Members considered an Economic Delivery Strategy, outlining the key economic development objectives for the borough over the next 3 years.

The Principal Member demonstrated the new website to colleagues (www.investwindsorandmaidenhead.co.uk) highlighting the new logo of ‘Invest RBWM’.  The main page contained general information about the borough and was available in English, Mandarin, Arabic and Japanese. A quirky, interesting fact was listed on each page to attract interest in reading further. The website would be live the following week.

The Principal Member highlighted the following interesting statistics from the Strategy:

·        The Royal Borough’s average annual income of £39,000 was significantly above the national average of £27,000

·        Unemployment was low, but the borough had a higher than regional average number of low paid jobs, probably because Windsor was a key tourism destination in the UK with numerous eateries and bars where jobs were often not well paid.   However, with the Castle, Ascot and Windsor racecourses and Legoland in 2014 it was estimated that expenditure from tourism visitors amounted to £459m.

·        29 of the South East’s top 500 companies now had their main offices in the Royal Borough:  18 in Maidenhead, 10 in Windsor and one in Ascot. One of the key sectors was digital media technology.

·        In 2015, it was identified that there were 585 computer consultancy companies, 111 advertising companies and 40 motion picture production companies in the borough.

·        The small to medium business sector was thriving with over 8,800 companies.

·        House prices were the highest outside Greater London; perhaps not surprising when 9% of households had an annual income exceeding £100,000 compared to just 4% nationally.

The Economic Development Strategy was a three year strategy aimed at strengthening the council’s relationships with business and helping residents achieve economic wellbeing through greater employment and training opportunities. SWOT analysis had indicated that a key weakness of the borough was the fact that Windsor and Maidenhead were not being actively promoted as a place for inward investment, and relied on partners like Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce and UK Trade and Investment. The Borough did not have a relationship with key businesses and there was currently no mechanism for consulting key businesses outside of the town centre partnerships.  The analysis also identified that the ageing population of the borough could make it less economically competitive in relation to neighbouring authorities like Slough.

A year 1 Action Plan 2016-2017 had been devised to facilitate the delivery of the strategy driven by the following three key aims and objectives:

·        Improve Business engagement – The council would develop a business network with key local employers with a view to understanding the different needs of each business and retaining existing business in the borough. The use of business advisers to existing businesses would be promoted to help them grow and promote pop up offices and retail in the town centres.

·        Increase Inward Investment – The new website would help to promote the borough to existing business and potential new business investors, including the benefits of Crossrail to the borough and the M4 and M3 smart motorway schemes. Businesses looking to move into the borough would be supported as would the sustainable growth of the visitor economy in the borough. Investment in a Wi-Fi service for Windsor and Maidenhead town centres had already been discussed. The Berkshire Superfast Broadband programme was being supported across the borough. Another obvious objective was to increase footfall in Windsor and Maidenhead town centres.

·        Equip residents with the skills of today and for the future - The council must work with businesses, further education and training providers to identify future skills requirements, and how these skills could be acquired through education and training. The work of the LEP,   Elevate and Grow Our Own would be supported and the use of S106 for Employment & Training to support up-skilling of those residents who wanted to move jobs but lacked the skills to access new opportunities would be encouraged.

The Principal Member for Policy urged that the two town partnerships be involved as there were lots of resources available. The Principal Member agreed this would be a good idea.

Councillor Jones highlighted that at paragraph 5.4.3 the issue was lack of affordable parking for those working in low paid jobs in the town centres.

RESOLVED UNAIMOUSLY: That Cabinet approve the Economic Development Strategy; the year 1 action plan to facilitate its delivery and the investwindsorandmaidenhead.co.uk website launch.

(Councillor Rayner left the meeting for the duration of the discussion and voting on the item)