New Anglia Board Meeting Minutes (Confirmed)
18th April 2018
Present:
Cllr David Ellesmere (DE)
Ipswich Borough Council
Doug Field (DF)
East of England Coop
Cliff Jordan (CJ)
Norfolk County Council
Dominic Keen (DK)
High Growth Robotics
Colin Noble (CN)
Suffolk County Council
Johnathan Reynolds (JR)
Nautilus
David Richardson (DR)
UEA
Lindsey Rix (LR)
Aviva
Nikos Savvas (NS)
West Suffolk College
Jeanette Wheeler (JW)
Birketts
Tim Whitley (TW)
BT
In Attendance:
Sue Roper (SuR)
Suffolk County Council
Shan Lloyd (SL)
BEIS
Mike Stonard (MS)
Norwich City Council (For Alan Waters)
Tom Fitzpatrick (TF)
North Norfolk District Council (For Andrew Proctor)
Linn Clabburn
New Anglia LEP For Item 6
Chris Dashper (CD)
New Anglia LEP
Iain Dunnett (ID)
New Anglia LEP For Item 5
Chris Starkie (CS)
New Anglia LEP
Keith Spanton (KS)
New Anglia LEP
Helen Wilton (HW)
New Anglia LEP
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Actions from the meeting: (18.04.18)
Chief Executive’s Report
To receive regional branding examples from Hayley Mace
HM
1
Welcome from the Chair
Doug Field (DF) welcomed everyone to the meeting and including Mike Stonard deputising for Alan
Waters and Tom Fitzpatrick deputising for Andrew Proctor.
2
Apologies
Apologies were received from: Andrew Proctor, Steve Oliver, Alan Waters, John Griffiths and Sandy
Ruddock.
3
Declarations of Interest
Declarations relevant to this meeting: Jeanette Wheeler - Item 8.
Chris Starkie (CS) reminded those deputising that a Declaration of Interest form needed to be completed
and returned to Charley Purves.
4
Minutes of the last meeting 21st February 2018
The minutes were accepted as a true record of the meeting held on 21st March 2018.
Actions from last meeting updated as follows:
Flood Defence Schemes
CD
Chris Dashper to produce a brief paper on LEP funding of flood defences to be circulated to
Board Members - Included in the Chief Executive’s Report
Institute of Technology
HM
Board members to be provided with details of the top 3 key messages from the LEP on a
monthly basis - An IoT brochure is being completed and will be circulated to Board members
when available.
5
Tri-LEP Local Energy East Strategy
Iain Dunnett (ID) provided the Board with a presentation on the work of the Local Energy East
Strategy.
Board members were advised that BEIS funding had become available nationally in March 2017
to establish Local Energy Networks and Strategies and that funding had been secured to cover
the tri-LEP area consisting of New Anglia, Greater Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and
Hertfordshire. This secured resources to produce a Local Energy Strategy supported by a
baseline of information including Energy Mapping, Analysis, Modelling, and the development of
a Web Portal.
The Strategy has identified four key priorities - Clean Economic Growth, Housing Growth and
Commercial Site Infrastructure, Secure, Affordable Low Carbon Consumption and Clean
Transport Networks including Electric Vehicles.
Work to date has included the mapping of energy assets across the counties which will assist
in producing a model to allow the faster planning and delivery of projects such as Snetterton
Heath.
ID noted that private sector involvement was limited and the hope was that joining investment
opportunities together would encourage more investment.
The Energy Strategy will be presented to the Board in May, which will be followed by the
release of a dedicated technical resource funded by BEIS for 2 years.
Mike Stonard (MS) asked whether the project would be funded after the initial 2 years. ID
advised that BEIS had proposed that the programme will be self-sufficient after 2 years but that
this issue needed to be considered and included in the plan.
2
Johnathan Reynolds (JR) noted that there was other tri-LEP work ongoing across other regions
which needed to be brought together and that this geographical grouping was based on the
power networks rather than LEP areas.
