Agenda and draft minutes

To receive the notes of the meeting held on 10 March 2021

The notes of the previous meeting held on 10 March were received.

To receive a briefing from Economic Development by the Head of Property & Facilities  

The Cabinet Member advised that the Economic Development Team was setting up an Economic Recovery Plan, a strategy to help commercial businesses and partners to recover from the pandemic and support them through an uncertain future. 

The Group noted how the retail sector was recovering from the pandemic at a local and national level, with the significant increase in on-line activity continuing after the reopening of retail outlets.

The Head of Property & Facilities gave an overview of the government grants that had been provided to help business communities affected by the pandemic, and also of grants provided by HDC, including Shop Improvement Grants and LEAP small business grants.

The Head of Property & Facilities then briefed the Group on the initiatives in HDC’s Economic Recovery Plan.  These included:

Pop Up Horsham: helping new businesses gain experience and exposure through providing a shared pop-up retail space;

Training and business skills: mentoring programme for emerging businesses;

Virtual Horsham:  online remote trading platform for local independent retailers;

Virtual Tours: promoting attractions in villages in the district;

Henfield Artisan Market: an outlet for artisan traders;

Centre of Music Excellence: a creative space at The Rec in Horsham Town.

It was noted that these were in addition to several ongoing projects supported by the Economic Development Team.  A number of initiatives within the Economic Recovery Plan already had budgets approved by Council.

The Cabinet Member invited the Group to comment on these projects, some of which were based on ideas put forward at the last meeting of the PDAG.  The Group were supportive of the Plan and discussed the detail of how some of the initiatives could be taken forward. 

The Cabinet Member thanked the Economic Development Team for their hard work, and for their continued work in developing these initiatives further.

There are no items on the current Forward Plan for this Cabinet portfolio

There were no items on the current Forward Plan for noting.