Download The objectives of the New Directions work are to

Enfield and CRESC: New Directions Autumn 2012 Update
Introduction
Enfield Council takes local responsibility for
improving the lives of its residents.
Unemployment, deprivation and relative
decline has driven the need to pioneer local
solutions. The objectives of the New Directions
Project are to:
Ultimately, its about addressing the problem of
the fragmented economy, rebuilding local
supply chains and ensuring that those who
make profit made locally also re-invested
locally. The Council is uniquely placed to
broker opportunities to take this aim forwards.
Cllr Doug Taylor
1. Reinforce
Enfield's role as a
coordinating Council through local
economic
management
initiatives
which deliver economic renewal and
sustainability in Enfield
2. Pioneer new policies through which
local and regional governments can
take a leading role in stimulating the
renewal and rebalancing which central
government is not delivering.
Good progress is being made in taking these
ideas forward. Discussions with utilities are
advancing with some particularly exciting
opportunities to work with energy companies
and our ALMO (Enfield Homes) to make
environmental improvements to the homes of
residents in deprived parts of the borough. We
are talking to companies about how they use
their Energy Company Obligation to invest in
these improvements.
Leader of the Council
There are a number of projects underway
which come out of Enfield’s new thinking which
has been developed in partnership with
CRESC, These are:
Big Business
Responsibility
and
Corporate
Social
This strand aims to maximise and shape the
support and investment that large businesses
provide within our local communities. Working
initially with major sectors such as utilities,
banks and supermarkets, Enfield is talking to
these companies about:



In Partnership with:
Increasing employment and training at
the local level, with the development of
more apprenticeships and partnership
working with local colleges and
training
providers
on
training
programmes
Working with these companies to meet
their environmental commitments and
ensure that Enfield's environment is
improved in the process
Match making these companies with
local providers in order to secure
investment
and
develop
an
environmentally and economically
sustainable local supply chain.
This is not all. We have also put some of these
companies in touch with local training
providers, which will help them to meet their
recruitment needs and give local people a
much better chance of securing jobs.
Thirdly, we are working with our local chamber
of commerce to give these companies better
access to local SMEs that could become
suppliers.
Enfield Sustainability Programme:
Enfield 2020 has been developed as Enfield's
ambitious Sustainability Programme and
Action Plan, with a '2020 Vision' to:
1. Significantly improve the sustainability
of the Borough of Enfield and Enfield
Council by 2020
2. Deliver
significant
economic,
environmental and social benefits for
all of Enfield's stakeholders
The Enfield 2020 Action Plan contains 50
large-scale sustainability projects, including
Market Gardening, the Lee Valley Heat
Network and large-scale 'Invest to Save'
projects across Enfield Borough's buildings
portfolio, including REFIT. REFIT is a £3.1
million project to improve the energy
performance of 3 corporate properties
(including the Civic Centre) and 11 large
schools. This exciting project will deliver
guaranteed energy and carbon savings,
currently estimated at £441k per annum.
Phase 1 has recently been tendered, providing
Energy
Service
Companies
with
the
opportunity to bid to retrofit these buildings.
Tenders will be assessed on their ability to
provide value for money, guaranteed energy
savings and local jobs."
Market Gardening
Following initial research work by CRESC
Enfield has decided to explore the return to
market gardening as one method of stimulating
economic growth in the area. Enfield Council
has an opportunity to create a unique and
innovative international centre of food growing
excellence on land we own. We plan to
capitalise on our rich history of glasshouse
food production and build a 50 acre (20ha)
commercial glasshouse, a hub for community
growing schemes and take a lead in tacking
the food crisis London faces whilst also
delivering a vast range of social and economic
benefits.
We plan to build this facility and integrate
within it a range of research, education and
social benefit facilities. The site will become a
nationally recognised destination of choice for
everybody with a passion for growing healthy
nutritious food sustainably and will be self
financed by the commercial production of
crops within the glasshouse using a
local.workforce
This proposal can be considered in three
parts:1. The on and off site social and
economic benefits that will be
delivered by this social enterprise
2. The international centre for training
and excellence - raising the level of
expertise in the country in niche crops
3. The commercial greenhouse operation
growing tomatoes and generating a
In Partnership with:
significant perpetual net income which
will be used to support further social,
physical and economic regeneration
During the manufacturing and construction
phase we expect to generate significant local
economic benefits through the use of
demanding "social benefit clauses" in the
tendering and contract award process.