DF asked whether there was any impact from the winding up of GCGP. CS advised that this
had not caused any issues and that the Energy Strategy was on the forward plan for the new
Business Board for the Combined Authority.
The Board agreed:
To note the content of the presentation
6
Cambridge-Norwich Tech Corridor Presentation
Linn Clabburn (LC) provided the Board with an update on the progress on the Cambridge -
Norwich Tech Corridor.
The partnership was set up with the relevant LEPs and Local Authorities to investigate how
best to exploit the opportunities in the corridor which has been identified as a priority place in
the Economic Strategy. Studies have suggested that the area has the potential to deliver an
additional 26,000 jobs and add a further £2.75bn to the economy.
LC reviewed the vision for the Corridor and identified the tangible ambitions for the programme
noting that cross-cluster development was viewed as key to the development.
A private sector lead delivery group is being set up and LC asked Board Members for
suggestions on suitable business leaders to join the group.
Jeanette Wheeler (JW) asked how the CNTC can compete with the Cambridge - Oxford
corridor. LC confirmed that Cambridge were fully engaged in the initiative and proposed that
the CNTC could focus on presenting its own identity such as specialising in clean efficient
growth to compliment other corridors rather than competing with them.
LC noted that businesses were being involved in the process and were advising of their labour
requirements so that the project looked at a wide approach providing jobs across the full supply
chain rather than just highly skilled jobs.
Colin Noble (CN) advised that an A14 corridor had just been launched focussing on developing
exports and exploiting the opportunities to allow companies to increase exports. There is
scope for the corridors to work together to complement each other in their offering.
David Richardson (DR) advised that he had recently met with the new vice-chancellor of
Cambridge and looked that the USPs of Norwich, the UEA and Norwich Research Park as an
attractive terminus at the end of the corridor but stressed that it still required additional
investment.
Nikos Savvas (NS) and Tim Whitley (TW) noted the importance of the Tech Triangle including
Ipswich and felt that the national significance of the area should be stressed to central
Government in order to establish the East of England as an economic powerhouse.
The Board agreed:
To note the content of the presentation
To suggest private sector representatives to sit on the delivery group (to be submitted to
Helen Wilton)
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LEP Capital Budget 2018/ 19 - Confidential
CS presented the LEP 2018/19 capital budget to the Board and provided further details of
larger ongoing projects.
The Board was advised that some projects had slipped and although work was looking at
bringing forward spend where possible this had always proved challenging historically.
CS reviewed the main points of the budget relating to the Growth Deals Programme, Growing
Business Fund, New Anglia Capital and Agritech.
CS requested the allocation of £1m of the Growing Places Fund budget to New Anglia Capital
to allow for further investments to be made.
3
CS advised the meeting that £1m had previously been allocated to Eastern Agritech and
requested that this allocation continue while discussions are ongoing with the Combined
Authority on the future of the programme and the production of a business plan.
JW queried why this was still being progressed with the Combined Authority and not
independently. CS advised that the programme could be continued alone but this was
originally set up as a joint bid out of the Regional Growth Fund. The panel also contains
technical expertise which would be lost if the work was not combined
TW asked who would approved the business plan - the IAC or the LEP Board. CS
recommended that the Board should approve the plan.
DR felt that the New Anglia LEP had not received sufficient credit for the Agritech programme
to date and that this new start provided the opportunity for New Anglia to take the lead.
This should be a pre-requisite of the business plan.
DF asked when the plan would be completed. CS confirmed that it was currently scheduled for
agreement at the June Board meeting.
The Board agreed:
To note the content of the budget
To approve the 2018/19 capital budget
To approve the allocation of £1m from the GPF fund budget to New Anglia Capital.
To approve the allocation of £1m to Agritech subject to the production and approval of a
business plan
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Review of Professional Advisers
JW left the room.
CS reviewed the paper included in the meeting pack and reviewed the proposal to develop a
multi-supplier procurement framework.
