Agenda item

To receive a verbal update from the Economic Development Team Leader regarding the work of the team.

The Group received a verbal update from the Economic Development Team Leader regarding work undertaken by the team. This included the following information:

The workload of the team had been dominated by a series of unforeseen challenges. At the beginning of January there had been a fire at the Tiverton Business Park and a need to respond and find accommodation for three Mid Devon businesses at short notice.

The period had also been dominated by:

Business Grants

Over the last couple of months, the team had been asked to prioritise the administration and management of the latest Covid 19 related Business Grants.

• Omicron Scheme
• Additional Restrictions Grants, Omicron
• Additional Restrictions Grants, Covid Recovery

All three grants schemes were now coming to an end, but they had generated a huge amount of administrative and work

Visit Mid Devon – This was a partnership with the TIC / Museum for 2 years managing the website and social media channels.

This Committee received a report in September last year about the work of the team on the Taste Mid Devon campaign in support of local food producers and hospitality businesses. The team had hoped to bring an update report to this committee, but due to the unexpected demands on the teams time this had not been possible.

The website had been a useful tool to support the leisure, tourism and hospitality businesses this year. In order to help businesses through the recovery period the Council had offered free business listings on the website. It had enabled the team to build a good relationship with the sector and identify how the team could help them going forward. The team had recruited 136 Mid Devon businesses to date, including eateries, attractions and accommodation providers, which was the sector hit hardest by the pandemic.

The team had secured funding from the ‘Welcome Back’ grant to create, design and install four visitor boards across the district. One unique board for each of the main towns sits in the long-stay car park and provides information about the local area, promoting the facilities and town centre businesses e.g retail and eateries (town centre focused).

The team were planning a business event for our leisure, tourism and hospitality businesses in May, with a number of guest speakers promoting support services and tips for the future (trends following the pandemic).

Community Support Activities

Over this period the team had continued to co-ordinate various strands of support for residents impacted by Covid19 or by the increasing squeeze on household incomes. This had included co-ordinating the Government funded Household Support Fund, Self-Isolation Support and Monday and Debt Advice

Asylum Seekers Initial Accommodation

In January, and at extremely short notice, the team were informed that Mid Devon would be hosting an Asylum Seekers Initial Accommodation Facility at Tiverton Best Western Hotel. Initially 72 asylum seekers including two families were housed at the hotel.  This had involved working with local and regional community groups to co-ordinate various areas of support.

Throughout this period the team had worked flexibly, tirelessly and professionally, to meet the demands of the new pieces of work, often working over and above contracted hours to meet the challenges as they appeared.  With the majority of the schemes coming to an end at the end of March, and with hopefully the Group Manager for Economy Growth and Delivery returning, the team was expected to be back to some sort of normality by the middle of April, albeit the team had not been able to recruit to the post of Economic Development Officer yet.

The Group wished to thank the entire team for their hard work and perseverance during a difficult two year period.