Case studies

Building on their strategy and growth work developed pre-pandemic, ECC quickly moved to focus on business recovery providing an opportunity to cultivate more in-depth relationships with business and support their districts.

HBC has been able to build on their longstanding partnerships with employers including housing associations and major corporations to continue to offer joint job training and employability programmes during the pandemic.

Staffordshire has taken a partnership approach with the eight district councils to identify gaps in government support and local needs and priorities.

The district councils have put significant resource into supporting businesses in their market towns through the development of, and investment in, a virtual high street digital platform.

COVID-19 has created the conditions to enable better working across all council services and being able to use different offers and services to reach people most adversely affected and help them back into a job and for those further left behind, into an employment pathway.

One of the key elements of HC’s response to the pandemic has been looking at how they can support a more balanced economy in the medium and long term—encouraging new businesses into the borough and upskilling residents to move communities into work.

In response to the pandemic, Kirklees Council has fundamentally and rapidly reassessed their approach to supporting their local businesses and residents

“We have used our powers to relax skills and employment funding rules and funding profiles for both businesses and providers – focused on areas of immediate need."

The Think Work Strategy is intended to boost the take-up of apprenticeships, encourage living wages with businesses, tackle unemployment and in-work poverty, and create good jobs for everyone.

At the end of March 2020, early into the pandemic, Gateshead Council formed a Covid Economic Response Group, with workstreams on people, businesses, capital projects, stakeholders, and innovation.