DF asked who will be managing the process. CS confirmed that Rosanne Wijnberg will join on
1st May as COO and will be managing the process.
The meeting was advised that Lovell Blake will be used for the current audit but it is proposed
to carry out a re-tendering process for the following one.
David Ellesmere (DE) asked whether there would be various framework for the different areas
of work or a single one. CS advised that there would be multiple lists of advisors but it was
envisaged only to have one framework. Sue Roper (SuR) offered to provide assistance.
The Board agreed:
To approve the development of a supplier procurement framework
To carry out a retendering process for the audit
JW returned to the room.
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Decision Log
CS highlighted the key points of the proposal to record the decisions of the various boards.
JR asked if there would be both confidential & non-confidential versions. CS agreed that the
confidential log would be added to Board papers and the non-confidential version would be
published on the web site.
It was agreed that this would start at the beginning of the 18/19 financial year at the start of
April 2018.
The Board agreed:
To approve adoption of the decisions log
10
Growth Deal Quarterly Dashboard
Chris Dashper (CD) presented the Growth Deal update report paper noting that only projects
with an Amber status were now included. The Board were advised that there are no issues with
the delivery of the projects however some were delayed.
4
CD reviewed the data contained in the Quarterly Dashboard which is submitted to Government
noting that this contained data from Q3 2017 and that some outputs were out of date as data
takes time to feed through to the dashboard.
CS noted that the data in the dashboard will always be a quarter behind and will be older that
the data supplied to Board members on a regular basis.
TW asked whether the outputs were on track to meet targets. CD advised that the outputs
were behind in some areas due to a mixture of delays in spend and delays in capturing the
outputs from projects where the funds have already been spent.
The Board agreed:
To agree the Quarterly Dashboard.
11
Chief Executive’s report including PwC Implementation Plan
CS reviewed the Chief Executive’s report and thanked CN for his involvement in the deep dive
in which the LEP had performed very well.
The Board were updated on the key points of the report.
ERDF bid - CS & DF met with MHCLG to discuss the bid and take action to address the delay.
Further information has been provided and the ESIF Committee will discuss the extension at a
meeting in the 3rd week in April.
JR queried the long term exit strategy. CS advised that the new UK Shared Prosperity will be
the initial source for requesting funding but other sources will be investigated. Shan Lloyd (SL)
advised that more information on the fund will be issued before the summer recess and that the
industrial strategy was a key part of this identifying how funding should be prioritised.
GEML - Pritti Patel has asked for the evidence based to be refreshed and work is ongoing to
produce a business case for infrastructure improvements.
East Branding workshop - JW updated the meeting on the workshop and the Board
discussed the importance of this work to the promotion of Norfolk and Suffolk. JW offered to
ask Hayley Mace to send details of examples of branding from other regions.
COO Recruitment - Rosanne Wijnberg will be starting on 1st May. CS advised Board
members of the broad scope of the division of responsibilities.
Structure Chart - revised structure chart was issued to Board members.
HR - CS updated the Board on the work Charley Purves has been carrying out on workplace
wellbeing.
David Ellesmere (DE) asked about the progress of the delivery of the Tier 2 of the Governance
review. CS advised that the LEP Executive would be progressing this as a priority but it had
been delayed slightly by the deep dive.
The Board agreed:
To note the content of the report
To receive regional branding examples from Hayley Mace
HM
12
Finance Report
Keith Spanton (KS) reviewed the key points of the paper and asked for questions from the
Board.
The Board agreed:
To note the content of the report
13
Board Forward Plan
CS reviewed the items to be covered at the May Board.
The Board agreed:
To note the content of the report
14
Any Other Business
DF advised the board of recent events promoting businesses in the region.
JW noted that the MAC Interim report needed to be included in the Brexit analysis and planning.
5
Next meeting:
Date and time of next meeting:
10.00am - 12.00pm, 23rd May 2018
Venue: Co-op Education Centre, 11 Fore St, Ipswich IP4 1JW
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