APPENDIX 2a – sample report of achievements to TES

SELEP Team East Sussex meeting, 6 Dec 2021

Agenda item 10

East Sussex Economy Recovery Plan (Dec 2021 update)

This report summarises the most recent key actions and progress being made in delivering the East Sussex Economy Recovery Plan, termed East Sussex Reset. The plan was officially launched in Sep 2020, with all of the activities of the six ‘missions’ listed in a detailed Action Plan. TES agreed that progress on the Action Plan would be reported quarterly. Visit the ESCC website to view the full updated Action Plan.

· Due to the significant level of financial intervention provided to businesses across East Sussex, this report also highlights the small business grants which each Borough and District Council has distributed.

Top Headlines

· A total of circa £170.5m is being invested into East Sussex as a result of the Economy Recovery Plan, which is a combination of £136.02m newly secured monies and £34.45m aligned from ongoing monies committed or already secured from external resources to support the survival, reset, recovery and growth of businesses in East Sussex. This is up substantially from the initial £45m investment outlined in Sep 2020.

· Notable successes in this quarter include a £2.5m award from the UK Community Renewal Fund for five projects in East Sussex, a £1.58m allocation from the Culture Recovery Fund for 12 projects, and just over £40m in funding from the Levelling Up Fund.

Mission 1: Thinking local, acting local

· Welcome Back funding used to support out of season events attracting additional footfall to high streets during shoulder and winter months.

· UK Community Renewal Fund awards for local projects to promote recovery, including a project that uses VR/AR technology to drive a cultural recovery within a key cultural hub, a community project to reform the approach to volunteering, and a project to develop the innovation potential of SMEs across the county.

· Lewes DC awarded £12.6m Levelling Up Fund monies for its ‘Capturing the Value of the Catch’ project, to aid the fishing industry in Newhaven with new landing stages and facilities.

· BES Steering Group is focussing on longer term priorities for growth which will be continually updated by the group and used to help define needs for future services in the county.

· Social Value guidance for Procurement officers has been completed and launched. Social Value for Commissioners is due to be created and delivered in the next three months. The new overarching policy will act as the launchpad for commissioner engagement.

· The East Sussex Social Value Marketplace is in the process of being redeveloped. A new look/feel has been designed to encourage participation and a number of newly automated features will enable the team to engage more proactively with those registered. A communications plan is in place and ready to be deployed once the developments are complete. This includes direct mail to organisations across East Sussex as well as the use of internal platforms for internal promotion.

Mission 2: Building skills, creating jobs

· Overall activities under Mission Two have been completed, and work is returning to ‘business as usual’ within the sector.

· Reed UK has started delivery, addressing the needs of the long-term unemployed through their RESTART programme.

· Sussex Community Development Association (SCDA) has secured UK Community Renewal Fund (UKCRF) funding to address skills gaps and gaps in skills provision across East Sussex.

· Youth Hub funding has been agreed by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for Lewes and Wealden.

· Plumpton College has secured an additional £300k of Adult Education Budget (AEB) monies to address adult skills, and has also started to access Strategic Development Fund (SDF) monies to establish a new Level 5 programme in Land Management and develop a suite of modular courses to support the green technology drive towards net zero.

Mission 3: Fast-forwarding business

· £1.58m has been allocated to East Sussex arts organisations in the third round of the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund, providing grants and loans to help arts companies recover after the coronavirus lockdowns. The funds will be spread across 12 different cultural and creative organisations in East Sussex, including galleries, performance groups and theatres.

· Wealden DC launched their new tourism brand ‘Explore Wealden’. The new website has attracted over 9,000 users to date.

· Sussex Modern, Plumpton College and Lewes DC have secured £705k UK Community Renewal Fund (UKCRF) funding for the development of a viticulture proposition and the implementation of sustainable transport solutions.

· 20 Revive Grants from the SELEP Covid Response Fund were awarded to the Tourism sector in East Sussex, with a total value of £50,281 (£10,989 already defrayed).

