Action plan for recovery in East Lindsey

A recent Centre for Towns report identified both Mablethorpe and Skegness because of the high number of businesses in the area which have had to close/scale down. Many of these are tourism, hospitality and food wholesale businesses.

The Royal Society of Arts has also looked at the proportion of workforce on furlough. The national average is 25% and the figure (the second highest in the country) for East Lindsey is 34%.

As the re-opening of more shops on Monday brings hope of an upturn in the economy, the statistics show thousands of jobs across the district are likely to be affected

There are 7,500 people in the district employed in accommodation and food services, around of whom 90% are on furlough. Up to 3,000 jobs in the wider supply chain are at threat.

The implications of social distancing in the longer term, says the report, could reduce the operational capacity of tourism and hospitality businesses by 50%.

Most businesses are not expecting to employ seasonal staff this could impact on a further 3,000 people and their wider families.

Retail and food producers focused on catering are similarly affected, with at least 2,000 jobs at risk.

Manufacturing and employment businesses have seen a 30-40% reduction in business activity, putting 1,800 jobs at risk.

Business in other sectors report a downturn of up to 50%.

In response to these studies and local intelligence, East Lindsey District Council commissioned a fast moving survey of the business community to identify how it had been affected by the coronavirus.

The District Counci's ‘Restoration and Recovery’ report provides the basis for the Council’s recovery efforts after 44 businesses were interviewed during the week April 27 to May 1..

One direct result of the feedback from businesses has been the development of a Local Development Order (LDO) for the coast. The LDO would remove restrictions on when holiday parks can open, meaning they could operate throughout the winter months (November – March). This was identified by a number of businesses as a way to help them recover from the enforced closure at the start of the traditional visitor season.

The report has also identified opportunities that the District Council can look to capitalise on with the £126,000 they have been allocated by Government through the Reopening High Streets Safely Fund. The Government have identified a number of measures the Fund can be used for and the Council will be working with towns and businesses across the district to develop local plans for how this money can be best spent.

Building on their ongoing Vital and Viable programme, the Council will help towns to bring people back in a way that is both safe and enjoyable. This is likely to include work to ensure towns have attractive, vibrant street scenes which are ready to welcome back shoppers and will be complemented by a new digital marketing campaign letting people know that East Lindsey’s towns are once again open for business.

Coun Adam Grist, Portfolio Holder for Market Towns and Rural Economy, said: “Our team have been working incredibly hard to deliver the biggest programme of business support in Greater Lincolnshire and this has been immensely helpful in gaining an understanding of what businesses from across the district want and need to help them recover. We’re grateful to them for this insight and we look forward to working with them throughout this recovery process.”

Coun Steve Kirk, Portfolio Holder for Coastal Economy, added: “The Covid-19 pandemic has clearly had a big impact on the district and particularly the coast. Now we have to look at how we can support our towns and businesses to return to a level of normality. We will continue to work with our partners, such as the Lincolnshire Coastal Business Improvement District, as they develop their own local recovery plans and we will also continue to listen to businesses about what they need. By doing this we have already been able to rapidly progress work on an LDO for the coast - something which supports our many holiday parks and will help us achieve our long-held ambition to extend the visitor season.”

RESTORATION AND RECOVERY REPORT

Businesses have a clear set of Asks to help them navigate their challenges:

Short-term issues include:

 Business grants – this involves help with business disruption, providing enough resource, to complement the funding from the national schemes of business support, for smaller tourism and hospitality operators to get through to the end of the season and become sustainable for next year.

 Rates holidays or deferrals– this would operate on the basis of an identical rationale to the business grants above.

 Free car parking, to boost business, once the lock down is lifted, by attracting customers to the District’s towns.

 A council “buy local” programme. This would involve the council sourcing more of the goods and materials it uses from East Lindsey businesses.

 More intensive engagement with key businesses. Around a third of respondents felt a regular pro-active approach to check their status and needs would be a very useful means of maximizing the support East Lindsey District Council could give to them.

Long Term issues opportunities:

 Promotion of East Lindsey as a “safe” place to visit or live as a means of attracting future investment. Several of the respondents felt that this should be the theme of a new place marketing campaign.

 Space to grow. A view from a number of respondents, that with the right investment package the district could be an attractive location for business to relocate to, and that now is the time to plan to deliver more employment space, ideally at scale.

 Buy Local. It was proposed that the council could develop a matching service linking local suppliers and consumers of services, it could also run meet the buyer events to bring businesses together.

 A National Campaign. Respondents identified that the grave nature of the specific impact on tourism businesses means the district should be using its influence to lobby Government on the provision of a specific package of national support.

Measures suggested included:

 increasing the duration of the furlough scheme for hospitality, tourism and retail businesses in coastal areas,

 resourcing a coastal grant scheme with a focus as set out in the short term measures referenced above,

 exploring the potential for the development of tourism enterprise zones and the extension of freeport status to tourism

locations,

 Local lock down lifting plans, specific to key places such as Skegness and Mablethorpe. This would involve establishing place based, business led regeneration partnerships, which could work with the council to:

 unlock development sites,

 stimulate investment in vacant premises,

 facilitate start up enterprise amongst local people

 bring businesses together to identify the scope for enhanced local trading.

 and supporting the implementation of local development orders to simplify and speed up the planning process,

 The plan would also involve considering how the phased lifting of the lockdown could best be managed to help with

issues such as reopening of adapted restaurants and pubs and reintroducing tourists taking account of the ongoing challenges of social distancing.

The council has some capacity to respond to all this issues, in many cases in wider partnership with others and a suggested list of actions is set out at the end of this report.