The Scrutiny Officer has submitted a report which presents the recommendations of the Local Economy Panel.

Scrutiny Committee Recommendations to the City Executive Board

1. We recommend that the City Council:

a) Ensures that information about appealing to the Valuation Office Agency is made available to local businesses.  In particular, this information should be communicated to all independent traders who may be affected by the major redevelopments taking place in Oxford.

b) Takes any opportunities to join with other local authorities to lobby the new Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government for more council controls over business rates.

2. We recommend that the City Council works with the County Council through the Town Team to agree on a single united channel of regular communications to businesses, such as about travel disruptions, supported by a single online source of information.

3. We recommend that the City Council develops a more corporate approach to communicating with businesses, including guidance for all departments whose work has an impact or involvement with businesses. This could take the form of defining a central point of contact within the City Council, which can identify the appropriate unit to respond on specific issues, including the County Council as appropriate.

4. We recommend that the City Council works with partners through the Town Team to reinforce the coordinated overall marketing and publicity campaign for Oxford in ways that cover all major potential audiences. 

5. We recommend that the City Council develops a one stop shop function for events.  This exercise should include a review of the costs and processes associated with aspects such as permission for road closures, stall licences and permits for distributing leaflets.

6. We recommend that the City Council produces a simple analysis of the costs and benefits of pop up shops to landlords and the City Council.

7. We recommend that the City Council takes a lead in establishing and facilitating a city centre commercial property landlord forum.  This would be intended to bring together the owners of commercial properties, including the City Council, to ensure that there is a coordinated approach towards issues affecting the city centre, such as the minimisation of the time during which premises are empty.  The forum could be chaired by the Leader of the Council, linked to the work of the Town Team and constituted based on the model of the previous Pensions and Language School forums.  We also suggest that its membership should include a representative of each political group and that City Councillors should be able to observe meetings of the forum.

8. We recommend that the City Council leads on the development of a long term strategy for the city centre as a whole.  This should include a commitment to developing and supporting vibrant and distinct city quarters away from prime sites, in locations such as Gloucester Green, Jericho/Observatory Quarter, Market Street, Broad Street and a possible arts quarter around the Ashmolean Museum.

9. We recommend that dedicated officer time is allocated to  ...  view the full agenda text for item 13

The Scrutiny Officer submitted a report (previously circulated, now appended) which presented the recommendations of the Local Economy Panel which had considered how the City Council could make the city centre even more attractive to the public and to local businesses during a time of major developments which will affect the trading environment.

Cllr Simmons, Chair of Scrutiny Committee presented the report. He thanked the Board for their responses to the recommendations, noting that in some cases the wording was ambiguous. He said that it would assist the Scrutiny Committee in monitoring the implementation of their recommendations if the Board could provide clear Yes or No replies. He said that he would ask members of the Local Economy Panel to discuss the responses with the Board Member and officers to clarify the position.

The City Executive Board resolved to AGREE the following recommendations from the Scrutiny Committee report as set out in their written response:

1. a)    That the City Council ensures that information about appealing to the Valuation Office Agency is made available to local businesses.  In particular, this information should be communicated to all independent traders who may be affected by the major redevelopments taking place in Oxford.

b)           that the City Council takes any opportunities to join with other local authorities to lobby the new Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government for more council controls over business rates.

2.           that the City Council works with the County Council through the Town Team to agree on a single united channel of regular communications to businesses, such as about travel disruptions, supported by a single online source of information.

4.           that the City Council works with partners through the Town Team to reinforce the coordinated overall marketing and publicity campaign for Oxford in ways that cover all major potential audiences. 

7.           that the City Council takes a lead in establishing and facilitating a city centre commercial property landlord forum.  This would be intended to bring together the owners of commercial properties, including the City Council, to ensure that there is a coordinated approach towards issues affecting the city centre, such as the minimisation of the time during which premises are empty.  The forum could be chaired by the Leader of the Council, linked to the work of the Town Team and constituted based on the model of the previous Pensions and Language School forums.  We also suggest that its membership should include a representative of each political group and that City Councillors should be able to observe meetings of the forum.

8.           that the City Council leads on the development of a long term strategy for the city centre as a whole.  This should include a commitment to developing and supporting vibrant and distinct city quarters away from prime sites, in locations such as Gloucester Green, Jericho/Observatory Quarter, Market Street, Broad Street and a possible arts quarter around the Ashmolean Museum.

Cllr Fry presented the report and recommendations of the Local Economy Panel which had been formed to examine the situation of small and medium enterprises in and near the city centre during a time of major developments which will affect the trading environment while construction occurs. The Panel considered how the City Council could make the city centre even more attractive to the public and to local businesses.

In discussion the following points were made:

·         That there was a case for the Local Economy Panel to continue looking at this, and related issues, in other parts of the city in 2015/16;

·         That consideration of the business case for a BID inn Oxford City Centre should be added to the work programme and that this should include looking at the scope for public involvement in that initiative;

·         That there was a strong argument for returning to previous practice in having a dedicated point of contact / lead officer for businesses within the Council. 

The Scrutiny Committee resolved to APPROVE that the Local Economy Panel Report on Support for Businesses in the City Centre should be submitted to the City Executive Board subject to the following amendment to Recommendation 7 (text in italics):

7. We recommend that the City Council takes a lead in establishing and facilitating a city centre commercial property landlord forum.  This would be intended to bring together the owners of commercial properties, including the City Council, to ensure that there is a coordinated approach towards issues affecting the city centre, such as the minimisation of the time during which premises are empty.  The forum could be chaired by the Leader of the Council and linked to the work of the Town Team and constituted based on the model of the previous Pensions and Language School forums.  We also suggest that its membership should include a representative of each political group and that City Councillors should be able to observe meetings of the forum.

Contact Officer: Andrew Brown, Scrutiny Officer

Tel 01865 252230

abrown2@oxford.gov.uk

The Committee considered the proposed scope of the Local Economy Panel (previously circulated, now appended). Cllr Darke presented the Panel’s proposed terms of reference. He explained that the Panel is going to centre their work on the geographical area of the city centre ie the area covered by the City Centre Manager. The focus will be on what the Council can do to mitigate disruption to the city centre economy during the re-development.

What can the city council do to minimise the time shop units are left empty.

The Committee resolved to APPROVE the terms of reference for the Local Economy Scrutiny Panel.