· Eastbourne BC’s successful Levelling Up Fund bid of £19.8m includes the improved pedestrianised cultural district of Victoria Place and delivery of Towner’s Centenary programme, to include art in the public realm and the development of Black Robin Farm as an arts facility and tourism destination.

· Artswork grant of £4,000 to support the development of East Sussex Art Teachers Network (ESATN) led by Polegate Primary School.

· Artswork has also agreed £1,000 to support a practice sharing / priority setting event of the ‘Same as It Never Was’ programme in partnership with Priority 154 and Towner.

Mission 4: Better places, fuller lives

· Developers East Sussex (DES) held a ‘good practice’ session on public engagement. Led by the industry, the session encouraged developers of all sizes to see the commercial and social benefits of improved public engagement in regard to the planning system.

· Although not a specific headline this quarter given its ongoing nature, it is notable that DES engagement with the new Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) that started last year in response to the pandemic remains strong and productive in both directions – discussions have focussed on construction material shortages, workforce and skills, housing numbers, developer finance, first homes and much more.

Mission 5: Cleaner energy, greener transport

· The East Sussex Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) was approved by the County Council’s Lead Member for Transport and Environment on 25 Oct 2021, and submitted to Government at the end of that month. We await the outcome of the decision, expected Spring 2022.

· The Victoria Place element of the Eastbourne Town Centre Phase 2b scheme secured funding through Eastbourne BC’s successful Levelling Up Fund (LUF) bid.

· The Government has recently published the national Net Zero Strategy, the Heat and Buildings Strategy and the Treasury’s Net Zero Review.

· The Government also has a number of consultations on climate-related items, including on whether to introduce a statutory obligation on local authorities and others to plan for and provide Electric Vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure – Future of transport regulatory review: zero emission vehicles.

· The SPACES partnership (Strategic Property Asset Collaboration in East Sussex) has agreed to be the forum for coordinating the planning of where to locate EV charge points in East Sussex.

· The Sussex Solar Together scheme, which enables households to purchase discounted solar photovoltaic (PV) panels for their homes and is backed by the local authorities in Sussex, has seen 2,800 households register in East Sussex.

Mission 6: The future is digital

· The ‘IT For You At Home’ project, providing devices, data and skills to disadvantaged people and referred to by five organisations from East Sussex (Adult Social Care, Children's Services, Sussex Community Development Association, Connecting Hastings and Rother Together, and ESTAR) went live in late-Aug 2021. By mid-Oct 2021, 50 devices have been allocated on three-month loans.

· The original plan of having a stock of hundreds of devices ready to loan out has been changed to a ‘just in time’ response, which means ordering small stocks of Google Chromebooks and Windows Notebooks in response to demand. However, no one has had to wait more than 4-5 days for a device and most have been quicker. A new Volunteer Coordinator has been recruited to support this work.

· ESCC continues to deliver ultrafast broadband through the e-Sussex project, with commercial investment ramping up. Project Gigabit (DCMS’s gigabit rollout programme) is estimated to begin procurement for East Sussex in Aug-Oct 2022. The contract start date is slightly later than originally anticipated (Jul-Sep 2023).

Grants distributed through Borough and District Councils

· Three grant schemes were originally made available from the Government in 2020 to support businesses through the pandemic, distributed to East Sussex businesses through our Borough and District Councils. These were the Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF), Retail, Hospitality & Leisure Business Grants Fund (RHLGF) and Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund (LADGF). All three schemes closed in Aug 2020.

· Two more grant support schemes were announced in Oct 2020 – Local Restrictions Support Grant (LRSG), which included Christmas support payments, and Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG). These schemes closed in Jun 2021 and Jul 2021 respectively.

· Finally, the Restart Grant scheme opened in Apr 2021 and closed in Jun 2021.

· The following table shows that our local authorities have distributed over £247 million to East Sussex businesses through these Government support schemes.

	Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) and Retail, Hospitality & Leisure Business Grants Fund (RHLGF)		Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund (LADGF)		Local Restrictions Support Grant (LRSG)		Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG)		Restart Grant		East Sussex Totals
	Number	Value	Number	Value	Number	Value	Number	Value	Number	Value	Number	Value
Eastbourne	1,481	£18,680,000	158	£1,120,750	4,022	£11,125,655	1,197	£3,005,855	818	£6,441,387	7,676	£40,373,647
Hastings	1,740	£20,235,000	114	£1,152,988	4,123	£11,024,780	457	£2,676,332	849	£5,770,089	7,283	£40,859,189
Lewes	1,780	£21,685,000	157	£1,265,000	2,964	£8,126,348	772	£3,118,025	584	£4,226,715	6,257	£38,421,088
Rother	2,194	£24,985,000	130	£1,454,750	5,159	£11,563,254	1,223	£2,816,946	854	£6,114,745	9,560	£46,934,696
Wealden	3,561	£41,265,000	304	£2,651,000	4,648	£24,768,382	1,081	£4,676,558	940	£7,176,063	10,534	£80,537,003
Total	10,756	£126,850,000	863	£7,644,488	20,916	£66,608,420	4,730	£16,293,716	4,045	£29,728,999	41,310	£247,125,623
Table showing the number of grants paid to businesses by each local authority in East Sussex and the value of those grants. Data taken from the Gov.UK website, updated 28 Sep 2021.

APPENDIX 2b – sample report of achievements to TES

SELEP Team East Sussex meeting, 20 June 2022

Agenda item 8

East Sussex Economy Recovery Plan (June 2022 update)

· The East Sussex Economy Recovery Plan (ERP), termed ‘East Sussex Reset’, was officially launched in Sep 2020. All of the activities of the six ‘missions’ were listed in a detailed Action Plan, and TES has been provided with Action Plan progress reports on a quarterly basis.

· As we are now beyond the expected 18-month lifespan of the Action Plan, all of the activities have been completed and/or drawn to a close. The final version Action Plan is available to view on the ESCC website

Despite the Action Plan being closed, there have still been important developments over the last quarter across all six missions, highlighted below, and a total of £220.85m is being invested (£175.85m more than the £45m originally identified in September 2020). This consists of £186.4m new monies plus £34.45m realigned funding from existing partner resources and projects being delivered.

· This report also highlights the significant financial intervention provided to businesses across East Sussex through the Government’s various grant schemes, which each Borough and District Council has distributed.

Top headlines over the last quarter

· We continue to work to provide support to local SMEs against a rapidly changing backdrop of funding and policy. Funding has been awarded to the BES Growth Hub for one year (2022/23) but only at 50% of previous levels. It is clear that a reduction of this level will necessitate changes to the service that is delivered. We are working collaboratively with partners across the SELEP region to ensure we deliver the best possible value for money, and due to having brought the service in-house in 2020 we are in a good position to be as flexible and responsive to these long-awaited changes as possible.

· ESTAR (part of the ESCC Employment and Skills Team) received an allocation of just under £1m to deliver support with learning and employment for those in supported or temporary accommodation.

· UK Shared Prosperity Funds (UK SPF) have been confirmed, with a total of £5.17m being allocated to our Borough and District Councils. The Government has also announced that East Sussex will receive up to £2.5m of ‘Multiply’ funding (top-sliced from UK SPF) to support the maths skills of adult residents. The Multiply programme will be managed by ESCC to deliver a range of “embedded maths in technical and employability skills provision”, as well as “maths in the context of money management and household budget setting”. The provision will support anyone aged 19+ who doesn’t have a Level 2 qualification, be them employed or unemployed.

· £100,000 Escape the Everyday funding secured by Visit Brighton for a Brighton+ campaign pan-Sussex – Visit England commended the partnership on its joined-up approach.

· First Pan Sussex tourism leadership group meeting hosted at the Amex Stadium, bringing together industry leaders across Sussex to collaborate on a Sussex narrative and market segmentation analysis to identify high value overseas markets to increase the value of inward spend to the visitor economy in Sussex.

· UKCRF funded Sustainable Wine Tourism project commenced – segmentation data, Nathan Coley installations, billboard and social media marketing campaigns, Electric Vehicle charging points feasibility studies and supporting vineyards to develop visitor facilities – all in train.

