The long-awaited Local Economy Strategy has been released in draft form, which hopes to ensure the wellbeing of the retail, hospitality and leisure industries for the next 10-years.
Business Isle of Man is setting out a range of tools for residents, local authorities and businesses to enable them to 'take ownership' of their local areas.
The document itself is eight-months late from when it was first promised, which the government agency blames on the cost-of-living crisis and the 'constant heat' facing the industries that make up the local economy.
It prides itself on being 'data-led', with external researchers being brought in to conduct analysis, alongside surveys which garnered 1,250 responses.
Manx Radio's Christian Jones sat down with Business Isle of Man's Chief Executive Tim Cowsill and Enterprise Minister Tim Johnston.
It's itself on being data led with external researchers being brought into conduct analysis, alongside surveys which garnered more than 1,200 responses. I sat down with Business Hall of Man's Chief Executive, Tim Council and the Enterprise Minister, Tim Johnston. Consultation has been a big part of this, understanding how we do with the sector. It's been through a lot in terms of cost of living and COVID and to develop a framework in which supports some of the little aspects that we've seen real change in. It's been really key. I think it's probably the deepest dive really into our offering, not just in Douglas, but I think across the island. I think it's been really important to gather that data. The draft local economy strategy is here before a summit. It is eight months late though. Let's address that. The Minister did seem very confident he'll be here by December, but it was nowhere near about what caused such a delay. I think the impact of the cost of living crisis and the constant heat that we've had regarding the position of the sector has been a lot and trying to find the right time to come out with a strategy that can really help overall is being really key. We've done a lot of consultation. We've taken things further than we did. Remember, we've got no framework to understand the health of the local economy at the moment. We can look at general job numbers and overview, but actually what's going on in terms of football, in terms of vacancy rates, understanding what the health of our town centres and city centre is. We don't have, so we spent more time doing that and getting it right. It's a long strategy over 10 years. It has to be a framework that can take that. You're saying that this strategy was put together with a huge amount of engagement and consultation, but it would appear that even the consultation that was carried out was not enough because you're now taking feedback on what's been put together. How confident are you that what's been set up here is good enough? Yeah, I think the important part was those key bits of work that were done separately on looking across the island's retail offering, getting an independent report done as a key foundation is very important. Yes, there has been a lot of engagement with local businesses, obviously with public consultation. It's such a big project, lots of threads bringing it together. I think now that it's in this form, I think it is right that we go out again now and just double check and send check again in certain areas to make sure that people are happy with it, the businesses understand it, and we move forward because I think it's such a big piece of work. It is a really quite a landmark piece of work. It's many, many years since anything like this. I've even been touched on and I think never to this level of detail, so it's something we do want to get right. How much do you anticipate it will change between now and the end of September? I think the fundamentals are there. I mean, as far as the main frameworks for support, we have those structures in place and the routes through to funding. It's more about fine tuning, I think, at this stage, and I think that's something that getting that final buy-in, final checkover from the sectors is really important. Something that this strategy hopes to do is make data-led decisions. How many responses did you get to the local economy and High Street survey? 1,250. What was clear was that we have a good retail and hospitality offering on the Isle of Man, but the banks public thinks it could go a lot further. There are gaps, there's physical gaps in the High Street, but also in the provision of services as well. So we look at stuff like indoor leisure to retail. There are some unique challenges. If you then break it down into different towns, again, there's a different view across what people expect from each of our towns, and it's quite interesting when you look at it. The likes of Peel and Castle Town being very heritage-based, and that people expect Douglas to be the town centre and offer that UK multinational independent experience, but not just the retail, but the leisure as well, and to have that encompassed into that is really key. So I think there's a lot of us. I think there's quite a lot of us for discount brands and support. That comes out very clearly in the data that there are certain brands and businesses that the banks public would like to see, and I think it's really key that when you look at it, we've had local businesses fill some of those gaps really, really well. You take some of our hospitality venues. They are offering services that UK multinationals do really, really well. One thing that we've come out with this is this local first. We want local businesses to fill those opportunities first for us. If they can't come forward, then we'll look at changing that and adjusting the strategy, but the whole framework is very adjustable in terms of what we've developed here. It's over a long period of time, but we can actually break it down and say, "Okay, well, that's not worked. We've still not got that leisure provision in town. What are we going to change? How are we going to change it?" I think that's very much based on the data and making those informed decisions about what those gaps are. We will continue to take the information that's come from the consumers. Again, they've got an opportunity to comment on this strategy as well, as well as businesses and as well as local communities. If we just look at some of the respondents to the local economy and high street survey said in terms of the island's retail offering leisure and hospitality, 1.9 out of 5 stars for retail, 2.2 out of 5 for leisure, 2.7 out of 5 for hospitality. Do you agree from those figures alone? It would appear there is quite substantial amount of work to be done. Yeah, it's clear that people do expect a certain amount of