Through these processes we will be ensuring,
local procurement of materials and services,
contractor provision of apprenticeship places,
and the engagement of local labour. The
commercial element of this proposal is
significant and will generate a positive effect
on the local economy. The crop production
aspect of this project will generate significant
local supply chains examples include up to five
lorry movements a day to transport the crop
yield to retailers, consumable supplies,
maintenance etc. We expect the supply
chains for this enterprise to generate a
significant number of further jobs in the local
area and uplift the area’s contribution to GDP.
Detailed economic up-lift figures will be
provided as part of the detailed feasibility study
and business case.
Procurement, Purchasing and
Collaboration
Sustainable Procurement is a process
whereby organisations meet their needs for
goods, services, works and utilities in a way
that achieves VFM on a whole life basis in
terms of generating benefits not only to the
organisation, but also to society and the
economy, while minimising damage to the
environment. Work continues on rebuilding l
supply chains and localising the benefits of
sustainable procurement through the council's
current processes.
We are committed to ensuring that our
contracts link include
•
•
•
Apprenticeships and work placements,
through JOBSnet
Clauses to require training and
employment for long term unemployed
where suitable
Support SMEs and voluntary sector
•
•
organisations – guidance on how to
bid for contracts
Ensure procurement process is open
to all and does not discriminate
against particular supplier groups
Encourage a positive contribution from
suppliers to the local communities in
which they work.
Going forward we will further develop staff on
how to procure in an ‘SME friendly’ way,
Identifying the number of local jobs sustained
by the Council’s supply chain and review the
major
spend
categories
and
identify
candidates which could be appropriate for
smaller enterprises to bid for, subject to VFM.
• We have investigated the potential
for use of the Council Pension Fund
and demonstrated that this is possible.
• We have [invited proposals from
pension funds for possible funding
models. Feasibility of these is currently
being assessed.
• We have qualified for ‘PWLB’
Certainty Rate, meaning that we can
access cheaper borrowing which
improves the opportunity to pursue
these initiatives
• Following this, Clear regeneration
programmes will receive further
support from PWLB.
2. Working with other partners to bring capital
funding into Enfield.
Financial Strategies
The aim is to turn round some of the outward
flow of funds from Enfield, particularly through
pension contributions. This section focuses on
four main themes through which we a local
financial strategy of retain and reinvest. :-
A half day conference has been arranged to
discuss the shared opportunities Enfield has to
build more social housing in Enfield with local
providers, including Housing associations &
developers. An independent expert on housing
association finance will facilitate the event.
1. Using Pension Funds to finance Council
regeneration projects.
2. Working with other partners to bring capital
funding into Enfield.
3. Working with the ‘City of London’ to bring in
private capital.
4. Equity Release.
3. Working with the ‘City of London’.
1. Using Pension Funds to finance Council
regeneration projects
4. Equity Release
Our starting point has been to demonstrate
how this investment should be attractive to
pension funds. We have shown that:
• The Council has a strong covenant.
• The investment will act as a
government long term index-linked
security but with a higher yield. (This
is especially attractive to private
sector pension funds).
• In an uncertain world this type of
investment
provides
a
secure
investment for PFs.
Work done to date:
In Partnership with:
A meeting has been arranged with a leading
infrastructure manager to look at finance
vehicles which will help to secure private
sector finance for our major regeneration
projects.
An increasing number of Enfield residents –
particularly older residents – find themselves
with significant assets, but with diminishing
income
• A viability study has been undertaken by the
Council about setting up an equity release
scheme within Enfield. It concluded that this is
a very specialised and resource hungry service
and heavily legislated for.
• But Enfield has a unique and trusted brand –
it can work with established providers to
provide a service to the Enfield community. We
are now working with potential providers to
establish a service provision.