A Local Partnership between Businesses, South East LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership) and Regulatory Services
Decision:
The report considered how local authority regulators in the South East might work with the Local Enterprise Partnership to help regulatory services work more effectively with business, with the aim of supporting economic regeneration, and set out proposals to develop a Better Business for All Partnership model in the South East LEP area.
Following consideration by the Economic Regeneration Advisory Board, the Cabinet Member for Economic Regeneration resolved that:
The Borough Council’s involvement in this initiative and the approach to be taken, as set out in the report, be endorsed.
Minutes:
The report considered how local authority regulators in the South East might work with the Local Enterprise Partnership to help regulatory services work more effectively with business, with the aim of supporting economic regeneration, and set out proposals to develop a Better Business for All Partnership model in the South East LEP area.
Members were advised that the Better Business for All Partnership model was intended to promote co-operation between local regulators and businesses to deliver specific support and improvements to assist businesses comply with the law quickly, easily and economically. It was important that through co-ordinated corporate working across the Borough Council the culture of regulatory services adding value to business in a positive way would continue to be developed.
The Borough Council’s proposal to the LEP was set out in the report and included a single point of contact that could be developed with their support and the support of local business organisations. An application for grant funding to aid in the delivery of this would be need to be considered.
Members were supportive of the initiative but queried whether charging for advice in some instances would be appropriate. After careful consideration it was felt that charging could impede a business’s ability to succeed given the already difficult and costly legal framework they were required to operate in. On balance, this initiative was to help business grow and it met the Borough Council’s aspiration on economic strategy.
RECOMMENDED: That the Borough Council’s involvement in this initiative and the approach to be taken, as set out in the report, be endorsed.