Agenda item

The Chairman introduced the Business Hub report which falls under the Enterprise Barnet initiative and which is seeking approval of the Outline Business Case involving a bid to the  European Regional Development Fund for £500,000 to be  match funded by £500,000 from the Council’s Infrastructure Reserve - a total of £1m to support development of the Businesses Hub.

Councillor Coakley-Webb queried what would happen if the bid was not successful and the Chairman responded that the funding bid was subject to a 2 stage process whereby feedback on the bid will be received in April and if successful, further feedback will be received in the summer.  If unsuccessful, then the scheme will be scaled down.

Councillor Philip Cohen welcomed the assistance that would be available for small businesses but raised a concern that research results on why high numbers of small business were struggling had not yet been done and questioned the wisdom in providing business services before obtaining the information to base the proposal on.  Councillor Thomas said that the Hub  will be asked to go and find this information out and referred to page 16 , paragraph 1.6 of the report.

Councillor Coakley referred to a previous discussion and concern regarding targeting high growth potential businesses and the risk of cherry picking big businesses.  How will the Business hub pick it’s clients? Councillor Cooke warned of the need to avoid a situation whereby Re, who have a business development target in their base contract which is funded, do not get paid through ERDF funding for something they are already funded to do?  The Chairman invited the Commissioning Director for Growth and Development said that the ERDF bid sets out outcomes that go beyond Re’s contractual requirements.

With regard to pre-Gazelle businesses that are not yet growing, Councillor Rosenberg queried how will it be established how much debt businesses  have and how many times they access funding form the hub. There is a need to guard against only providing services to businesses who approach the hub and not the other way around. Councillor Narenthira feared that the system would not be fair if recipients of business support were selected only. He requested information on best practice elsewhere, and to hear from other boroughs.

The Chairman said it would be useful to set out the remit of the Hub. Councillor Ryde said there is a strong case for successful micro economies as the success of businesses impacts on the council.  Councillor Grover commented that once analysis is done, it will be clear which sectors are high performers and other are low.

Following discussion of the item, the Chairman moved to a vote on the report recommendations. The Committee therefore

RESOLVED To

1.    Note the Outline Case for an independent and financially sustainable business hub set out in Appendix One.

2.    Confirm the funding arrangements for the development of Business Hub activity, particularly the role of external funding to resource it.

3.    Agree to commence the development of a Full Business Case for the business hub, should external funding be secured.