Agenda item

To receive an update from the Council’s representative on matters considered at the last meeting (18 January 2023). 

85.1          Attention was drawn to the report from the Council’s representative on the Gloucestershire Economic Growth Scrutiny Committee, circulated at Pages No. 24-25, which gave an update on matters considered at the meeting held on 18 January 2023.

85.2          The Council’s reserve representative on the Gloucestershire Economic Growth Scrutiny Committee advised that a report on supporting small businesses and assistance for start-ups had outlined that the one and three year business survival rate was higher in Gloucestershire than the rest of England and the south-west and unemployment was still very low.  The Growth Hub and SAGE programme were credited with this good performance – this was important as consideration may need to be given to how Growth Hubs were funded in future depending on what happened with GFirst Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) so this was something which the Committee was keeping a close eye on.  The business birth rate in Gloucestershire was slightly worse than the south-west average so it was important to encourage people to the area by building sufficient houses for them to live in.

85.3          With regard to the unemployment rate, a Member asked whether this was due to a need to upskill and the Council’s reserve representative on the Gloucestershire Economic Growth Scrutiny Committee advised that was part of the issue but there was a lack of people in general so it was about encouraging people to live in the county.  Automation and robots may help to address this to some extent but ultimately there were not enough people to fill the jobs.  Another Member questioned how many people lived in the county but worked elsewhere, for instance, in Bristol or Birmingham, and if they would work in the county if they could earn more money.  The Council’s reserve representative undertook to find out if that information was available and report back after the meeting.  The financial aspect had been discussed in terms of offering more money but employers needed to earn more to be able to pay their employees more.  Some businesses started-up and then stagnated due to lack of investment so it was necessary to think about how they could be supported to expand.  Again, automation may be one way of increasing outputs with less people which would allow employers to increase wages.  Another factor was that Gloucestershire did not offer what people wanted in terms of work and that was more difficult to address.  There were certain areas where early retirement was causing an issue as some people stopped working at 55.  The Member noted that the Cotswolds was a commuter belt with people working in London during the week and returning at the weekend.  The Council’s reserve representative pointed out that Gloucestershire did not fare badly in a lot of the statistics compared to others, particularly with regard to the cyber sector, and the employment rate was very good but engaging young people to return to the area after attending university in big cities was a challenge. 

85.4          The Chair thanked the Council’s reserve representative for attending the meeting in his absence and it was

RESOLVED           That the Gloucestershire Economic Growth Scrutiny Committee Update be NOTED.