Agenda item

            The Committee considered the undernoted report with accompanying infographic style materials:

“1.0     Purpose of Report or Summary of main Issues

1.1       The Belfast Agenda sets a challenging ambition for the city to be home to an additional 66,000 new residents and an economy that supports 46,000 more jobs by 2035. Growing the economy and driving inclusive growth to ensure that all people benefit from economic success is at the core of this ambition. 

1.2       To deliver on this, the Council has agreed to a significant step change in the provision of Council support to accelerate new businesses to start up and support existing businesses to grow and export as well as driving the delivery of the Employability & Skills Framework. This is central to ensuring that all communities benefit from economic growth as well as positioning Belfast to attract international investment from developers, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and institutional investment. 

1.3       Delivering on these ambitions will involve a range of interventions. This can mean that it is difficult to see, at a glance, how these activities are contributing to the overall Belfast Agenda targets. There has been increasing emphasis on producing accessible and user-friendly infographic style materials to assist in communicating information about Council programmes and services.  A detailed update on progress delivering the Committee Plan 2017-18 is a separate item on the agenda. However, this paper presents an overview of the key achievements to date relating to the Council’s efforts to deliver on the Belfast Agenda ambitions to Grow the Belfast Economy, illustrated by the use of infographics.

1.0        Recommendations

2.1       The Committee is asked to:

·        Note the overview of the Council’s performance and contribution to delivering against Belfast Agenda ambitions to grow the Belfast economy, focusing on the current support for Business Start-up and Growth as well as Employability and Skills.

3.0       Main report

            Key Issues

3.1       The Committee receives regular updates on the performance and contribution of the Council to delivering the City targets outlined in the Belfast Agenda.  This information is included in various reports presented to Committee; including the six month progress report on the Committee Plan 2017-18 which is included as a separate item on the Committee agenda. 

3.2       Given the volume of activity and breadth of programmes relating to the key priority to ‘Grow the Belfast Economy’, Members have previously advised that infographic style materials would provide an easily accessible, consistent and concise visual overview of the Council’s progress against key performance targets. These can also provide Members with a source of assurance that Council investment is continuing to make an impact. For this Committee, some of the key targets that Members want to support include the number of jobs created and the number of jobs supported as well as investment levered.

3.2       As a starting point, officers have begun the process of creating infographics for the Business Start-up and Growth as well as some of the Employability and Skills metrics. Infographics outlining progress for the first six months of the financial year 2017-18 for Council support for the Start Up and Growth areas are available on modern.gov. This includes key performance information related to Council activity in terms of:

·        Number of jobs created

·        Number of new businesses created

·        Number of programme participants

·        Number of referrals to other agencies

·        Summary information on the programmes delivered by the Council.

3.4       While this information has traditionally been gathered and reported to the Committee and to funders on an annual or six-monthly basis, enhanced focus on the jobs and skills measurements mean that for these targets, in particular, it may be more appropriate to present the information in this format on a more regular basis (subject to data availability).

3.5       In addition to the information set out above, details are also gathered on additional benefits and outcomes achieved by participants engaging in Council-supported activity. These include innovation / new product development and enhanced service standards. All of these support mechanisms are intended to support business competitiveness and productivity, and, in turn, create jobs and increase turnover.

3.6       The Committee will also note that work is under way to update the Belfast Facts & Figures booklet. This has been well received by internal and external audiences as an easily accessible information source. The document will be revised in time for MIPIM 2018.

3.7       These materials will continue to evolve and develop as programmes go live and they will provide a key reference point to support existing material used by our city partners when promoting Belfast as a place to do business, visit, study or invest in.  This information will be made available on the Members’ Portal and regular updates on progress will be brought back to this Committee.

3.8       Financial & Resource Implications

            The progress reports will be produced internally, therefore requiring officer time, and within existing departmental budgets.

3.9       Equality or Good Relations Implications

            There are no equality or good relations implications.  Representation by under-represented groups is one of the key performance indicators of the service.”

            The Committee noted the information which had been provided.