MD2379 Economic Development Strategy

Under section 333F of the GLA Act 1999:

• The Mayor shall prepare and publish a document to be known as the “Economic development strategy for London”.

• The Economic development strategy for London is to contain:

- The Mayor's assessment of the economic conditions of Greater London; and

- The Mayor's policies and proposals for the economic development and regeneration of Greater London, including the Mayor's strategy for—

 Promoting business efficiency, investment and competitiveness in Greater London;
 Promoting employment in Greater London; and
 Enhancing the development of skills relevant to employment in Greater London.

The Act sets out consultation requirements in sections 42 and 333F. The Mayor must consult:

• The London Assembly;
• The functional bodies;
• Each London borough council and the Common Council;
• Such persons as appear to the Mayor to represent employers in Greater London;
• Such persons as appear to the Mayor to represent employees in Greater London; and
• Any other body or person whom he considers it appropriate to consult.

On 13th December 2017 the Mayor published his draft Economic Development Strategy (EDS) and Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA) for public consultation. The consultation closed on 13th March 2018. The consultation included the following:

• Technical stakeholders through:

o Engagement events: four LEAP stakeholder events were held to raise awareness of and consult on the EDS across four London sub-regions, with 166 attendees participating in total; and

o Written responses: the draft consultation document was made available and published on the GLA’s website in November 2017. Written responses were received from 62 technical stakeholders.

• The public: via two sets of surveys covering key areas of the EDS; one with a representative sample of Londoners and another with members of the Talk London online community.

Overall, 1,480 comments were logged and analysed. This included:

• 1,388 comments from the written responses
• 51 comments from the engagement events
• 10 key points from representative polling
• 24 key points from Talk London polling
• 7 key points from emails from the general public

The main changes made to the final EDS to reflect the key issues raised included:

• Greater integration between the inclusion, competitiveness and sectoral growth elements of the strategy;
• The Mayor’s vision of sustainable growth was strengthened, and greater clarity was provided regarding the principles of the circular economy model;
• The strategy was updated to reflect the Skills for Londoners Strategy;
• The Mayor’s approach to increasing employment among women and BAME communities was strengthened;
• Lines on the role of universities in London’s economic development were strengthened;
• Additional references to engagement with trade unions to help monitor and mitigate the risks from advances in disruptive technologies;
• Greater emphasis on the importance of business engagement to encourage business investment in upskilling/reskilling of employees in sectors most at risk of job losses through automation and the adoption of more disruptive technologies;
• Commitment to support small businesses to access new technologies to raise productivity, wage levels and innovation across different sectors;
• Greater emphasis on the imperative to focus action, resources and support on increasing pay and productivity across all sectors; and
• Greater emphasis on the call to all businesses across London’s growth sectors to step up their efforts to diversify their workforce and ensure their workplace is attractive and accessible to women, disabled people and individuals from BAME communities.

The Mayor is asked to take into account the Consultation Report and approve the final Economic Development Strategy, Integrated Impact Assessment and Implementation Plan.

This MD is related to MD2205 which provided approval for the publication of the draft Economic Development Strategy and Integrated Impact Assessment for public consultation.

The final Economic Development Strategy (EDS) sets out the Mayor’s vision for an inclusive and sustainable economy, and how that can be realised. It is a call to action to everyone with a stake in the future of London’s economy to help maximise economic growth, and the opportunities for fairness, inclusion and diversity.

The EDS has been developed alongside six other statutory strategies:

• London Environment Strategy
• London Plan
• Mayor’s Transport Strategy
• Housing Strategy
• Culture Strategy
• Health Inequalities Strategy

As part of the preparation for the EDS, under both European and national legislation, the Mayor is required to undertake a number of Impact Assessments to review policy options and assess the impact of proposed strategies. The Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA) combines these assessments and enables all of the mayoral strategies to work from the same baseline information. The IIA incorporates a community safety impact assessment (CSIA), equality impact assessment (EqIA), health impact assessment (HIA), and strategic environmental assessment (SEA).

Overall, the EDS contributes positively to every IIA objective, with few negative impacts identified. Where negative impacts have been identified, a series of mitigating actions have been recommended for implementation in order to minimise negative impacts and optimise outcomes of this EDS. This IIA process has been iterative, with IIA findings fed back throughout the development of the EDS. The recommendations made in the draft IIA have been taken on board in the development of the final EDS, leading to a more inclusive and sustainable EDS. For further information see appendix B.

In preparing and publishing his strategies the Mayor must comply with the public sector equality duty under s 149 of the Equality Act 2010, which requires the Mayor to have ‘due regard’ to the need to (i) eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation; (ii) advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not; and (iii) foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not. Relevant protected characteristics under section 149 of the Equality Act are age, disability, gender re-assignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.

The duty may involve, in particular, removing or minimising any disadvantage suffered by those who have a relevant protected characteristic, taking steps to meet the needs of such people, and encouraging them to participate in public life or in any other activity where their participation is disproportionately low, including tackling prejudice and promoting understanding. Compliance with the Act may involve treating people with a protected characteristic more favourably than those without the characteristic. The IIA assessed the likely equalities impact of the consultation draft EDS.

There are no direct financial implications arising to the GLA from the publication of the final Economic Development Strategy, Implementation Plan, Integrated Impact Assessment and Consultation report as these will be published on the GLA website. Any future expenditure plans that are a direct result of recommendations within these reports will be subject to further approval via the Authority’s decision-making process.

The Mayor has a duty under section 333F (1) of the Greater London Authority Act 1999 (GLA Act) to prepare and publish a document to be known as the “Economic development strategy for London”.

Under section 333F(2) of the GLA Act “The Economic development strategy for London is to contain—

a) the Mayor's assessment of the economic conditions of Greater London, and

b) the Mayor's policies and proposals for the economic development and regeneration of Greater London, including the Mayor's strategy for—

i. promoting business efficiency, investment and competitiveness in Greater London,
ii. promoting employment in Greater London, and
iii. enhancing the development of skills relevant to employment in Greater London.…”

Consultation requirements are set out in sections 42 and 333F of the GLA Act. These are summarised above in section 1 (introduction and background) of this form.

The Mayor also has a general duty under section 41 (2) of the GLA Act to keep his strategies under review and to make such revisions as he considers necessary. Section 41 sets out various requirements with which the Mayor has to comply in preparing the strategy. The Mayor must have regard to “(a) the principal purposes of the Authority; (b) the effect which the proposed strategy or revision would have on …(i) the health of persons in Greater London; (ia) health inequalities between persons living in Greater London; (ii) the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom; (iii) climate change, and the consequences of climate change”. The Mayor must also have regard to: “(a) the need to ensure that the strategy is consistent with national policies , with the EU obligations of the United Kingdom and with such other international obligations of the United Kingdom as the Secretary of State may notify to the Mayor for the purposes of this paragraph; (b) the need to ensure that the strategy is consistent with [other Mayoral strategies]; (c) the resources available for implementation of the strategy; and (d) the desirability of promoting and encouraging the use of the River Thames safely, in particular for the provision of passenger transport services and for the transportation of freight”.

Under section 42B of the GLA Act, the Mayor must lay a copy of the final strategy before the Assembly before publishing it. If, within 21 days of the laying of the copy, the Assembly by a motion agreed to by at least a two thirds majority of those voting rejects the draft strategy, the Mayor must not publish it.