Minutes:
Hal Khanom, LBB Head of Economic Development, informed Members that the Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant was a mandatory payment of up to £6k, based on the rateable values – £15k or under would receive a grant of £2,667; £15k-£51k a grant of £4k; and £51k and over a grant of £6k. The applications for this grant would need to be completed by 28th February 2022. Payments would be made as quickly as possible after this date, administered by the Business Rates team.
With regards to other grants, £640k had been received in Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) top-ups, which had to be spent by 31st March 2022. As there had been a substantial amount of interest in the existing ARG schemes (Business Start-up during COVID Grant; Business Growth Grant; Grants for occupying a vacant unit; and Cultural Grants), and a significant amount of applications received, it was felt prudent not to develop a new project and the additional funding would instead be used to meet the existing demand. The team had been looking through the current submission backlog received over the Christmas period – 146 applications for the Vacant Unit Grant and 309 applications for the Business Growth Grant.
Christopher Evans, Community Links Bromley, considered that there was a need to make it clear if applications for grants were going to be accessed as soon as they were received, as opposed to when the closing date was reached. The LBB Head of Economic Development said that the Business Growth Grant had clarified that the applications would be assessed in two tranches, however she agreed that this could easily be missed in the detail, and they would look to make this clearer. It was noted that all applicants would receive confirmation of their submission, but after the first tranche of assessments an application would not be rejected as the team were still working out where the additional money could be allocated.
The LBB Head of Economic Development advised Members that there was also a new COVID-19 Additional Relief Fund (CARF). This had been announced by the government in March 2021, as a means to appease those wishing to appeal their business rates, but no further details regarding the scheme had been received until the end of December 2021. Bromley had been allocated £5.3m, which was substantially less than the amount anticipated would have been requested by businesses through appeals. It was expected that this funding would need to be spent by the end of March 2022, however clarification of the requirements were still awaited. This would be a mandatory scheme, which excluded retail, hospitality, leisure, nurseries and airports, and work was currently being undertaken to identify who would be eligible. Members were advised that the team were working as quickly as they could to distribute the grants.
In response to a question from the Vice-Chairman, the LBB Head of Economic Development said that further information was available via the following link:
Ose Akpom, LBB Economic Development Manager informed Members that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of start-ups in Bromley had fluctuated around 200 businesses per month during the past few years, until May 2020 – following the initial lockdown restrictions and announcement of the furlough scheme, there had been a sharp rise, increasing to approximately 300 businesses per month in September 2020. The rate of new start-ups had been steadily decreasing since September 2020 and stood at around 120 businesses per month in November 2021. There had been 34.8% fewer businesses start-ups in Bromley during the first eleven months of the year compared with the corresponding period last year. A similar picture was being seen across London as in comparison, there had been 35.4% fewer business start-ups during the same period.
The number of unemployed claimants in Bromley had remained below 5,000 during the past few years until April/May 2020 after which there had been a sharp increase (which coincided with the lockdown restrictions), eventually reaching a peak of approximately 12,000 in September 2020. The unemployed claimant numbers in Bromley had been gradually reducing since April 2021 and stood at 7,760 in November 2021.
With regards to business stock, the total number of enterprises in Bromley showed an annual increase over several years, until it peaked at 15,475 in 2019, which was followed by a fall to 15,100 in 2021. The number of enterprises both nationally and across London had shown a small annual increase continuously over the past several years.
The LBB Economic Development Manager advised that the 2020-21 Bromley town centre footfall data showed a steady increase up until October 2021. This followed the easing of the lockdown restrictions in accordance with the roadmap from April 2021. However, there was a slight reduction in footfall experienced during November 2021. The total number of visitors for the first eleven months of the year to date was up by 12% on the previous year and 25.3% below normal footfall levels in 2019. In comparison, there was an increase in footfall of 14.6% experienced across Greater London during the first eleven months of the year, which was 39% below normal footfall levels in 2019.
Data was also provided in relation to the general retail (i.e. eating/hospitality and clothes) spending activity level baseline for Bromley High Street. From March 2020 the retail spend in Bromley High Street had dramatically reduced to around 20% of the normal spend (Lockdown 1). There was a significant recovery (up to 80% of normal spend) with the easing of restrictions from June/July 2020, but subsequent lockdown restrictions had generally suppressed retail spending up until April 2021 (Lockdown 2 and 3). Retail spending increased from April 2021, in accordance with the individual steps within the government roadmap, and it was up to 80% of normal trading activity in August 2021. General retail spend in Bromley High Street returned to pre-pandemic levels from September 2021, which was the net effect of higher than normal spending levels on eating/hospitality and lower than normal spending on apparel/clothing shopping.
Bromley town centre and Chislehurst continued to experience larger vacancy rates overall compared to the other town centres within Bromley. The rate in Bromley town centre increased from 9.4% in April 2020 to 11.7% as at October 2021. This vacancy rate was the highest observed across the other local town centres within Bromley, as well as higher than the average rate across Greater London (10.4%). However, the vacancy rate in Bromley town centre was lower than some other comparable areas such as Croydon (23.8%), Guildford (15.2%) and Sutton (15.8%). In response to a question from the Chairman, the LBB Economic Development Manager said that the difference in the vacancy rates provided compared to the figure stated by Your Bromley BID Company may be due to the provider of the service counting different types of spaces. It was suggested that the lists of the units counted could be provided for comparison.
(ACTION: LBB Economic Development Manager / Ms Forrest, Your Bromley BID Company)
With regards to 4G/5G mobile technology and full fibre broadband coverage, the LBB Economic Development Manager advised that over 37,500 premises in Bromley had been provided with their full fibre upgrades by Openreach, mainly due to upgrades at the Orpington, Farnborough, Grove Park, Chislehurst and Hayes Common exchanges. In May 2020, 1% of premises within Bromley had full fibre broadband access available, compared with an average of 13.1% across several outer London boroughs. There had been a significant improvement during December 2021, with access to full fibre broadband access in Bromley at 24.7% (Openreach 24%), compared with the average of 32.7% (Openreach 19.7%) across several outer London boroughs.
In terms of priority actions, Members were advised that the Bromley Business Hub launched in the autumn as an online one-stop-shop. It provided a wide range of free business resources, including a business start-up guide; business directory with local suppliers; recruitment database advertising vacancies; events calendar; and local demographic data, blogs and latest news. Through the Hub, 636 new users had been engaged by 1st November 2021 after being live for two months – 47.5% of the traffic had come directly to the site and 35% has come via organic search (SEO). In terms of impact, the Hub had assisted in maintaining/increasing the existing start-up rates of between 112-140 businesses per month in Bromley; aided the retention of business stock in Bromley; and maintain higher than average employment rates of 76-80% experienced over the past several years.
Another priority action had been the Start Up Bromley scheme and another business lounge had been launched at Biggin Hill Library on 7th October 2021. The scheme had supported over 168 Bromley businesses and entrepreneur members with 1:1 advice, networking, digital training, funding training sessions to increase enterprise and aid the sustainability of businesses in the Borough. Further projects included the BID Booster grant scheme for small independent businesses within BID areas; the Welcome Back Fund; ARG business grants; and working with Openreach on full fibre installation and 4G/5G infrastructure providers and mobile network operators.
A copy of the full Bromley Economic Data Report and Economic Strategy Work Plan Update for Q3 2021/22 (October – December 2021) is attached at Appendix E.
RESOLVED that the updates be noted.