The Senior Economic Development Officer gave members a presentation on the call for employment sites within the borough and flexible workspaces within St George’s Centre. The presentation can be accessed using the following link: CLCC_ED Update_10 Sept.pdf

Call for Employment Sites

• This was part of a wider employment land and workspace assessment which looked at ensuring the borough could provide for the local economy.
• The council were looking to go out the community to look for employment sites, which meant a piece of land, an existing building or a vacant site that could be redeveloped to provide for the local economy.
• The Senior Economic Development Officer advised that if any site owners, business occupiers, or existing landowners had ideas for these sites, then they were invited to put those forward via the online form.
• The idea will then go through a standard assessment process to look at how deliverable they might be in terms of viability, such as transport links, and does it appeal to the market etc.
• This gives the council the opportunity to look at a range of opportunities all at once, as opposed to planning applications/proposals as/when they come forward.
• Anyone with access to Google maps, can submit a prospective site for consideration, by the end of October (via Call for employment sites – Gravesham Borough Council)

St George’s Flexible Workspace – AKA ‘Tech Hub’

• This project started as a tech hub, looking at the creative and digital sector and was partly driven by business network events where small business had asked why there were no tech hubs within the borough that could be used as a flexible workspace.
• However, this workspace is intended to be an inclusive affordable and not limited to creative and digital businesses.
• There was £370k from Getting Building Fund supplied by central government. There was a requirement for this to be spent by 31^st December 2024 meaning there was a timeline to operate on.
• They were not at the stage where they could announce the operator of the space, but it was likely that it would be with an operator that was well established, particularly in the Brighton/Lewis area. In partnership with a successful local firm, familiar with Gravesham.
• There was a lot of work going on behind the scenes, particularly with the property team and around the refurbishment works that needed to be done to create the space.
• The space would be a mix of fixed office space and hot desking. From the operators who viewed the space, there was a consistent message that there should be a mix, such as fixed desks or sealed office space with a license and the remaining space filled with hot desks available for co-working etc.
• The budget/funding specifically provides for a substantial sum to make sure that there was the provision for cutting edge connectivity.
• The council had spoken with operators who had successful existing centres which have operated sustainably. There would be a mix of established businesses and start up businesses within the space.
• There was a long list of partners that had been involved and when the project went public there was a lot of support online. Kent Business school were interested in the space, as well as North Kent College, and were keen to be involved and help in the promotion of the site.

The committee noted the report.