variation for the island, and I think those aspirations are built into the fact that local communities feel the same. You've got local commissioners and town groups wanting to push that and offer those services, and you've seen some great businesses trying to fill those gaps. I think it's a great start for us to look at how we can change, and with us continually looking at how this adjusts. I expect those figures to go up, but if they're not going up, we can adjust that as well. Without that input, you'll keep the emphasis on are we going in the right direction? But there is work to do, but retail rates are lower than the UK in the Isle of Man overall. We know that empty shops surveys are lower. We know that the Isle of Man has whether the storm looks seemingly well, but the opportunity for growth is absolutely there. I think even more when you're looking at a younger demographic as well, and if you break it down, the younger demographic do expect more from their high streets, and they want to spend local. You had 60 in-person interviews targeting under represented groups. What does that mean? That was because we looked at the demographics of what we were getting online, and we saw that there was a gap, so we did do some on the streets interviews as part of that to make sure that that demographic was covered, that all the demographic was missing from the data, so that's why we brought it in. I think, again, I think the amongst public want more, and I think there was a lot in terms of the opportunity there for us to grow, in terms of other outputs. If you break down the demographics, there is a continuation of a constant message for more variety that came out for everyone, and that's why we're looking at that gap, and that's why a lot of this is about filling those empty shops with the right things, and that's key to the development of the strategy. You are saying this document is based on extensive research and in-depth consultation and engagement, but you've highlighted that meetings were only held with 13 of the island's local commissioners, which is only a little over half of them. Why did you not engage with them all? I think we gave everyone an opportunity to meet and take that, and we continue to do that. There were interviews as part of the town audits, which the consultants did, the external consultants did as well, in addition, so there was plenty of opportunities for doing that, but we didn't always get full engagement from everyone. One of the so-called pillars of this strategy is to empower local authorities by creating new funding routes, talk to me about what sort of thing you're considering. I think one thing is looking to turn on, again, our town and village regeneration scheme. That was a successful scheme post-COVID in looking at how we can improve the look. I think of our high streets and the frontage of some of our retail units and hospitality units. We're looking at being able to expand that further to help businesses invest, and we're also looking at setting up a local economy fund, and I think that's the key one, really, for local authorities. I think the important thing here is that this is not about us as government being prescriptive, but what towns or local ministers should do. It's very much about listening to those local authorities and those areas and saying what are you looking to do for your towns, your villages, how can we help facilitate that? We would then look to be able to bring forward funding models with an economic case for their projects, their ideas, bringing that forward. By having that data, for example, for fall and shop vacancies, be able to measure that and see how we can help those looking communities. Certainly when we had our meeting recently in Ramsey with the Northern Chamber of Commerce, the local authority of Ramsey is very, very keen to be involved in that lot of local businesses, and they're very, I think, very enthused by that prospect of being able to have that big say in their future of their town, because at the end of the day, they're the number one people who understand their town, and if we can help facilitate that, then that's a really positive thing to do. How much is being allocated to the local economy fund and all these other ones that you're considering, and is that money that you've already budgeted for, or is that something that you'll have to go back to Treasury for? We've had discussions with Treasury. Some of this will be new funding. Some of it's already in place through our existing schemes. We have funding already for our domestic event fund, and we'll say we're looking to turn on our town and village regeneration scheme again. We also have funding in place, for example, for our business efficiency schemes, but yes, we would be looking through this domestic friend fund to go forward, so the local economy fund to go forward. We'll be looking for funding for that, and certainly as it's an economic case, I imagine it will be a case of looking at the economic strategy fund and taking projects forward to that with a business case to access that funding. So the idea is that we fill those empty units with new jobs, and that's very much the repayment plan for any new funding, is that we can see that spend, well, one, we can see the consumer spend increase through the footfall, and then the other part is filling those empty shops. The sector is so huge in employment that we only need a small percentage change to make a big difference to the makes economy, and so that's very much how this has been built on that basis, that we monitor it, we understand it, but also it has that economic benefit, but we cannot take the wider impact to this sector, makes the Isle of Man viable, and I think, you know, the local economy sectors, people won't live here unless these things are here for us, and so the importance of that isn't lost, and it is highlighted in the economic strategy, highlighted in the island plan, about building these communities to make sure that that's the right offerings there. Do you have a ballpark figure as to how much is being allocated so far? Not at this stage, no, as I say, I think it goes out to this consultation now, we'll go for that process, and then we'll be looking to apply for funding. We have to look to see how this funding isn't as seen as an investment, it is taxpayers' money going in, therefore we have to make sure that we're showing a return on that through various different channels. You say you're going to be developing policies that reduce business risk, what will those policies look like? Well, I think the important thing is that one of the challenges we see for special businesses starting up in the retail sectors and hospitality is the risks and