Economic Growth Advisers Programme

Case studies

Bolsover District Council

Bolsover are receiving support to help them identify the needs of local businesses. As part of this, they aim to set up a route to better engagement through creating a network of businesses and a sustained engagement roadmap. This will ensure that local businesses are making the most of the support offers available to them, such as growth programmes like D2N2. 

Great Yarmouth Borough Council

Great Yarmouth Borough Council are undertaking an independent review of Great their key Economic Growth Strategy to ensure that it remains fit for purpose and integrates best practice found elsewhere. This will build on best practice from elsewhere and make recommendations to enhance the existing Strategy.

Great Yarmouth has a relatively tourist-dependent economy, and so is hoping to capitalise through its position at the centre of the world’s largest market for offshore wind. The council also aims to build on existing stakeholder and community engagement, as well as existing regeneration interventions such as Future High Streets and Town Deal programmes.

London Borough of Barking & Dagenham

Barking & Dagenham are aiming to understand how to support local businesses to engage and reduce carbon emissions and access opportunities for green and sustainable growth. As part of this, they will target businesses with higher emission levels, higher vulnerability to the impacts of climate change and higher scope for influence. Barking & Dagenham aim to involve local stakeholders and communities, using their existing strengths to drive change.

Middlesbrough Council

Middlesbrough are looking to develop their urban and town centre living strategy, to support the attraction and retention of young professionals. The council is aiming to raise the bar in terms of quality and volume of housing stock, while also creating an enhanced employment, food & beverage and leisure offer.

North East Lincolnshire Council

North East Lincolnshire are developing a report on the business environment which assesses the strategic needs of the borough. This aims to identify the economic impact of the change in working environment, and to assess town centre voids and the potential need for repurposing existing property. This will enable the council to implement interventions for growth and investment.

North Warwickshire Borough Council

North Warwickshire are developing and delivering a refreshed Economic Development Strategy that addresses some of the key local challenges for businesses, such as infrastructure e.g. roads and energy. This aims to enhance knowledge of applicable good practice, and lead to the creation of a business network with a sustained engagement roadmap.

Pendle Borough Council

Pendle are developing a project to assess the economic growth opportunities and challenges in the borough and identify options for how the council can best pursue them in a strategic, co-ordinated and value for money way. This will involve reviewing their current Economic Growth Strategy, including reviewing both the arrangements for securing and managing external funding and the performance of its joint venture companies.

Rother District Council

Rother are looking into what emerging opportunities exist for economic and business growth in rural areas that can be deployed throughout environmental, and landscape protected areas. This can be through the emergence of new technologies, changes to funding opportunities, or alignment with national policies amongst others – all of which will be explored through a local lens.

South and East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership (Boston Borough Council, East Lindsey District Council and South Holland District Council)

South and East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership are diversifying away from traditional sectors by growing the creative and media industries. They aim to do this through a cluster approach to learning (skills pipeline), entrepreneurism, business support and access to finance. This will encourage culture, heritage and creativity as drivers for social and economic regeneration, and will focus on Boston as an ideal ‘creative/media village’ location.

South Hams District Council

South Hams are developing a marine decarbonisation and economy strategy, which must be cost effective, deliverable, exemplary and transformational in its ambition. This aims to establish a baseline gross value added (GVA) and sector specific data, as well as engaging with key businesses and establishing a skills route into the market.

Past EGA cohorts and projects

Economic Growth Advisers Programme 2021/22

Barrow-in-Furness Borough Council

Barrow-in-Furness Borough Council are undertaking the development and production of a clean growth prospectus for Barrow-in-Furness that sets out the opportunities for investment in clean growth and which identifies how Barrow residents and businesses can benefit from those opportunities and how to overcome any challenges.

Burnley Council

'Burnley’s New Economy – A Strategy for Recovery and Growth' was adopted in September 2020. The strategy acknowledges that the way in which businesses and individuals use technology is changing quickly and fundamentally there is a need to significantly upgrade the borough’s action plan for the council to improve digital connectivity in the area and increase opportunities and connections for businesses. To identify the borough’s needs, the council is seeking to assess the current situation in the borough and what networks and technologies are required to meet the needs of businesses and maintain the borough as a competitive place to do business and where residents are able to benefit from more flexible and hybrid models of working.

Burnley Borough Council: Improving Burnley’s Digital Connectivity

Bradford Council

Bradford Council commissioned a research project to identify ways to support young people in Bradford to start up their own businesses or become self-employed as an alternative to employment, which you can read about below. Recent mapping of enterprise support in the district identified that there are local, regional, and national programmes for young people available. However, further research was required to understand whether there are gaps in the provision of support as well as the appetite for, and awareness of starting a business and if there are any barriers that young people face.

Bradford Council: Young people’s entrepreneurial support research

Hartlepool Borough Council

Hartlepool Council are undertaking a mapping exercise to identify ways it can support the growth of the creative industries in the area. In particular, they are looking at new ways to harness the potential of the council’s creative industries manged workspace facility ‘The BIS’ as well as identifying a range of business support packages to address the needs of the sector in Hartlepool.

Hartlepool Borough Council: Developing and growing the creative industries in Hartlepool

Hastings Borough Council

Hastings Borough Council is undertaking a project to transform Hastings Castle into a must-see attraction. This project sits at the heart of the Hastings Town Investment Plan and aims to bolster the borough’s visitor economy offer by adding to a critical mass of attractions in the town and boost visitor numbers.

