Essex County Council publishes countywide strategy for levelling up

IN JANUARY 2022, ESSEX COUNTY COUNCIL

PUBLISHED A NEW WHITE PAPER, SETTING OUT ITS COUNTYWIDE STRATEGY FOR LEVELLING UP IN ESSEX.

As one of the first Councils across the UK to map out its ambitions against central government’s Purpose Goals, the white paper outlined its long-term plan of action, presenting a clear framework of the places and people it is targeting support to in order to reduce spatial inequality.

Described as “trail-blazing” and an “invaluable source of insight for Whitehall, as well as the wider local government community” by Justine Greening, former Education Secretary and Chair of the This is Purpose Coalition, the white paper focused on the creation of levelling up opportunities against the key commitments set out in our wider ECC Everyone’s Essex strategy (2021-2025).

Over the last year, Essex County Council (ECC) has identified both the key cohorts and areas that would most benefit from Levelling Up and made significant funding available, including an investment of £10m over the next four years to support economic growth and skills, as well as a separate £11m Levelling Up reserve.

The Council has launched 23 projects so far aimed at driving levelling up, spanning across skills, education, community and literacy. These include:

• The investment of 100k in a new electric vehicle training centre at Harlow College, which will enable local people to develop professional qualifications in electric vehicle repair and maintenance, which will be a major growth sector and key to supporting the transition to carbon net zero;

• Focus on literacy - The creation of 74 literacy areas across the County, expansion of Adult Community Learning Hubs to areas without provision, such as Harwich and Canvey Island. 2022 was its Essex Year of Reading, a programme of events and education initiatives, during which, every primary aged child in the county was given a library card;

• Opened 2 new community supermarkets in some of the counties most deprived areas;

• Created new physical activity hubs in targeted estates that provide both physical activity classes, but also volunteering opportunities for local people that create routes into employment;

• Entry level jobs created through its social value scheme has exceeded expectations, with over 250 created so far;

• ECC has now donated over 4,100 devices to schools across Essex, to support the student population with getting online and to continue to learn. This was in addition to 2,500 devices supplied to it by the DfE. It was also able to provide our Ukrainian guests fleeing war with a total of 335 devices;

• and finally, the expansion of its ActivATE holiday club, which over the last two years has provided over 500,000 free meals and supported over 30,000 young people, 30% of which are from low income working families or other vulnerable groups.