Driving Growth

This award is open to a single council or where appropriate a partnership of councils, or a council-owned company. Private sector partners can enter on a council’s behalf, with the permission of the council itself.

Councils have a major role in creation to securing local growth, both in their own right and as partners of local enterprise partnerships and (in some cases) as members of combined authorities. This award is intended to highlight the key roles that councils play in driving growth. This can be in relation to, for example, infrastructure, housing, their regulatory responsibilities, their role as employers and purchasers of services and in supporting local businesses. Winners need to demonstrate their success in building a partnership with employers and investors.

Submissions should focus on:   

• Summarising the council’s ambitions for the future of its economy and its priorities for achieving that ambition;
• How the council is working with the LEP and other local partners, including where appropriate through a devolution agreement and combined authority;
• The council’s relationship with local businesses and its use of business intelligence to inform its activities;
• How all relevant council services respond to the needs of business;
• The key programmes and initiatives the council is pursuing;
• The impact of the council’s actions, with a particular focus on evidenced achievements and data to prove the authority’s success.

Award entries will be judged on:

• The nature of the council’s ambition and the steps it has put in place to achieve it;
• Evidence of the impact of the council’s activities on the economy;
• The quality of the council’s relationship with its LEP and other partners and impact of those relationships on action to secure growth in its area (including where appropriate devolution agreements)
• The quality of the council’s relationship with businesses in its areas and its use of business intelligence;
• The relationship between the council’s growth ambitions and the council’s wider strategic objectives;
• Evidence of the responsiveness of the council as whole to the needs of business.