Park Royal Business Group

​​​The Park Royal Business Group (PRBG) is a membership body that represents businesses within Park Royal.

In December 2020 OPDC provided £95,000 funding to PRBG over two years (CD151) to hire a full time PRBG manager responsible for delivering a programme of events and outreach, as well as growing PRBG membership.

The PRBG manager has also been responsible for supporting the members to overcome practical issues including power capacity constraints, vehicle access, recruitment needs, lease renewals, and other issues. PRBG has lobbied on behalf of local businesses and made connections to the local authorities, Mayoral Parties, law enforcement and other relevant parties.

With OPDC support PRBG have provided business support and Advice to their members as well as hosting seminars and summits with partners and stakeholders where businesses can access tangible assistance. For example, PRBG have hosted a series of Breakfast forum events for local businesses, provided ready access to education and training providers or our annual Meet the Boroughs where you can engage one to one with council officials. They have also delivered networking sessions for Park Royal Business through a series of regular social events.

PRBG have also run a series of roundtable discussions for businesses to share their views, gain knowledge and form a collective business lobbying voice on issues having a particular impact within Park Royal. Recent examples include an Infrastructure Summit which was attended by local businesses, High Speed Two (HS2), Transport for London, Scottish and Southern Energy, UKPN and Openreach.

Since March 2020 PRBG have delivered the following outputs;

• 12 events attended by c350 Park Royal businesses and residents
• Attracted 81 new members, bringing the total member of PRBG members to 164
• Secured £40,000 from the HS2 Community and Environment Fund to the delivery of tangible improvements in Park Royal

We are seeking approval to extend OPDC’s support for PRBG for another year (£54,975). This will allow PRBG to extend the appointment of the PRBG Manager by another year (March 2023 – March 2024) and contribute towards events support. As this is being proposed as a grant, this will require a grant agreement per OPDC’s standard procedures.

The 2023/24 programme will expand on the programme of events, support and outreach delivered by PRBG to date. This will include delivery of an expanded events and networking programme building on the success of existing events such as the Breakfast Briefing session and Infrastructure Summits.    

In addition, the PRBG manager will as well as closer collaboration with OPDC on its programme of business support and outreach delivered by the Forge, OPDC’s employment and skills hub. PRBG will continue to act as a key referral partner, signposting businesses to the Forge’s free recruitment services. This will be managed via regular catchups between the PRBG Manager and the Forge team.

In addition, OPDC and PRBG will explore opportunities to develop a shared business outreach tracker. This will ensure that business engagement is coordinated between the two organisations and minimises the risk of consultation fatigue.

Project outputs will be set in line with the Regeneration and Economic Development (RED) framework agreement by OPDC Board in November 2021. This includes delivery and monitoring of the following KPIs:

• 10-15 events for the year
• a target of 400 people attending across all events
• a target £60k secured from external funding sources towards delivery of capital projects in Park Royal or programmes supporting Park Royal businesses

Additional reported outputs include;

• PRBG membership growth
• number of OPDC businesses procured by PRBG for goods / services (including £ spent)

The programme will result in a strengthened business community network within OPDC area, as well as a unified business voice to lobby on behalf of Park Royal businesses.

The programme of events will help to expand the reach of OPDC and PRBG’s business network, allowing for better quality business engagement and more targeted business support by OPDC and its partners.

By promoting a strong unified voice for business, the programme delivers on OPDC’s Community Engagement Plan ambition to “Develop a shared vision for the area”. PRBG have a demonstrated track record of bringing businesses together and lobbying for effective change.

PRBG are a key referral partner for the Forge@Park Royal, connecting businesses with recruitment needs to local job seekers. The PRBG will be responsible for coordinating with the Forge manager, directly delivering on OPDC’s engagement strategy priority to “Promote skills, employment and opportunities”.

The programme delivers on the following of the Regeneration and Economic Development principles agreed by OPDC Board:

• know our patch, know our people
• build the capacity of business-led and other grass roots organisations.
• work with our existing business base and strengths

The programme will be overseen by the RED programme. The PRBG manager will provide monthly written monitoring reports that will feed into regular updates via the RED Programme Board and Quarterly dashboards as appropriate.

The PRBG will provide OPDC with monthly written reports, including a risk and issues tracker. OPDC will escalate these as via bi-monthly reporting to the RED Programme Board as well as Quarterly reporting to the Greater London Authority (GLA).

As the project will be delivered via the continued employment of the PRBG manager, we are proposing to make an advance payment to PRBG.

Under Section 149 of the Quality Act 2010, as a public authority, OPDC must have ‘due regard’ to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation as well as to the need to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.^[1]

We will work with PRBG to complete an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion project plan to ensure that the programme of events, networking and other support is reaching the substantial number of minority-owned businesses in Park Royal. This will build on the findings from the Business Community Study (2022) that focussed on minority-ethnic led businesses in Park Royal.

There are no other considerations that need to be considered in the taking of this decision.

There are no conflicts of interest that need to be declared.

Grant expenditure of £54,975 to be funded from the 2023/24 RED budget. Any further expenditure is subject to the Corporation’s decision-making process.

The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the decisions requested of the CEO fall within OPDC’s object of securing the regeneration of the Old Oak and Royal Park area and its powers to do anything which it considers appropriate for the purposes of its objects or purposes incidental to those purposes, as set out in the Localism Act 2011.

In taking the decisions requested, the CEO must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty; namely the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010, and to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (set out above) and persons who do not share it and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the CEO should have particular regard to section 6 (above) of this report.

Officers must ensure that an appropriate grant funding agreement is executed between OPDC and West London Business Ltd, or the existing agreement is varied, prior to any funds being committed.

None

None