Annual Report 2020
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From April 1st 2020, our new geographical footprint of York and North Yorkshire arises from a position of strength. Strength in our delivery of our Local Growth Fund and European funded projects, strength in our vision and direction for the future of our region in our Local Industrial Strategy, and strength in our continued partnerships with Leeds City Region and the Humber.
Emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, our region, like every region across the nation, has suffered a major economic shock. With an economy built on small and micro businesses, many of which are in B2C sectors, the impact has been felt beyond economics. Communities, the livelihoods of families and individuals have been impacted greatly. The community response is something that our region can be proud of, a coming together with a common goal and shared values to support one another across this huge and diverse landscape.
Like any crisis, how you emerge is to a certain extent, a matter of perspective. It is our belief that by working together across our local areas and our strong network of partners, by listening to businesses, we can emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic with an economy that is greener, fairer and stronger.
The crisis has amplified the need for us to deliver against the priorities laid out in our Local Industrial Strategy, legitimising our longer term vision. We must capitalise on our unique capability to deliver good growth through green technologies and secure a prosperous future for York and North Yorkshire.
Our LEP is proud to work from the ground up, engaging in partnership locally, meeting people face to face, making plans and decisions together. Through the COVID pandemic we have had to adapt quickly and effectively to keep these values alive.
My wholehearted thanks go to our partners, not only for supporting delivery in the region over the past year and more, but particularly for rising to this recent challenge with us. Also importantly to our staff who have worked extremely hard under difficult circumstances to ensure we continue to deliver our priorities and services. The board and its subsidiaries also deserves recognition for giving such positive direction and guidance. There will undoubtedly be more challenge to come, and without this passion and commitment any organisation cannot succeed. But we have so much which will take us forward through the next challenges and beyond. I know that together we will continue to strive to deliver good growth in York & North Yorkshire, growth that’s good for people, good for the planet and good for business.
David A Kerfoot MBE DL
Chair of the LEP Board
Total Investment £220.8 (Committed £172.3m) |
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Business £56.3m |
Infrastructure £115.7m |
Skills £48.8m |
Our vision for York & North Yorkshire is to become greener, fairer and stronger as England’s first carbon negative regional economy. By better connecting the capability within and around our distinctive places we will harness the potential in our highly skilled resident base and provide productivity growth that levels up local wages.
Our region’s USP: Clean Growth enabled by the Circular Bio-economy
York and North Yorkshire has unique innovation and industrial capabilities, along with the diverse and extensive landscape required, to demonstrate and deliver carbon sequestration at a scale that will enable us to become England’s first carbon negative region. Our assets include:
Our region can deliver a nationally significant contribution to UK’s ambition to be carbon neutral by 2050.
Connected and resilient places.
People reaching their full potential.
An economy powered by Good Businesses.
World leading land management.
Digitally enabled places that connect residents and businesses to opportunity. Settlements that are resilient to climate change and contribute to a carbon negative region.
David Dickson
Chair of the Infrastructure & Joint Assets Board
"We have a genuine commitment to our places, and in particular, a drive to breathe life into our towns in order that they become and remain places that people want to live in, locate their businesses and visit. Working closely with public bodies and local developers, improving our towns provides tangible benefits for our residents, communities, visitors and businesses."
Transport investment is connecting our places, unlocking future housing and economic growth opportunities across the region. We have invested more than £70m of Local Growth Fund (LGF) to enhance major junctions and build new roads to open up sites for development. This includes major investment in Northallerton, Skipton, Bridlington and Scarborough.
More than £9m has been invested to help double the number of trains between Harrogate and York, a hugely important strategic development to better connect two major economic hubs within the region. We have also invested our LGF allocations in greener transport options with £220,000 funding a cycleway linking Rufforth and Knapton and £1.35m to help bring 155 electric vehicle charging points and a HyperHub to York.
Our Local Energy Strategy is seeking to accelerate the regions transition to a resilient, low carbon economy. Over the last year we have made progress against this vital agenda, helping businesses and communities to forge change:
Businesses across York and North Yorkshire have been offered free access to online trading.
The York & North Yorkshire Growth Hub has invested in community led shopping platform, ShopAppy.com, allowing local businesses to have free 12-month subscriptions to the site. Launched in May, the scheme aims to tackle the short-term impact of lockdown and provide a platform for growth. Supporting small and micro businesses to embrace technology and get online can provide these businesses with long term resilience against events that usually force a stop in trade – such as flooding and this COVID-19 pandemic.
