As part of the recovery plan for the Isle of Wight in wake of Covid-19, the council has released its ‘A Better Island’ strategy — including facing housing challenges and providing improvement schemes for businesses and residents.
It comes as the local authority tries to overcome a deficit of £10.7 million, in the wake of the pandemic, as previously reported.
The first draft edition of ‘A Better Island’ plan, subject to amendments and consultation from key partners, set out actions the Isle of Wight Council and its partners will take to ‘secure a successful recovery’ from the pandemic, should there be no further major outbreaks.
Some of the proposals include a new Island Card gift card scheme to encourage local shopping, while also creating co-working space for digital companies, the Wight Innovation Hub, alongside the plans for the Branstone Farm rural business hub.
To help the Island’s economy recover, it is proposed to develop skills suitable for the job market, supporting residents into appropriate employment pathways and helping businesses to thrive.
Place recovery focuses on housing challenges, and the supply of workspace as well as improving public areas in towns across the Island to make them accessible for all.
A ‘Covid-proofed’ Island Plan will be revised and published for consultation in 2021.
The council is also hoping to provide 300 affordable housing units, at 60 per cent of the market price with other regeneration schemes at Venture Quays and Newport Harbour also able to provide housing.
As part of the community recovery, effective outbreak control arrangements, such as the test and trace system, sustainable community response and recovery arrangements are key points.
A reconfigured homelessness provision, pencilled in for December 2020, with an assessment hub is part of the action plan, as well as preparation for winter pressures.
The ‘Better Island’ plan focuses on building the Island back better, up to March 2022 – the end of the medium-term – with actions that will be key to recovery, how they will be resourced and how progress will be measured.
In the plan, it said:
“Terms such as returning to ‘business as usual’ or adopting ‘a new normal’, while understandable, are not helpful when considering the Covid-19 pandemic.
“All the plans [the council] had to improve our Island, tackle our challenges and make lives better now need to be sense checked, in some cases these will have gained an increased significance and any original actions may need to be enhanced or accelerated, in other cases the impact of the pandemic may require a significant rethink before resetting the course to take.”
However, the Isle of Wight council has said funding the recovery actions will be challenging as funding from central government to mitigate the worst effects of the pandemic has not been sufficient to cover the shortfall anticipated when addressing the pressures.
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