Agenda and minutes

Items
No. Item

35.

Welcome and Apologies

Minutes:

The Chairperson welcomed the following officers to the meeting: 

 

Kellie Beirne - Director of the CCR City Deal.

Nicola Somerville - Head of Business Development & Inclusive Growth

Gareth Browning - CCR Challenge Fund Manager

 

Apologies

Cllr James Clarke – Newport City Council

Cllr Richard Roden – Monmouthshire County Council

36.

Declarations of Interest

To receive disclosures of personal interest from Members in accordance with the Code of Conduct Note:

 1. Members are requested to identify the item number and subject matter that their interest relates to and signify the nature of the personal interest: and

2. Where Members withdraw from a meeting as a consequence of the disclosure of a prejudicial interest they must notify the Chairman when they leave.

Minutes:

None

37.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 321 KB

To receive the minutes of the 4.1.2021 as an accurate record of the meeting

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

 

To approve the minutes of the Cardiff Capital Region City Deal Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on the 4 November 2021 subject to the amendment of Councillor Crick’s name.

38.

Verbal Update: Establishment of Corporate Joint Committee pdf icon PDF 415 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The CCRCD Director reminded Members that a report had been submitted to Regional Cabinet on the 20 September 2021 which set out the lift and shift proposed delivery model to deliver the CJC. That report flagged up some risks and issues, namely around the regulations and VAT and corporation tax needed to be added in. There were also some issues around financial status. It was thought at the time that working with Welsh Government (WG) would help to resolve those issues ahead of the go-live date, which is when the CJC had to set its first statutory budget.

 

The CCRCD Director therefore provided an update to the report of the 20 September 2020, which set out an alternative approach. She confirmed that the Cardiff Capital Region City Deal would continue to run, through the accountable body contractor model with Cardiff Council and the Regional Cabinet and on the other side the same 10 Members with the Brecon Beacons National Park forming the new statutory corporate joint committee. The CJC in the first instance would be on a bare minimum basis e.g., set up the CJC, do all the basic statutory undertakings but won't enact its budget in full or enact its business plan in full until such time those major issues can be resolved through the regulations. WG had undertaken some consultation to push back the date of those immediate commencement duties around the regional transport plan and the SDP to the 30 June 2022.

 

Members would receive a report, either through their Cabinet or Councils, to set out what it meant because the duty to set up the CJC didn't fall on the Cardiff Capital Region it fell on the 10 local authorities who make up and comprise the CJC, so it was right and proper that all got an individual report coming through their frameworks internally. In the meantime, an ordinary regional Cabinet meeting would be held on the 31 January with a standard agenda e.g., investment proposals, the annual business plan, quarterly updates on performance and budgets. Straight after that meeting an inaugural meeting of the CJC will be held, with the agenda for that meeting a very basic one e.g., appointing a Chair and Vice Chairs, making sure all the relevant insurances and indemnities are in place, setting out the new standing orders, which will cover schemes of delegation, the policy environment, setting up the Audit & Risk committee, setting up a Standards committee etc. It will then be straight into the annual business plan and the budget, which would be the bare minimum to avoid any detriment and then Audit Wales will come in and set their audit fee.

 

This was procedural, it was not going to be value adding at this stage but trying to prepare for the point that it would be value adding to be able to have a greater range, greater influence and be able to act directly and tackle some of the issues that the current CCRCD model didn't afford the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38.

39.

Supporting Enterprise and Business Growth pdf icon PDF 553 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Head of Business Development & Inclusive Growth provided Members with an overview of the activity to support enterprise and business growth specifically through the lens of the City Deal and the foundational economy; Well-being of Future Generations; placed based strategies; economic Inclusion; Anti-poverty; Valleys Regional Park; Valleys Task force; Mutual / Co-ops and Shared prosperity.

The Head of Business Development & Inclusive Growth noted there was a number of big projects being delivered with one of the main principles and drivers for City Deal activity being around inclusive growth. Two of the main projects identified, that focused on various parts of the region, were the valley's task force and the valley’s regional park. She explained that one of the main evidence base used to help target some of the activity and intervention, was the UK competitive index, which strengthened the argument for locality based plans and enabled more of a focused approach and to be more targeted in the activities being delivered.  This has a strong influence on the investment prospectus which pulls out some of those key activities in terms of housing viability funds, transport activity, looking at making sure every locality has an element of investment and help's that local authority to become more competitive. In respect of place based activity there had been investment in Zip World, a really important investment focusing in the heads of the valley, encouraging additional supply chain opportunities and business growth, providing additional opportunities for foundational economy, workplaces and lots of activity around skills and development.

 

The Head of Business Development & Inclusive Growth explained that as it stood, City Deal wasn't in a position to be able to apply into shared prosperity funds because of the way it was set up from UK government, although the bid was supported. As and when the shared prosperity fund became available on a regional footprint, it was hopeful that the CJC would have some potential influence into the distribution and the allocation of those funds. Further activities taking place across the region were some skills programmes, under what was badged as venture skills hub. There was a graduate offer, an apprenticeship offer, currently being explored, and venture specialists, through engagement with innovate UK, to provide some additional funding to support women in innovation and young people in innovation in SE Wales in addition to working alongside Cardiff University to develop a cyber masters.

 

In respect of the Well-being of Future Generations Act, the Head of Business Development & Inclusive Growth confirmed that full consideration was given to the impact on all reports that went through to Cabinet, and a full assessment was undertaken to make sure projects were sustainable and looking at the long term. She noted that

Regional Cabinet had allocated £10m to the challenge fund pot which, was aimed around building local wealth and bringing innovative solutions to tackle some of the societal problems across the region, working alongside the 10 local authorities to identify those challenges and potentially how go out to the market  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39.

40.

Information Reports

Minutes:

No questions were raised by Members in relation to the Information reports.

 

It was agreed at the next meeting Members would consider reports on the Graduate scheme and Apprenticeships.

41.

Urgent Items

Minutes:

None