· The publication of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill (LURB) and accompanying policy announcements confirm that many of the changes to the planning system considered in the ‘Planning for the Future’ white paper (2020) have, as rumoured, been dropped by Government. The LURB does seek to deliver major changes to the planning system that will have long term impacts on the outcomes from the planning system, however much of the key detail is left to secondary legislation. The bill is programmed to gain royal ascent in 2024, with detailed transitional arrangements to be published in due course along with consequential changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), including potential changes to the housing target formula.

· Boiler Upgrade Scheme: Government is providing grants of £5,000 to residents and small non-domestic properties to help cover the cost of buying and installing air source or ground source heat pumps (and £6,000 for biomass boilers). The scheme runs from 2022 to 2025.

· Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) scheme: Government has launched the first £10m of a longer-term fund to support the rollout of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure. Closing date 17 Jun 2022.

· Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition Round 2: Government has launched a £12m fund to support the development of innovative technology demonstrations of scalable clean maritime solutions (e.g. on-vessel technologies). Bids can be between £100k and £1m. Closing date is 13 Jul 2022.

· LoCASE (Low Carbon Across the South East): there are 100 free energy audits and 50 match funded grants of up to £5,000 each available for SMEs in East Sussex. The programme will end in Mar 2023, so please encourage businesses to apply.

· Working towards commencing construction of Eastbourne Town Centre Phase 2a in 2022 and secured Levelling Up Fund to deliver Phase 2b by 2024.

· Detailed plans being developed for how we plan to use the indicative funding allocation for the East Sussex BSIP, which are required by the Department for Transport before any funding is confirmed.

· Developing proposals for school streets schemes at three schools in the county.

Grants distributed through Borough and District Councils

· The following table shows that our local authorities have distributed over £253 million to businesses in East Sussex through the various Government support schemes initiated in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

		Eastbourne BC	Hastings BC	Lewes DC	Rother DC	Wealden DC	East Sussex Totals
SBGF and RHLGF	(volume)	1,481	1,740	1,780	2,194	3,561	10,756
	(value)	£18,680,000	£20,235,000	£21,685,000	£24,985,000	£41,265,000	£126,850,000
LADGF	(volume)	158	114	157	130	304	863
	(value)	£1,120,750	£1,152,988	£1,265,000	£1,454,750	£2,651,000	£7,644,488
LRSG	(volume)	4,022	4,123	2,964	5,159	4,648	20,916
	(value)	£11,125,655	£11,024,780	£8,126,348	£11,563,254	£24,768,382	£66,608,420
ARG	(volume)	1,201	555	775	1,328	2,257	6,116
	(value)	£3,023,355	£3,173,833	£3,134,525	£3,531,444	£6,459,848	£19,323,005
Restart Grant	(volume)	818	849	584	854	940	4,045
	(value)	£6,441,387	£5,770,089	£4,226,715	£6,114,745	£7,176,063	£29,728,999
OHLG	(volume)	0	238	0	340	327	905
	(value)	£0	£746,723	£0	£1,061,416	£1,094,734	£2,902,873
Totals	(volume)	7,680	7,619	6,260	10,005	12,037	43,601
	(value)	£40,391,147	£42,103,413	£38,437,588	£48,710,609	£83,415,027	£253,057,785
Table showing the number of grants paid to businesses by each local authority in East Sussex and the value of those grants.
Data taken from the Gov.UK website, updated 9 May 2022.

· Three grant schemes were originally made available from the Government in 2020 to support businesses through the pandemic, all distributed through our Borough and District Councils. These were the Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF), the Retail, Hospitality & Leisure Business Grants Fund (RHLGF) and the Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund (LADGF). All three schemes closed in Aug 2020.

· Two more grant schemes were announced in Oct 2020 – the Local Restrictions Support Grant (LRSG) and the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG). The LRSG, which also included Christmas Support Payments, ran until Jun 2021. The ARG remained active through to Mar 2022, and included a series of ‘top-up’ payments to local authorities from Government.

· A sixth grant support scheme, the Restart Grant, was opened in Apr 2021 and closed in Jul 2021.

· Finally, the Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant (OHLG) was open from Dec 2021 to Mar 2022.