Chaired by Colin Stratton from the Federation of Small Businesses, the ‘Local Economy’ theme has a number of key strands - economic vitality, housing, transport and culture - all of which are recognised as being vital to supporting the local economy and have therefore been brought together under one theme.

The co-ordinating body, Local Economy, aims to develop support for business improvements, provide positive conditions for growth and employment and support the improvement of adult skills by identifying present and future skills needs (for the Learning Partnership to develop programs around).

Local Economy receives regular updates from:

• The Housing Forum, which concentrates on helping the hardest-to-reach into work, addresses housing market failure and extends the quality and choice in the housing market.
• The Transport group, which aims to provide a transport network which meets the needs of a town by improving access to work and important services, avoiding congestion, improving road safety, managing environmental impact and increasing the use of alternative methods such as cycling and walking.
• Culture (major projects / flagships) which promotes arts and cultural development.
• Middlesbrough Works, a multi-agency sub group which undertakes an impartial co-ordinating role to move forward priorities relating to Economic Vitality; specifically those issues pertaining to worklessness, full and sustained employment and to forge and maintain links with local, regional and sub-regional partners who are working towards similar aims and objectives. 
  
  Coordinated forward work programs are developed by the strands and are reviewed and monitored on a regular basis.

To access the 2010 meeting dates please see the dowloads box to the right of this page.

For more information please contact the Lead Officer using the following contact details:
Lead Officers: Richard Horniman/Sarah Metcalfe, Middlesbrough Council
Email: richard_horniman@middlesbrough.gov.uk / sarah_metcalfe@middlesbrough.gov.uk
Tel: 01642 729568/  01642 729546