challenges of doing that, we see that there are difficult sectors to get into. So we're looking to try and how we can how can we do risk that. So I think helping businesses take a punt and I think a calculated punt I think is the sense where to look at that and look encouraging sort of pop-ups, looking at empty retail spaces and how we can see corn sort of new businesses and help them get on that first step of the ladder. Obviously we already have our business improvement scheme and we offer business support and we can we'll continue to do that. And then as these businesses develop, we can then look at the next stage which is likes of the town of the village regeneration scheme, which we want to extend further away from just shop frontages but also looking at how we can help those businesses fit out shops and invest and create those businesses going forward. Are there strategies around taxation for business at all? Could we see tax relief to incentivise X for example? I think at this stage that's not been looked at. I think that's a treasury issue really. That's a broader issue for the economy and it's not something that this particular strategy will be looking to tackle. I want to look at some of the strengths and opportunities that you've listed in the strategy now and you've said clear targets set by the climate change plan is one of the strengths and opportunities. Which targets set out in the climate change plan will help boost the local economy? I think one of the things we recognise for example is the cost for business and I think one of the areas where we want to help businesses invest is in energy efficiency. So certainly working with our business energy support scheme, helping those businesses look at their energy usage and how we can make that more efficient. I think generally the whole principle of town centre first is to make sure that people feel that their local community, their local area is providing the things that they want and reducing the need to travel and having that sort of community feel and making sure that the things they expect and see and want to see in their towns and the villages are there and handy and close by for them. In the challenges section you've said investment is discouraged due to the perception that government is bureaucratic. Is it just a perception? Well I think I understand. I think it's always a challenge with government when there's a frustration when people engage with government and we see it in the Department for Friends prize as well and we always want to try and minimise that. Ultimately when we are looking at investing, putting grants forward through our schemes, it is tax based money. I think it's right that we make sure that those extra checks and balances take place. That takes time sometimes. I think that can be frustrating. I think one of the things we should be doing as a department I've certainly always talked about is sort of creating a level playing field and making it easier for businesses to do business. I think this strategy very much feeds into that and helping and enabling businesses to move forward. But I always recognise that yeah it's always a challenge to reduce that and it can be frustrating at times. But even more important why we engage with a wide number of people it's possible to feed into this strategy so that when we are developing schemes and strategies going forward that they are user friendly. Let's talk about one of the other pillars which is reducing barriers to business. How are you going to be going about reducing barriers to business? I think when Minister said about the energy saving scheme that is a big cost. When you look at big cost for businesses utilities it is really hurting a lot of businesses in the day to day. You can't go into a cold pub in the winter. A lot of the things that they offer is that and I think reducing looking to help make businesses more energy efficient is a key part to that. There is a lot to try and understand in terms of POS systems, accountancy savings or the sort of day-to-day running of a business is getting more and more expensive. There are a lot of services that are available to UK businesses that could make a really big difference to banks businesses when we look at point of sale and technical stuff. The strategy will look to support those to develop them to give more access to those businesses to allow to get those systems to understand how they can make efficiencies in their business. We have the business improvement scheme at the moment but taking that a step further to really help understand how these businesses can act more lean and work and help them develop further. It is all about being sustainable in that position. A lot of businesses have been under a lot of stress and they haven't had perhaps the support to get those barriers down and perhaps may even see higher barriers by having their business on the other man and we want to bring those down. One of the things that the chief exec here has said is that the return will be measured by filling jobs and having new shops open. You've previously stressed a lot that we have record low unemployment to the point where businesses are saying they can't grow or expand, due to a lack of available workers. Are you not shooting yourself in the foot with hoping to see changes to these figures? Right, there's the challenge we have in the economy at the moment with high numbers of job opportunities and low unemployment. That is a broad challenge that I think we recognise as a major challenge right across the economy, not to assume retail and hospitality, but it is a key challenge for them. I think as part of this, the bigger picture of course is making sure that we are growing our working age population but also making sure we've got the housing in place and the wider work that government needs to do to make the island attractive and make sure that we've got the space for the people we need. It's also about skills and it's about making sure that the young people who are living on the island here on the island already feel there's opportunities for them and certainly we recognise that often the retail sector, hospitality, that's quite a challenge and obviously the costs of living on the island and relatively low wages in that area. That's why it's important that we drive at wages and where we can and drive and help those businesses move forward so that they can be attractive to employees and help them. Again, this strategy is about helping those businesses move forward, helping to grow the cake if you like so that they're more profitable and have a more sustainable future. While we're on metrics, we might as well talk about how you're going to measure success, the major point