THURROCK councillors will hear tonight (Tuesday, 9 February) of a lukewarm response in terms of interest to the council's 'roadmap for economic recovery' – a project it calls Backing Thurrock.

Tonight's meeting of the council's planning, transport, regeneration overview and scrutiny committee will be given an update on the project, which was launched at a presentation in September and then put out for consultation at the beginning of November, a process which ran until 10 January.

The meeting will hear that the recovery plan, launched because of the 'significant impact' of the Covid-19 on the borough economy which has seen sectors of commerce being particularly badly hit, the claimant count more than doubling and many businesses and individuals relying on temporary government support, was presented to many of the council's partners.

The roadmap presented included:

• A snapshot of the local economy;
• Some immediate actions to help the local economy during the pandemic;
• A new approach to collaborating with anchor public, private and voluntary groups to deliver market led growth;
• Some themes to explore to improve resilience and support a return to growth in the medium and longer term.

The consultation was presented in various ways including to the more than 2,500 subscribers to the Business Buzz newsletter in Thurrock; a presentation and discussion at meetings of private, public and voluntary stakeholders including Thurrock Business Board, Economic Development an Skills Partnership, Joint Strategic Forum, Economically Vulnerable Taskforce and one-to-one discussions with representatives of key businesses, public institutions and voluntary sector partners.

Most of which was done online.

However, online analytics shows that in total just 248 viewed at least the first page of the consultation, and of those only 142 viewed more than one page. Ninety-one downloaded the document.

And there were 21 responses to the consultation via that route. In addition a further 14 responses were received via one-to-one discussions and the group discussions engaged around 49 people.

The outcome of the three month consultation however, is being put to committee members who will hear the council now plans to 'work collaboratively with our anchor organisations and groups to consider new thinking, new ideas and new approaches to strengthen and grow our economy so that it is sustainable and inclusive, making Thurrock a more resilient place and positively contribute to securing the well-being of everyone in our community.'

A draft Action Plan sets out three goals from the strategy, together with a number of priorities for the next twelve months:

• Enabling Economic Recovery focuses on understanding the pandemic

and supporting businesses and residents to adapt and enable economic recovery to begin. Priorities include provision of advice, guidance and financial support to eligible businesses, helping people upskill and reskill and find work and supporting the reopening of the economy as

restrictions ease;

• Building resilience focuses on building a stronger economy where residents and businesses are helped to focus on their strengths and adapt to take advantage of new opportunities as growth resumes. Priorities include implementation of specific projects focussed on green growth and broadband, supporting the proposal to create a Thames Estuary Freeport and working to help the most vulnerable in the community tackle issues, develop their skills and find work;

• Return to Growth which focuses on building new ways of working with our key businesses, stakeholders and anchor organisations to grow an economy that benefits everyone in the long term. Priorities include finding new ways of working with our anchor organisations to collaborate and generate wealth that stays in Thurrock, working with priority and growth sectors and with major developers to secure growth that benefits local businesses and creates jobs.