Decision details

Update on business support during the pandemic to date and next steps.

Matter for Decision

The report provided an update on the ongoing work that the council had undertaken during the pandemic to respond to the needs of the City following a motion to Council in February 2021.

 

Decision of Executive Councillor for Finance and Resources

      i.         Noted the update on progress across the programme and next steps.

 

Reason for the Decision

As set out in the Officer’s report.

 

Any Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

Not applicable.

 

Scrutiny Considerations

The Committee received a report from the Strategic Director. The Head of Corporate Strategy attended to answer questions.

 

The Committee made the following comments in response to the report:

i.      Commented that it was a helpful report and thanked officers for their work on the report. Commented that recovery was only one part of the exercise and that the report was silent on the question of renewal in the city centre. Renewal was different to recovery and both were needed. Commented that the Council was not doing anything about renewal, the pandemic had accelerated changes in the high street. Referred to the Grafton Centre as an example and stated that the public were concerned about what would happen with the space since the owners had put the building up for sale.

ii.    Concerned to make sure that businesses in neighbourhood areas would also be supported in their recovery as well as the city centre.

iii.   Commented that the new Joint Local Plan was where the high-level strategic thinking should be undertaken and that a separate strategy outside of that process would be duplicating work.

iv.  Looking to the future, asked what support would be given to younger people.

v.    Asked what the Capitalised Future Vision was on p133 of the agenda point 4.

 

The Executive Councillor said the following in response to Members’ questions:

      i.         Work was already being undertaken by the Assistant Director (Strategy and Economy) and Head of Property Services and would be supported by the new Economic Development Manager. 

    ii.         Felt it was still too early to see the full impact of the Covid pandemic on the city centre. There was a lot of new retail businesses coming into the city centre as well as business leaving. There needed to be a long term strategy based on evidence. Neighbourhood areas, such as Mill Road were being supported.

   iii.         Had been in discussions with the owners of the Grafton Centre, there were a lot of tenancies in place.

  iv.         Work was being undertaken with South Cambridgeshire District Council, the Greater Cambridge Partnership and the Combined Authority regarding opportunities for younger people.

    v.         Confirmed that the Capitalised Future Vision was the work being undertaken by the Strategic Director and Head of Property Services.

 

Councillor Bick proposed the following amendment:

    i.           Add second bullet to recommendation at 2.0 on page 125 of the agenda

·      Commission an exercise to define a place-based renewal strategy for the city centre to recognise the structural changes in the ‘high street’ which the pandemic has accelerated and to which recovery is only a partial answer.

 

The Executive Councillor said in response that the amendment was not required as the work was already underway.

 

On a show of hands, the amendment was lost by 2 votes to 4.

 

The Committee resolved to note the recommendations.

 

The Executive Councillor noted the recommendations.

 

Conflicts of Interest Declared by the Executive Councillor (and any Dispensations Granted)

No conflicts of interest were declared by the Executive Councillor.