Issue - meetings

To consider the Economic Recovery Plan Delivery Plan.

Councillor Reeve presented the interim report that had been requested by the Scrutiny Committee at the June meeting. 

He said that there were two remaining grants being administered the Essex Business Adaptation Fund and the Additional Restrictions Grant.  He said in total £15 million of COVID-19 business support had been paid out in the form of grants to local businesses.

He said that the grant administration work was decreasing and that meant the focus would be on the mainstream economic development and growth for the district as well as feeding into the economic development work within the upcoming Local Plan.

He thanked the Economic Development Team for the work that they had put in and said they had gone above and beyond to deliver the service and support local businesses.

Councillor Lavelle wanted to record his support for the team and in particular how the grants had been administered.

Councillor Sell agreed and asked if some of the feedback could be captured from businesses to encourage others to get involved. 

In response to a question from Councillor Sell, Councillor Reeve said that the budget summary related to the current financial year and represented 6 months of spend so far.  He said that he would expect the majority of the budget to be spent by the end of the year.

The Chair commended Councillor Reeve and the Economic Development Team for their hard and outstanding work.  He proposed and the Committee agreed unanimously that the report was remitted to Cabinet.

The meeting ended at 9.10pm.