Businesses can start trading online with limited technical know-how while collaborative working in communities is encouraged to provide local delivery options.
Find Out MorePeople with the skills and aspiration to reach their full potential, earning higher wages and living healthy lives in thriving communities.
Sam Alexander
Chair of the Skills & Employability Board
"For people across the region to reach their full potential, we will need to provide individuals with the skills and competencies that businesses need and businesses with the tools and confidence to create diverse, inclusive and productive teams. By building genuine partnerships between businesses, training providers and individuals we will ensure that the right people with the right skills are in the right place, boosting our local economy and supporting our people to live happier, healthier and more fulfilling lives. We know that a greener, fairer, stronger economy must be inclusive, and give every person in our region the tools and opportunities to thrive."
To fulfil their full potential, it is essential that young people benefit from ambitious and informed careers programmes that showcase the jobs of today and the future - 7,607 students from across York & North Yorkshire have attended a careers event delivered by our partners, The Careers and Enterprise Company and NYBEP.
To help businesses in our region develop the right skills to grow, we have invested in 1,775 businesses’ skills and training support, through Skills Support for the Workforce. By the end of 2020, almost another 1000 businesses will receive this support.
Through the LEP’s Skills and Employability Board, £75k was invested in analysing our local skills and labour market.
Unemployment figures are rising as we emerge from the immediate impact of COVID-19 pandemic. As a response we wanted to ensure that we were able to help people back into work as soon as possible. We also wanted to help businesses look beyond the immediate impact and build their business resilience for the longer term, enhancing employment prospects and supporting a greener, fairer stronger economy.
Jobs Fuse was launched in partnership with National Careers Service, DWP and the Growth Hub to connect employers and individuals with employment opportunities during COVID-19.
Promoted online, it provides access to a one-stop shop of employment support.
Promoted via York & North Yorkshire Growth Hub website and Growth Hub’s Facebook Group
Find Out MoreResponding to COVID-19, the Growth Hub created a local Learning Toolkit., working with education and training partners.
We want to help individuals and businesses access the knowledge and skills they need for resilience and productivity during and beyond the pandemic.
Find Out MoreGood businesses with great leadership that prosper from our distinct assets and contribute to a carbon negative region.
Richard Shaw
Chair of the Business Board
"We want our region to lead on demonstrating new technologies, approaches and models creating a regional testbed that ultimately, puts us at the forefront of the agenda nationally and will in turn lead to greater opportunities for our businesses, people and places."
This programme of work aims to help businesses transition and benefit from our ambitions for York & North Yorkshire as a carbon negative region by 2040.
This year the York & North Yorkshire Growth Hub delivered free business advice to:
The ynygrowthhub.com website launched on the 1 April presenting a new brand and aligning with the LEP.
Visit Website
Circular YorkshireCircular Yorkshire Month in November 2019 saw partners rally together to raise awareness of the circular economy and to promote Yorkshire’s ambition to be the UK’s first circular region.
This multi-faceted campaign saw over 500 people attend a range of events. SMEs benefitted from a “6 Benefits to Business” guide to get them started with circular economy in their businesses, and across Yorkshire people started to talk about #CircularYorkshire.
Find Out More
Circular MaltonBorne out of Circular Yorkshire, the Circular Malton & Norton initiative aimed to create Yorkshire’s first circular market town. Bringing together diverse community groups to test circular approaches, the vision is to create a "successful, appealing, healthy, happy market town".
The group has supported businesses and individuals as part of a “Cut your Carbon Footprint” event and plans to hold a larger, follow-up event "How to have a Thriving Business AND achieve Carbon Net Zero" in November.
Having clear and consistent communications for businesses across the region, was absolutely vital as the COVID-19 pandemic hit and lockdown came into force. Our communications and Growth Hub teams collaborated with partners across the region to help businesses connect to available support and keep a pace with the dynamic and fast moving changes as the crisis unfolded.
Between lockdown starting on 16th March and the end of May:
World leading land management that transforms the value of the rural economy in the transition to a carbon negative region.
Greater value from our land as part of our USP.