Hastings Borough Council: Preparing the ground  –  rebuilding Hastings Castle into a ‘must-see’ attraction

North Somerset Council

North Somerset Council (NSC) are undertaking the development of a roadmap and action plan focusing on measures to support local SMEs to improve energy efficiency and reduce their carbon emissions. Through research, they are looking to assess the levels of emissions by sector and to better understand how the council can enable reduction of emissions as well as engage with businesses to adopt the net zero pledge.

Enhancing green opportunities for SMEs in North Somerset

Stoke-on-Trent City Council

Stoke-on-Trent City Council are undertaking research to develop and shape its strategy for 14-25 year olds in the city with a focus on skills and employment. This would triangulate the aspirations of young people; the skill needs of employers and the city, and the current and future post-14 curriculum offer.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council: Developing a learning and skills strategy for 14–25 year olds

Telford & Wrekin Council

Telford & Wrekin Council is looking at ways it can develop Telford into a green, sustainable manufacturing town to build growth and prosperity for the long term. This includes looking at ways to support their manufacturing businesses to become greener by looking at ways they can access tools and support to enable them to reduce their carbon footprint, localise their supply chains and decarbonise their infrastructure network.

Telford & Wrekin Council: Creating sustainable manufacturing

Tendring District Council

Tendring District Council is undertaking a project to incorporate social value to its existing procurement process, based on the anchor institutions approach. The desired outcome is to better communicate the procurement process to local companies and support them to understand how to bid into council contracts to increase the level of spend by anchors on local companies.

Tendring District Council: Integrating social value and anchor institution principles to procurement

West Lindsey District Council

West Lindsey District Council are undertaking a review of their draft visitor economy strategy. This includes assessing the strategic positioning of the strategy, its performance measures, partnership engagement and branding strategy with a view to developing an action plan with a suite of interventions and initiatives that could be delivered to take forward the strategy.

West Lindsey District Council: Visitor economy strategy

Economic Growth Advisers Programme 2020/21

Barnsley Council

Barnsley Council is seeking to develop and implement a local inclusive economic COVID-19 recovery plan. The adviser will support the council in identifying a clearly defined need in the region with a fully costed proposal for delivering interventions to support the recovery of the local economy. The proposal would demonstrate how the council can safeguard businesses and employment in the short term and tie into the overarching inclusive economic growth strategy being developed by the council.

Barnsley Council: Economic renewal action plan

Hull City Council

Hull Council are undertaking a project which seeks to tackle intergenerational worklessness and deprivation amongst 18-30-year olds in Hull.

The council is interested in developing programmes that combine people and place initiatives to focus on social and economic inclusion to deliver generational change to improve their economic resilience.

The adviser will support the council to improve its understanding of the costs and benefits associated with the delivery of employment interventions for this age group.

Hull City Council: Understanding the cost of economic inactivity for young people

Nottingham City Council

In light of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the retail and hospitality industry and the decline in the usage of city centres before the pandemic, the purpose of this project will be to scope retail vacancy usage in a post COVID environment.

The adviser will support the council to identify how to generate investment into the city and deliver an improved and mixed city centre offer with fewer retail vacancies, increase the number of residential areas in the city and attract more visitors through the increase in cultural and leisure activities in the centre.

Nottingham City Council: Addressing retail vacancies in the city centre

Plymouth City Council

Plymouth City Council are developing an employer hub with a view to identifying a solution to closing the skills gap which will provide confidence for local businesses to stay and grow, and to attract new investment.

They are working with an adviser to develop the governance for the employer hub, collate real time Labour Market Intelligence from local employers and work with key stakeholders to build the business case for the project and to strengthen employer engagement and business partnerships across the city.

Sefton Council

This project will focus on Sefton Council’s regeneration and growth plan for the Bootle area. As part of this project, the council is seeking to develop an area action plan which covers its town centre and immediate hinterlands. The EGA adviser will support the council to identify a range of innovative and achievable delivery mechanisms for the various development, regeneration, and environmental proposals that will make up the Bootle AAP and provide support to identify funding streams.

Sefton Council: Delivery of the Bootle Area Action Plan

Southend-on-Sea City Council

It is projected that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on 18-25-year olds in Southend-on-Sea will be disproportionate. The council is therefore undertaking a project to identify the challenges and opportunities for this age group and the support needed.

The adviser will assist the council in establishing a detailed understanding of the 18-25-year-old group in Southend by engaging with young people in the region and carrying out qualitative and quantitative research with a view to producing recommendations to deliver interventions to support this group.

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council: Improving outcomes for 18- to 25-year-olds

Tamworth Borough Council

Tamworth Borough Council are undertaking a project to address the barriers to new diverse businesses starting up in the town centre. In doing so, the council aims to generate investment and develop a diverse offer in the town centre which attracts a wider demographic of users.

The adviser will assist the council in engaging with relevant businesses and stakeholders and report on the barriers to new businesses starting up. Using available data and research, the adviser will suggest proposals for how the challenges identified can be addressed.

Tamworth Borough Council: Understanding the challenges facing the town centre

Worcestershire County Council

Visit Worcestershire is Worcestershire county’s Destination Marketing Organisation (DMO) and this project aims to stimulate the local economy by innovating and developing a new tourism strategy for the council. The council is working with an adviser to understand and develop the tourism offer and to strengthen the partnerships in the county and surrounding areas to maximise and adapt the visitor offer.

Worcestershire County Council: A strategic plan for Visit Worcestershire