West of England Regional Recovery Taskforce

The Taskforce is working on:

• Putting together a recovery plan, including measures to help businesses adapt to the new economic landscape and improve resilience, as well as support for residents to develop new skills, training and employment opportunities.
• Looking at the impact of the government’s economic measures on businesses and communities, identifying where additional support is needed.
• Feeding back to government, lobbying to ensure the West of England has what it needs for economic recovery; advising and supporting a managed exit from lockdown arrangements, identifying the next stages of financial support needed.
• Making sure the West of England has the right public transport, physical and digital infrastructure. WECA is already working with bus and rail companies to ensure key workers can get to work. This work with public transport partners will continue, to ensure they continue to operate as we move into recovery.

A meeting of the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) Committee in June agreed £5m to kick-start the early work of the taskforce. The taskforce will provide the evidence base for this work, which will focus on clean, inclusive and digitally-connected projects.

This will be in addition to WECA’s ongoing support for business and skills, which includes sector-specific business support, skills and employment initiatives and work with councils to support businesses at a local level.

You can find out more about all this work here. 

The Taskforce currently meets every month to put the plan into action. Our past and upcoming taskforce meetings are listed below. You can view the minutes of each meeting by clicking on the meeting number. 

Past and future Taskforce meetings