o Borough Allocation Funding Proposals
o UKSPF Open Call
Minutes:
The LBB Head of Economic Development informed members of the Partnership that the UKSPF had replaced the EU structural funds. Each borough had received an allocation and there were strict rules in terms of what the money could be spend on. In terms of the business support element, £400k would be received over three years and would be used to build on the work undertaken as part of the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG). This included ‘Start Up Bromley’, providing advice and space for a further two-year period and ‘Bromley Business Hub’ being reinstated to the level initially envisaged.
They would also be gathering evidence and data to support business aims. Members of the Partnership often raised issues about the lack of supply and a robust employment land and space study would be undertaken. This had now gone out to tender and the successful company would speak with members of the Partnership as stakeholders. This work would go beyond the numbers-based supply and demand study and would look at the context of typology as well as land.
Other elements of the work would include providing a business advice programme, which would also go out tender, and could still be shaped. They would also be building on their understanding of economic data such as footfall, spend and vacancies.
The LBB Head of Economic Development advised that the GLA had launched an open call for 8 programmes across London, which had a £30m pot of funding allocated. The programmes were related to:
- Innovation;
- Supplier-readiness;
- Supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to bridge the digital divide;
- Growing the local, social economy;
- Property advice service for SMEs;
- Low carbon;
- Support for fast-growing diverse founders; and,
- Investment-readiness support for diverse founders/SMEs.
The applications were open for subregional partnerships and businesses to apply, however this work would need to be scaled. They were working closely with members of the Local London partnership to look at the digital divide and growing local social economy, as well as considering what they could do on a borough level. The LBB Head of Economic Development said that an update would be provided at a future meeting of the Partnership.
Lee Thomas, Fairlight Group advised that businesses in other areas were receiving 20-50% towards green upgrades to their buildings. It was considered that the team would need to push further to take their fair allocation of the funding pot from central government. The LBB Head of Economic Development said that there were four staff members in the Economic Development Team, and they were building on working smartly and in partnership. For example, the digital divide programme would give £2,500 to SMEs to connect to fast fibre broadband – Bromley could be part of this as they had joined Local London. This provided access and maximised the impact of the work undertaken.
Christopher Evans, Community Links Bromley said he welcome the proposed work around the digital divide. In response to a question, the LBB Head of Economic Development highlighted that this fund related to supporting SMEs themselves with the digital divide, rather than individuals. They were pushing for programmes to have an element of subcontracting or supply chain access locally.
Chandra Sharma, representing the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said he welcomed the work to be undertaken on the Bromley Business Hub and considered that it would be good to get input from local businesses. In response to questions, the LBB Head of Economic Development said that information about the business support tenders could be circulate to members of the Partnership. ACTION: LBB Head of Economic Development
Members of the Partnership were advised that the business advice programme was split into two elements. In addition to providing business advice, they would be looking at supply chains, thinking about how they could use procurement better, including Meet the Buyer events. It was noted that they were still waiting for the GLA to send grant agreement – however the specification was ready as there was a requirement to spend the funding by the end of March.
RESOLVED that the update be noted.