THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT GRANTS POLICY REVIEW · Report

PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE MEETING                                          8 AUGUST 2023


C. Authorise the Chief Executive Officer to conduct future rounds of the Economic Development
Grant Program in accordance with the amended Policy.



REPORT
The purpose of this report is to seek approval of Council to amend the Economic Development Grant
Policy.

The Economic Development Grants Program aims to support the delivery of the Noosa Shire
Economic Development Strategy 2021-2030 and enable collaboration and strategic partnerships
between Council, business representative groups and the business community.

It aims to support stakeholders to deliver outcome driven, tactical and strategic projects that will
positively impact the local business environment, business community and economy and is
consistent with the Small Business Friendly Charter, signed by Noosa Council in April 2023.

The last Economic Development Grants Policy was endorsed in 2017 (refer to Attachment 3).

Background

The Economic Development Grants Program (the Program) was established and adopted by Council
in 2017 as part of its Local Economic Plan (a pre cursor to the Smart Biosphere Economic
Development Strategy).

Since its inception, applications to the program have been low, with a mixed quality of submissions
that have been unable to deliver the strategic outcomes or intent of the Program. In late 2022, an
independent review of the program was commissioned by the Economic Development branch to
better understand and address the low engagement in the program.

The review has been driven by two factors:

   •   The Program’s inability to fully expend budget each year since its 2018 inception;
   •   A lack of strategically focused applications that aligned with Council’s Smart Biosphere
       Economic Development Strategy .
A final report was presented to the Economic Development Branch in December 2022 (Attachment
2) and has informed the revision of the Policy and the Economic Development Grant Guidelines.

Economic Development Grant Program

Currently, the Economic Development Grants Program has three categories of Grants:

   •   Quick Response Grants - provides up to $2,000 to support small one-off projects;
   •   Project Partnership Grants - These grants support innovative one-off projects;
   •   Multi-Year Partnership Grants - These grants assist stakeholders to deliver longer term
       programs agreed by Council that extend beyond 12 months. Funding agreements will
       consider funding both on going operational costs and project specific costs.
The current Grants Program operates on a rolling basis and remains open until the end of the
financial year, or until all of the allocated funding has been expended. Applicants can be local
business organisations and for profit businesses where the project is not run for the direct
commercial profit of business.