Belfast City Council Strategy Consultation

Purpose of meeting:

To provide feedback to Belfast City Council (BCC) on the proposed economic strategy

Present

·       John Greer, BCC

·       Lisa Toland, BCC

·       Ian Savage, SureCert

·       Chris Gregg, Lightyear

·       Simon Cole, Automated Intelligence

·       Elaine Smyth, Catalyst

·       Adele Ward, Catalyst

·       Kieran Dalton Catalyst

Subjects discussed:

Introducing CEOs Connect:

The CEOs Connect members introduced the concept of the group, stressed that the group did not have a collective view and that it was important to see the group as a broadly representative group of CEOs running scale up businesses in Northern Ireland.  The group itself has a collective turnover (based on 2020 figures) of £60m pa with 800 employees. 

BCC economic strategy overview:

BCC outlined their remit under legislation introduced in 2014 to deliver economic development activity. They provided a range of initiatives (outlined within the consultation paper) that are being developed currently:

·       Belfast Regional city deals (range of buildings housing institutes working closely with universities (e.g. Global Innovation Institute (GII) – capital investment from Treasury matched with revenue investment from the Executive / Universities / Private sector;

·       Specific challenges that will be advertised by BCC, with equity and debt opportunities;

·       Co fund equity investment;

·       UK Government ‘Levelling up’ and ‘Shared prosperity’ agenda;

·       10 X economic strategy; and

·       Challenges and opportunities arising from Brexit.

For the first time, there was a clear focus on priority areas of the economy:

·       Digital, ICT and Creative Industries

·       FinTech and Financial Services

·       Life and Health Sciences

·       Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering

If, and when the proposed economic strategy is approved, it will enable BCC to deliver on this new strategy. They stressed this was about harnessing the ‘Power of Place’ - it is not just a BCC strategy but a strategy for the Belfast region.

As a result, BCC needs to and is keen to work with partners such as Invest NI, DfE, and Catalyst to ensure they have a shared vision of priorities. And a better way for all of these partners to work together, avoiding duplication and improving collaboration.

Some key objectives were outlined that are pertinent to CEO Connect members:

·       Seeking to 3X start-up activity. Have a replacement for Go For it Programme in place and the delivery mechanism needs to be much less fragmented and more export focused;

·       Increase in export activity. Belfast is lower than other regions (circa 26% vs 46% in other regions). Given that the current remit of Invest NI is to attract FDI employers into NI, there was a recognition that the focus for Government needed to be helping NI companies to reach external markets;

·       Only 68% of population actively participating in the economy and this needs to be increased;

·       Move to Net Zero should create demand opportunities;

·       Attracting talent / upskilling is crucial.

Topics emanating from wider discussion:

These included:

·       Buildings being funded through the City Deal – concern over whether the city deals will ever come to fruition, partly due to the protracted nature of the business case process (three years to date), and whether there was really a need for a number of newly built buildings housing institutes. £800m could be much better spent; 

·       The feedback was that a focus on capital expenditure looks good, but takes focus and revenue expenditure away from more practical interventions that can have a more tangible impact in the short to medium term. The feedback from attendees was in general that we do not need any more buildings;

·       BCC highlighted possible novel technologies and PHD grads coming out from these research centres, but the consensus was because of IPR there were few commercial successes from university research and in general they do not move fast enough.

·       There was concern expressed that CEOs Connect members had been asked to support City Deals formally through the signing of an MOU, but then no contact had been made since;

·       BCC indicated Challenge funds are currently being developed by an external company (A business case for this was tendered for in September 2022) but did not disclose further details except to say it may be similar to SBRI funding model. The Civtech challenges model in Scotland was highlighted to BCC as something that could be replicated in NI, but that the NI Government needed to be bought into it as a buyer of NI company products and services and there was little evidence of that in the SBRI approach;

·       Concern was expressed that Government in NI focuses on high level approaches to economic development, which rarely translate into anything tangible but look good to the public, when a more ground up approach is needed.  Focus on getting the basics right (there should be much more money targeted at increasing computer science graduates – it shouldn’t be a political football with university funding), creating interventions that can drive home market demand for NI companies, encourage networking, collaboration and serendipity – Basecamp Boston is a good example;

·       Access to capital and getting the right deals for companies was highlighted as an ongoing problem, particularly as access to equity funding reduced not increased during Covid;

·       BCC indicated there will be a Debt and Equity fund and the management of which will go out to tender. Concern was expressed that there is a lack of competition in NI, which means deals are not on favourable terms and limit growth in follow on rounds. Many member groups have been through this. Needs to be a more open view of risk and recognition that we can learn from failures and in many cases not being so short term.

·       Concern was expressed about the lack of talent and how the focus on FDI is self-defeating as they are provided with grants to then poach staff from indigenous businesses, paying recruitment agency fees with INI funding and then offering higher wages. It was highlighted that grants from INI should be provided only when new jobs are created and that jobs in start-ups and scale ups and the more depth experience provided for employees should be promoted formally by Government. FDI’s also need to contribute more tangibly to the local economy, not just undertake CSR box ticking exercises. BCC indicated that FDIs are now being asked how they are addressing skills challenges and wider inclusion, but the impact of this is not clear to date;

·       It was agreed that alternative methods of talent development should be encouraged – Apprenticeships and Assured skills academies work and have their place, but can be then undermined by FDIs then poaching staff. It is clear there is a need for more Coding / CS skills;

·       Further discussion around lack of ambition in NI amongst young people and the need to promote, through role modelling and other approaches, the next generation of entrepreneurs. There is an opportunity to create a follow-on programme to Generation Innovation, where young people interested in entrepreneurship can connect with and learn from the CEOs Connect members;

·       In general, the group stressed that short term impacts and quick wins are of greatest importance. CEOs cannot wait around for outcomes of long-term strategies and Government needed to realise that local companies are not as ‘sticky’ (keen to stay in NI) as they think, there is an emerging model where staff work elsewhere as they can now do it remotely and the economic impact will be lessened locally.

Potential actions included:

·       CEOs contributing to design of skills academies / assured skills programmes for IT and sales skills noting that the end goal is employment;

·       Continued informal engagement with the group, BCC keen to continue to discuss and engage with the group;

·       CEOs welcome to respond individually to consultation;

·       More support for programmes like Basecamp Boston should be encouraged and supported in the longer term, not evaluated within a year or two but seen as a long-term play to create ‘beach heads’ into export markets for local companies.

Link to Invest NI independent review: https://www.economy-ni.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publications/economy/independent-review-of-investni-report.pdf