Agenda item

The Council is undertaking an intensive programme of strategy refresh and development spanning regeneration, economic development and employability and skills.

SQW have been appointed to undertake the programme of strategy refresh and development and presented the approach being taken in developing this strategy suite to the Committee in January 2022.

Significant progress has since been made and after extensive internal and external stakeholder engagement, SQW have prepared a first working draft of the strategy suite issued for Officer review in mid-February 2022, with the exception of the River Strategy, which is being produced from scratch and will follow in the Summer

Summary documents of each of the strategies are appended to the report, these include Medway 2037, Innovation Strategy, Town Centre Strategy, Skills and Employability Plan, and the River Strategy and SQW will present these detailed summaries at the meeting. 

Discussion:

A presentation was given to the Committee by a representative from SQW Consultants in relation to the Medway 2037 Strategy refresh. The key points of the presentation were as follows:

·      Drafting of the Strategy was nearly complete. The development of the Strategy was about refreshing the existing core Medway 2035 Strategy rather than starting again.

·      The Strategy would aim to provide space for projects to evolve whilst providing a framework for the Council to work with partner organisations.

·      Some of the key themes included Climate Change, Levelling Up and Covid.

·      The six key priorities from Medway 2035 had been retained. Innovation had been removed as a key priority and replaced with town centres. The removal of innovation was due to this cross cutting all the other priorities. It had instead been included as part of an Innovation and Creativity cross cutting theme along with Climate Change and Net Zero and Growth for All. 

·      There would be a fully aligned Action and Delivery plan to underpin the Strategy.

·      There should be more emphasis on achievements to promote Medway as an inward investment proposition.

·      Unlocking the waterfront regeneration in Strood would be a key priority. An increased spotlight on Gillingham and Rainham was proposed.

·      An increased focus on the river Medway was proposed with a real focus on what the river meant to the local economy.

·      The opportunities around emerging sectors would be key and what this would mean for existing sectors.

·      A standalone town centre strategy had been developed which defined overarching priorities. A Place based approach to delivery was proposed. There was recognition that each town centre was different with different strengths and opportunities. It was recognised that town centres had changed over the last few years with there being a focus on a range of uses rather than exclusively on retail. The creation of a Town Centre Innovation Fund was proposed.

·      There needed to be a balance between short term and long term delivery.

·      The development of partnership structures would be important to ensure that this potential and the capacity of each organisation was fully utilised.

·      The Innovation Strategy would aim to support businesses to innovate and provide space for innovation and to support emerging opportunities.

·      The Employment and Skills Approach would focus on five key priorities – raising and responding to employer demand, developing progression routes for young people, building an adaptable and resilient workforce, ensuring opportunities for everyone and leading by example.

• The River Strategy was currently being prepared with the target being to adopt it by Summer 2022. This would balance commercial/industrial use, leisure, tourism, recreation, ecological/environmental uses and considerations.

Following the presentation, Committee Members asked questions. The following issues were discussed:

Implementation of Strategy and River Strategy - It was asked how the Strategy would be implemented and who would take ownership of this. In relation to the development of the River Strategy, it was asked why there had not been such a Strategy previously. It was stated that the river was commercially important and should be treated as such.

Importance of Strood Waterfront site, transport and the river – A Member said that Strood Waterfront needed to be addressed as it currently presented a poor image of Medway and that innovative thinking was needed about how the site was used. The Member also considered that the emerging Strategy needed to consider the issues of congestion and pollution. In relation to the River, the natural value of the river in terms of flood defences and its ecological value were important considerations. Another Member said that it was important that Strood Riverside was developed for a range of uses rather than just being for housing and agreed with other comments that better use needed to be made of the river.

Importance of joined up thinking and the River Strategy – A Member said that the development of a river Strategy was important but that this needed to be joined up. The Member was concerned by the lack of development at Strood Waterfront and considered that the Strood Town Centre Forum needed to start meeting regularly. The Assistant Director, Regeneration said that there would be iterative plans developed to facilitate delivery of the Strategy. These would require flexibility to be able to respond to the change, particularly in relation to availability of central Government funding. Net Zero and the development of hydrogen schemes would be important but these needed to work for Medway. Preparations were currently being made for the development of an Investment Plan, which the Government was guiding councils to deliver. These would set out three years of Shared Prosperity Funding. These funds would be allocated to councils on a non-competitive basis. Medway’s allocation was not yet known. Going forward the Investment Plan would be a key element of delivery and resourcing would then need to be considered.

The Future of High Streets – A Member expressed disappointment that there did not seem to be a vision for High Streets. She said that the development of artisan shops should be given consideration and asked whether this was within the Strategy. The SQW Consultant said that the strategy recognised that traditional high streets were struggling. It would consider diversification, working with partners and looking at how spaces could be better used. There was potential in working with the universities and looking at how students could be enabled to develop and sell products. Ideas from within the community and working with steakholders, forums and partners would be important to enable these ideas to come forward.

Resource allocation – It was suggested that the resources required to deliver the Strategy should be further considered by the Committee and it was suggested that this should take place at a Committee meeting later in the year.

Cluster opportunities – In relation to a question about how to respond to the opportunities around clusters and the importance of access to finance, the SQW Consultant said that his firm did a lot of work on opportunities relating to clusters across the UK. It was very difficult to start a cluster so it was important to acknowledge strengths and work with existing clusters. Particular strengths in Medway were creative industries, advanced manufacturing, engineering and construction and the digital design side of this. The development of Innovation Park Medway would help to tap into these sectors. There was potential in the development of hydrogen around project Cavendish and the Hoo Peninsular. Opportunities around the universities and how academia could support growth would also be important. Access to finance was key and this would be considered within delivery plans.

The Assistant Director, Regeneration suggested that the Investment Plan be brought to the Committee to get views on resourcing and delivery. This would be added to Work Programme.

Decision:

The Committee noted the report and accompanying summaries of the strategy documents and commented on the proposed suite of Strategies and presentation delivered by SQW.