is these local communities taking on these initiatives and ideas and bringing them to us and then we will monitor the impact of those. So there's three variables in which that will happen. One is footfall so we will collect a baseline of footfall across the island and then we want to see these initiatives make a change. What we are trying to show here is the consumer-based approach. We know that there's an average spend that when people go out they go out less but they spend more. We understand some of that information and what we're trying to do is level the playing field to give those opportunities to all those businesses in those town centres. The other part is understanding the vacancy rate and how that changes and that should decrease as we allow those businesses to have those initiatives and develop those things forward. The other part is the town audits which the town audits is a baseline of a UK retail consultant leading retail consultant that's done a lot of work in Scotland around communities and understanding the urban communities across Scotland and we've asked them to do this review in the Isle of Man to give us a baseline to a score. So each town has a score which might look at green areas to transportation, to public transport, to understanding an overall score, an overall metric of score and then we expect in the end of a couple of years we'll ask them to come back and do another review and that change will then give us a good position on the overall regeneration of these town centres. Regeneration isn't just about physical paving slabs, walls, roads, it's also about communities and we have to find a measure and a metric to understand how that vibrancy works and the town centre audits are a big key part of that to develop them. This strategy says it will only be reviewed once every 18 months to two years. It's a 10 year long strategy so it would only get about four reviews. Are you actually accountable? Well I think obviously this is a longer term plan. It's a 10 year plan. I think it's right that we do have those regular check-ins because as I say you do want to make sure that you're heading in the right direction and I think the point we're making is that by having those frequent assessments and recognising that this isn't a set in stone plan you can make changes. So I think that the wrong thing to do is set up down a road now and say this is what we're going to do for the next 10 years. We may have to change and pivot and move depending on a range of factors as we go along. So is there anything which could prompt an early review because with the reviews taking place every 18 months to two years it's fairly likely you won't even be in post to review it because the keys would have been dissolved by that point? Yeah and I think what we have to say is of course we can't dictate what a future administration would do but to me the whole point of this is you are identifying what are the challenges that anyone would recognise are the challenges for a community, for a small country like the Isle of Man. How you decide to tackle those in the long term, someone might do something slightly different to that but understanding what we've got now and setting those metrics and setting a sensible plan for the future which is about making the island more attractive, making sure we've got a broad compelling access and variety of hospitality and retail. To me that is common sense and a sensible thing which you should all be striving for which really should transcend a five year political cycle and I think one of the things that was very much stressed at the start of this administration when the island plan came forward was this recognition that governments working to five year cycles and the short termism that goes into that is not the best way of taking things forward having a much more sustainable long term plan that you can flex and reassess frequently I think is the right way forward. So obviously the minister has the business agency underneath him that has been developing this with the agency board which has representatives from retail hospitality built into it and it will definitely be reviewed and I would like to get to a point where we have a dashboard for the local economy which we expect to show the football numbers which we already do for Douglas on the economic strategy dashboard we expect to expand that wider and I expect the business agency to review this when it meets by monthly to understand what's going on what the impact to the schemes to then inform a wider position so even though those two year formal reviews are in there we expect to keep an eye on this very very closely and any funding support we get through from treasury we'll all need monitoring as part of that so we want to link this into the way that we operate and this will become an operating rhythm for this strategy is that then the business agency can highlight go look this isn't working we think we need to adjust this and this to support it. You're going to be rolling out town centre managers to coordinate groups initiatives and events across the island some people might see that as you telling the community how to run things when you've already said that local representatives are best placed to make decisions. So that's just one of the examples of things that could be brought forward it is not necessarily up to us to deliver that. That was one of the things that came very clearly from the feedback was that there is a want to do more events to focus support for cruise passengers or or to run events across the across the year and the capacity isn't in the town in the town commissioners to do that all necessarily the right experience to do so. So one of the things that they came back with that would make a big difference is that they could run more events with with that support of someone to come in and do that and a lot of them do that on a doing that on the side and actually the importance of events is really really key and comes through in the strategy that that really does help making businesses sustainable is around a good events calendar. So it's just an example it doesn't necessarily mean that we will roll it out and I expect that quite a lot of the commissioners will work together on that basis because coordination of events is really key you know I have heard the police say there's only so many cones so you can't run events all the around all at the same time and so they did talk about the need and requirement for a coordination and that's all it is it's a suggestion for that to move forward. Thank you for making it to the end of the Manx Radio Newscast. You are obviously someone with exquisite taste. 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