David A Kerfoot MBE DL
Chair of the LEP Board
"York and North Yorkshire is well recognised for strengths in food and agri-tech, yet it’s clean and green technologies that are our global growth sectors. We’re world leaders in circular-bio-economy innovation, carbon capture potential and renewable energy technologies. The same rolling green hills, North Yorkshire coast and abundance in culture capital that give our region its global brand, belie an economic powerhouse, with connectivity to national transport links and urban centres."
Homes and businesses are better protected from flooding following LGF investment of more than £6.6m. Two projects in Whitby – Church Street and Whitby Piers – are the latest to be completed. Flood alleviation investment has also been made in Skipton, Tadcaster, Pocklington, Malton & Norton and Dalton
Making best use of our area’s landscape can pave the way for our ambitious carbon reduction plan.
Grow Yorkshire launched a scheme to help farmers connect with consumers and retailers.
Thanks to funding from the York & North Yorkshire Growth Hub, free subscriptions to ShopAppy.com provided an online platform for trade. The scheme aimed to shorten supply chains affected by lockdown and promote future growth opportunities.
Find Out MoreWorking together, making the most of our great place and growing from our strengths, we can shift to a greener, fairer and stronger economy, accelerating opportunities for innovation and change in York and North Yorkshire.
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit our region hard. The scale of economic impact across the region is unprecedented and has landed hardest on those who already had the least. It’s been tough, with people’s lives and their livelihoods turned upside down. If you need help, we urge you to get in touch with us. The dramatic impact on all of our lives has made us question what we value. Our resilience has been tested like never before.
We are at a moment in time where we must come together to create change. Building on the shared values and collective efforts that have brought us together during the pandemic, we can shift to a better life for everyone. Out of the challenges we must recognise the opportunity we have before us, to work the grain of our place and grow our economy as greener, fairer and stronger – one that includes everyone in opportunities for innovation and change – and transforms how we live, learn work and visit in York and North Yorkshire.
To grow our economy and emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic greener, fairer and stronger we need to…
By working together, in our communities, across the region, with our northern neighbours and telling our story nationally and internally – we can shift to an economy in York and North Yorkshire that is greener, fairer and stronger, forever.
| Income | £000's |
|---|---|
| BEIS Contribution | £500.0 |
| Government Grant/Other Contributions | £1,402.4 |
| Staff Recharges | £253.8 |
| Bank Interest | £197.9 |
| Balance Sheet Reserves Utilised | £353.3 |
| Carried Forward Earmarked Reserves Utilised | £24.3 |
| Total Income | £2,731.7 |
| Expenditure | £000's |
|---|---|
| Staffing (Salary + on-costs) | £1,365.5 |
| Secondments | £225.2 |
| Other Hired & Contracted Services | £148.1 |
| Staff Travel | £30.0 |
| Staff Recharges | £253.3 |
| Training | £2.9 |
| Rent | £37.6 |
| Venue/Room Hire | £30.4 |
| Entertainments & Refreshments | £1.6 |
| Subscriptions/Sponsorships | £38.1 |
| IT | £12.6 |
| Marketing | £102.1 |
| Pool Car Charges | £0.5 |
| External Audit Fees | £0.8 |
| Other General Expenses | £1.9 |
| Professional Fees | £351.4 |
| Grants Paid | £129.7 |
| Total Expenditure | £2,731.7 |
|
Op. Balance
£000's |
Movement
£000's |
Cl. Balance
£000's |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Earmarked Reserves | £274.7 | £35.6 | £310.3 |
| Core | £699.2 | £385.7 | £1,084.9 |
| LGF Revenue | £436.7 | £939.1 | £1,375.8 |
| Capital LGF Income Advance | £6,844.4 | £2,183.9 | £9,028.3 |
| Growing Places | £3,421.1 | £394.1 | £3,815.2 |
| Total Funds | £11,676.1 | £3,938.4 | £15,614.5 |
| £000's | |
|---|---|
| Revenue Grants | £129.7 |
| Local Growth Fund Capital | £6,974.4 |
| Growing Places Fund | £545.4 |
| Total Funds | £7,649.5 |
Main Local Enterprise Partnership Board Members
Main LEP BoardDavid A Kerfoot MBE DL (Chair) |
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Business BoardRichard Shaw (Chair) |
Skills & Employability BoardSam Alexander (Chair) |
Infrastructure & Joint Assets BoardDavid Dickson (Chair) |