Terms of Reference - Economic Growth Steering Board

1. Purpose and role

The Economic Growth Steering Board (EGSB) is the Oxford Strategic Partnership’s (OSP) key forum to steer Oxford’s Economic Strategy and collaborate on economic and business issues in Oxford. Led by and representative of the diverse sectors of Oxford’s Business community, the EGSB is supported by Oxford City Council’s Regeneration & Economy Service. The EGSB reports to and is accountable to OSP.

Oxford's Economic Strategy (2022-32) is setting a new standard for economic inclusion in the city. Building on the unique strengths of Oxford as an impactful global city economy, drawing on the assets of its historical and cultural assets, the strategy and delivery plan seek to guide an evolving city economy in a way which recognises environmental limits and harnesses the opportunity of net zero carbon.

The role and purpose of the EGSB is central to fulfil the effective delivery of the Economic Strategy in its role to provide oversight and governance. The EGSB needs to fulfil this role in a way that is both cognisant and supportive of the county-wide spatial and economic strategies led by Future Oxfordshire Partnership (FOP, the former Growth Board), OxLEP and others aware of Oxford’s county-wide, regional, national and international economic inter-relationships.

This will require reference to and alignment where relevant, with broader countywide strategies such as the Strategic Economic Plan (SEP), Local Industrial Strategy (LIS), Future Oxfordshire Partnership’s 2050 Vision, Local Plan 2040 and in the city with strategies such as City Centre Vision and Action Plan (2022-2028), Housing, homelessness and rough sleeping strategy (2021-2030), ZCOPs roadmap and action plan (to 2040) among others.

Oxford is important. It is a world class city of learning, knowledge, innovation and growth and focal point for investment. Oxford has despite this, significant ongoing issues with economic and social inequality exacerbated by educational attainment and health issues. Oxford’s Economic Strategy seeks to contribute to tackling this through its work on the inclusive economy and incubation of countywide initiatives such as the Oxfordshire Inclusive Economy Partnership (OIEP) and a range of city based inclusive economy initiatives such as Oxford Living Wage (OLW), Community Wealth building (Owned by Oxford), Community Employment Support Plans (CEPs) and our Meanwhile (Meanwhile in Oxfordshire) and workspace (George st and Cave st) projects for example.

Oxford has some very real limits to growth to be mitigated in areas such as such as housing and housing affordability, commercial space, transport and connectivity and issues related to tight housing and labour markets and supply deficits hamper our enviable growth potential, worsening inequalities and dampening output. Oxford’s economic development needs as met by the delivery of Oxford’s Economic Strategy and overseen by EGSB should also take into consideration the views and needs of both the city’s residents and the regional population.

2. Vision and Objectives

2.1. Vision

Collaborate to enable Oxford to fulfil its role as a world leading city that supports sustainable and inclusive, innovation led economic growth region-wide; aligning with and complementing the strengths of the city-region.

2.2. Objectives:

The EGSB will work to the following Objectives:

• Provide oversight, governance and delivery support to Oxford’s Economic Strategy over its 10 year timeframe, 2022-2032 including additional oversight and accountability to Oxford City Council’s support to a range of Community Employment Plans (CEPs) across the city.
• Continue working as a multi-sector partnership to engage with and provide a more consistent voice for the Oxford business community.
• Reference and align to, where relevant, wider city and county strategies relevant to the objectives of the EGSB and Oxford’s Economic Strategy as well as national strategy and policy.
• Identify areas of both concern and new opportunity, and act in partnership to enable positive change, attracting the appropriate support and resources to do so.
• To engage widely with business/employers in Oxford and voice their needs, ensuring that these are understood by OxLEP, educational institutions, local authorities and national government alike.

3. Ways of working

The EGSB will continue to adopt the following Ways of working:

3.1. Governance approach-To oversee, support and provide accountability for the delivery of Oxford’s Economic Strategy. Providing decisive action on key issues and opportunities with wider EGSB members

3.2. Monitoring approach-To monitor the quarterly progress reporting of Oxford’s Economic Strategy and annual review of baseline indicators relating to the city’s economy and trends

3.3. Engaging and consulting approach-To represent and engage with representative employer’s needs and align connected strategies

3.4. Voicing approach- To advocate where required for the city’s economic interests regionally and nationally

3.5. Reporting approach- To communicate effectively to representatives of the City’s economy, in reporting and updates and to both to the OSP and FOP as strategic city and county forums.

Note: It is envisaged the key governance and organisation arrangements will remain agreed until 2032 and then revised and reviewed in light of a revised Oxford Economic Strategy. The Strategy itself reviewed quarterly for progress by exception and the city’s economic baseline reviewed annually.

4. Membership

The membership’s engagement levels and willingness to contribute have been a consistent strength and asset of the EGSB.

Striking a balance between private, academic and public sector representation remains key as will the need to align with wider interests that have a stake in the vision and strategy going forward, including those that may offer an alternative view.

The membership of the EGSB will align closely with the priorities of the Oxford Economic Strategy and city partners and stakeholders and will continue to provide a sounding board for Oxford in the regional context and ensure representative, active and engaged membership that offers leadership on issues. The membership must remain knowledgeable, networked and pro-actively involved.

The approach is to build upon the strong membership in place to ensure improved coverage across key sectors and priority areas of Oxfords Economic Strategy, whilst ensuring pro-active, valuable contribution.

A private sector chair is considered by the EGSB membership to be pivotal to this process as is a chair that represents the EGSB on OSP, OxLEP, FOP and other strategic partnerships.

5. Governance

Chair:

The Chair and Vice Chair will be the Oxford City Council representative on LEP and the Oxford Business Representative on the LEP. The Chair and/or Vice Chair will lead on reporting to the Oxford Strategic Partnership Steering Board up to twice a year.

Executive Support:

Executive support will be provided by Oxford City Council’s Economic Development Team. This will include the following tasks:

• Convening meetings
• Providing briefing papers as required
• Co-ordinating and reporting on progress against the Economic Strategy and Delivery Plan and CEPs
• Support and brief members of the Steering Board as required
• Providing an overview report to the OSP Steering Group and minutes/actions of each meeting shared with OSP for publication on their website
• Ensure links to wider OSP work and priorities

Meeting dates:

Quarterly – March, June, September and December each year.
Meetings will be no longer than two hours in duration

Attendance:

An appropriate substitute may be sent if a Steering Board member is unable to attend. Other attendees will be invited to attend as appropriate based on the agenda and key focus of discussions.

Governance and Structure:

The EGSB sits under the Oxford Strategic Partnership Steering Group and will act as the co-ordinating group for the Oxford’s economic voice ensuring that businesses messages, views and priorities from the city are fed into the LEP, local authorities and central government and any other appropriate policy or funding bodies.

The Oxford Strategic Partnership has adopted a set of principles - based on the Nolan principles for public life - to guide its actions, and promote public confidence in its actions - www.oxfordpartnership.org.uk/guiding_principles.asp. The Steering Board will work to those principles

Any declarations of interest will be declared at the start of the meeting, if required.

Meetings are held in public but are not public meetings and invitations to participate are exclusively for the EGSB membership.

6. Further information

For further information about the EGSB, its membership or activities please contact Oxford City Council’s economic development team at: economicdevelopment@oxford.gov.uk

Terms of Reference - Revised April 2023, adopted June 2023, to be reviewed annually, next due June 2025.