

Advice

Cllr Anderson said that the report outlines a proposal for a new framework for the business in Dacorum and asks for our approval to establish a high level Strategic Business Board and to approve holding a business event hosted by the leader to launch the Hemel Business Board. Our Business engagement has worked really well with somethings but somethings have fallen by the wayside and are not working as well so they needed to revamp them. He was happy to take questions.

J Doe recognised there were changes to economic circumstances as Nigel had referred to also in his previous item, as their economic position evolves with things like the Hemel Place Strategy and other things moving forward there is a need for a more strategic oversight of the business engagement. He wanted to draw members attention too appendix one which sets out their current arrangements which do work really well but they cover many different fields. The second point was that they were trying to inform this review through a review of their intelligence which is taken from the economic dashboard which was published last year. So it is getting the right sort of business sectors, the right business representation for this strategic board. He was happy to take questions.

Cllr Barratt referred to a point in the report, which mentions that they had been allocated £1.763.392 by the government from the UK shared prosperity fund; he asked what that could be spent on.

J Doe responded that that was a non-competitive bid, which was good news. It was money that had been allocated to them and what they were required to do in the early part of next month was to submit an investment plan back through to the government ready to set out their proposals. It was largely around the supply side of things like skills and other issues around economic promotion rather than capital works and so on. There was a published prospectus online from the government, they were currently working with other districts, and the County Council as there was an expectation from the government that when you were looking at things like skills developments that you may look beyond traditional district boundaries. That plan was being pulled together and will be submitted in time for the cut off.

Cllr Williams asked if there was 15, 16 17 million across Hertfordshire for this or was there a huge variation on what districts were allocated.

JDoe said that they were different amounts; he could get the figures over however there are different amounts and an amount for county also.

Recommendation Agreed