Presentation by Jennifer Gunn.

The Economic Development Manager gave a presentation providing a 6 month update on the Economic Development Strategy Action Plan.

The Panel were informed that to help raise the profile of the Council a welcome letter was sent to all new businesses from the Portfolio Member, that capacity building was ongoing with the Maidenhead Chamber of Commerce and work continued on the introduction of Windsor UK.

Further developments included running business advice clinics once a month in Windsor and in Maidenhead, the Maidenhead Town Partnership were reviewing empty shops in Maidenhead with the view of introducing pop up shops and promoting empty shops to potential clients. 

An Invest in RBWM infographic was circulated to the Panel, this was created for Members as an aide memoire on economic development highlighting key facts and showing major businesses in the area.

The presentation went on to show the level of inward investment which included the invest in Windsor and Maidenhead website being up and running, Cabinet Members visiting new businesses when appropriate and Members attending forums / meetings to promote the borough.

The Panel were also shown a list of events that had been held with the most noticeable being the work of the Windsor, Eton and Ascot Town Partnership Board delivering an extensive programme of events throughout the year include the signature HMQ 90^th birthday events, HMQ90 Portrait Pageant street gallery, annual night market, food markets, pancake races and new bandstand programme.

Maidenhead had also delivered a successful events calendar with highlights including Wimbledon on the High Street, Maidenhead Festival and Maidenhead at the Movies.

The presentation went on to show work undertaken to help residents equip themselves with the skills of today and for tomorrow this included apprenticeship clauses being part of RBWM procurement process, working with partners on apprenticeships and the work being undertaken by the Grow Our Own team.

Cllr Bowden questioned how the proposed expansion of Heathrow could help with apprenticeships as they curranty supported neighbouring authorities but not RBWM.  The Panel were informed that the other authorities were closer then RBWM, however East Berkshire Colleague did offer engineering courses.

Cllr Burbage asked if there were defined outcomes or key performance indicators that showed that work undertaken was making an impact.  The Panel were informed that there were KPI’s for services supporting economic development but as the strategy had only been in place for one year its impact was not so noticeable, however the action plan would show were there was an outcome.  There were also targets having an impact at a micro level such as the employment of apprenticeships.

The Chairman mentioned that the Crown Estate should be added to the infographic and asked how many young people were unemployed.  The Panel were informed that the level of unemployment between 16 to 19 year olds was very low in the borough.

In response to a question from Cllr Jones regarding the use of media it was noted that the Town Centre Managers used twitter accounts and RBWM had its twitter feed and Facebook; there was also a lot of work done via external networks.

The presentation was noted.