The Interim Strategic Director, Place will submit Document “B” which provides an overview of the Bradford District Economic Recovery plan that has been developed by the Bradford District Economic Recovery Board. The Economic Recovery Board is a partnership board, chaired by Professor Zahir Irani, Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Bradford with membership from across the business community, public sector partners, education and voluntary sectors.

The recovery plan assesses the impacts of the COVID pandemic on Bradford District’s local economy and sets out the actions that need to be taken now and over the next two years to accelerate the recovery from Covid-19 by sustaining employment and boosting productivity whilst continuing to build a more inclusive, sustainable and resilient economy for the subsequent period.

Recommended-

That the Board notes the Executive recommendations below:

·         Executive would like to thank Professor Zahir Irani and the Economic Recovery Board members for their valuable contribution to this crucial area of work

·         Executive note the approach to Economic Recovery outlined in this report and the accompanying Bradford District Economic Recovery Plan.

·         Recommend that the Economic Partnership takes the lead in taking this plan forward and uses the plan to inform the District’s approach to economic recovery supported by other appropriate partnership boards including the Skills Partnership and the Sustainable Development Partnership.

·         That these plans are progressed for the whole District, working with the Keighley and Shipley Towns Fund Boards and other partnerships.

                                            (Jason Longhurst - 01274 434748)

(Philip Witcherley – 01274 431241)

(Mark Clayton – 01274 434558)

The Interim Strategic Director, Place submitted Document “B” which provided an overview of the Bradford District Economic Recovery plan that had been developed by the Bradford District Economic Recovery Board which was a partnership board, chaired by Professor Zahir Irani, Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Bradford with membership from across the business community, public sector partners, education and voluntary sectors.

The recovery plan assessed the impacts of the COVID pandemic on Bradford District’s local economy and set out the actions that needed to be taken now and over the next two years to accelerate recovery from Covid-19 by sustaining employment and boosting productivity whilst continuing to build a more inclusive, sustainable and resilient economy for the subsequent period.

Professor Irani joined the meeting and spoke to his paper, stressing the level of challenge the District faced from COVID, Brexit and climate change. He stated that COVID had caused a significant health and social care crisis as well as the deepest recession for 300 years. In terms of unemployment, he highlighted the disproportionate effects on younger people and people from BAME communities, both of which groups formed a large proportion of Bradford’s population.

He advised that a comparatively low proportion of the local population was qualified to NVQ level two or above and stressed the need to address that and to improve both digital and physical connectivity to increase chances for learning.

He also stressed the positive aspects of the report, especially that Bradford was fast gaining a good reputation as a place to start a business, which meant there were opportunities to be pursued as well as challenges to address. To do that, it would be vital to accelerate local recovery from the effects of the COVID pandemic. He considered that the Economic Strategy 2018-30 would be important in addressing the induced recession and that recovery would come in three phases, getting back to pre-COVID; building a better future and finally achieving a thriving and resilient local economy.

He took the Board through the approach set out in the report, which he explained was methodical,  budget driven and set against the West Yorkshire Economic Recovery Plan. It was also designed to address inequalities not to embed them. The opportunities identified in the report included having a young population, the green economy and culture.

He concluded by explaining the focus of the new Board and highlighting that it was already gaining plaudits for the high quality of its work.

The Chair thanked Professor Irani for his presentation and concurred that a successful economy was vital to the health of the population. She asked what the next steps should be and, in response, the Chief Executive of the Council highlighted that this was a strong platform for moving forward and that it would be positioned within the West Yorkshire plans for moving on. The Council had already approved investment in educational attainment, employment and skills and the good work on employment that had been going throughout the pandemic was highlighted. She also stressed the importance of the on-going commitment to providing apprenticeships.

She also referred to the commitment to a high speed rail network ad the importance of bidding for City of Culture status to promote a sense of place. A number of business relocations had already been secured and it was vital that this continued as well as developments such as the relocation of the market and housing in the city centre.

The Group Chief Executive, Incommunities Group Ltd commented that this would be her final meeting prior to retirement but stressed that her organisation was fully committed to being involved with this initiative. A sustainability plan had recently been agreed and she would ensure it was shared with the Board as soon as possible.

The Chair led colleagues in thanking Ms Howley for her valuable contribution to the work of the Board.

The Vice Chancellor, Bradford University stressed the need to work in partnership with schools and colleges to increase the number of trained health and care professionals locally and considered there to be a strong case for the establishment of a medical school in the District.

The Executive Board Programme Director asked for colleagues’ views on digital inclusion. Board members considered improving both infrastructure and skills to be very important and that it would mean changing the way the curriculum was presented.

The Strategic Director, Childrens Services advised that a great deal of work had been undertaken to get as many devices out to learners as possible, with 2,000 being distributed in the first lockdown and a further 1,000 to be delivered very shortly. He highlighted the challenges of such a huge initiative.

The Deputy Chair also highlighted the need to address basics within this initiative, such as identifying families where children where cold and hunger were barriers to learning as well as the digital divide. He also commented on his own experience of increasing digital connectivity while working on the front line and how willing the community had been to engage with that. He considered that reaching communities in ways such as this would be key to securing their involvement.

In response to a questions about cyberskills and on-line safety, the Strategic Director explained that protections were put in place within the software of devices being rolled out to automatically flag up issues which would be of concern.

The Board concluded the discussion by stating that it would be important to receive an update on this issue before the summer recess.

Resolved-

(1)  That the Board notes the Executive recommendations below:

·         Executive would like to thank Professor Zahir Irani and the Economic Recovery Board members for their valuable contribution to this crucial area of work

·         Executive note the approach to Economic Recovery outlined in this report and the accompanying Bradford District Economic Recovery Plan.

·         Recommend that the Economic Partnership takes the lead in taking this plan forward and uses the plan to inform the District’s approach to economic recovery supported by other appropriate partnership boards including the Skills Partnership and the Sustainable Development Partnership.

·         That these plans are progressed for the whole District, working with the Keighley and Shipley Towns Fund Boards and other partnerships.

(2)  That progress on the first element of the delivery of the Plan be reported to the Board in July 2021.

Action:  Executive Board Programme Director