New Anglia Board Meeting Minutes (Confirmed)
17th January 2018
Present:
Cllr David Ellesmere (DE)
Ipswich Borough Council
Doug Field (DF)
East of England Coop
Cllr John Griffiths (JG)
St Edmundsbury Borough Council
Cllr Cliff Jordan (CJ)
Norfolk County Council
Dominic Keen (DK)
High Growth Robotics
Steve Oliver (SO)
MLM Group
Cllr Andrew Proctor (AP)
Broadland District Council
Prof David Richardson (DR)
UEA
Lindsey Rix (LR)
Aviva
Sandy Ruddock (SR)
Scarlett & Mustard
Dr Nikos Savvas (NS)
West Suffolk College
Cllr Alan Waters
Norwich City Council
Jeanette Wheeler (JW)
Birketts
Tim Whitley (TW)
BT
In Attendance:
Cllr Richard Smith (RS)
Suffolk County Council (For Colin Noble)
Shan Lloyd (SL)
BEIS
Chris Dashper (CD)
New Anglia LEP
Iain Dunnett (ID)
New Anglia LEP
Chris Starkie (CS)
New Anglia LEP
Helen Wilton (HW)
New Anglia LEP
Tracey Jessop (TJ)
Norfolk County Council
Sue Roper (SuR)
Suffolk County Council
Johnathan Reynolds (JR)
Orbis (For Item 4)
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Actions from the meeting: (17.01.18)
Capital Growth Programme Projects
Identify whether other LEPS have received requests for investment in flood defence schemes.
CD
Chief Executive’s Report
For CS to produce a paper on the impact of GCGP changes
CS
1
Welcome from the Chairman
Doug Field (DF) welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked Jonathan Reynolds and Orbis for
hosting the meeting. He welcomed Richard Smith who is deputising for Colin Noble.
2
Apologies
Apologies were received from:
Cllr Colin Noble
3
Declarations of Interest
The board were reminded that declarations of interest are required as part of LEP scrutiny and must be
submitted to the LEP office at the earliest convenience.
Declarations relevant to this meeting:
Item 7: Capital Growth Programme Projects
Projects for Approval
David Richardson and Steve Oliver
Projects for Deferral
Nikos Savvas, Richard Smith, Cliff Jordan, Sue Roper and Tracy Jessop
Projects for Rejection
David Richardson, Richard Smith, Cliff Jordan, Sue Roper and Tracy Jessop
Item 9: Integrated Health and Employment Service Proposal
Cliff Jordan & Tracy Jessop
Item 10:Growing Places Fund investment The Malthouse
David Ellesmere and Steve Oliver
Item 11: New Anglia Capital
Doug Field declared an interest in the New Anglia Capital investments in MBASO and Novofarina
Chris Starkie (CS) reminded Board members that the new Declaration of Interest form supplied by
Government needed to be completed and returned by the next Board meeting on 21st February as it must
be published on the LEP web site by 28th February in order for the LEP to remain compliant.
In the future any declarations made at the Board meetings will be transposed onto Board member’s forms
as well as recorded in the minutes. Any changes identified between Board meetings should be advised
to Charley Purves and forms will be updated accordingly.
Lindsey Rix (LR) asked about the process should a Board member participate in the investment approval
process and subsequently became involved in the contract. CS advised that the LEP should be notified
at the earliest opportunity either directly to the Office Manager or at the next Board Meeting and the
relevant Declaration of Interest form would be updated accordingly.
4
Welcome from Orbis Energy
Johnathan Reynolds welcomed Board members to Orbis Energy and provided an overview of
the organisation covering the range of work carried out, its achievements over the past 9 years
and provided examples of some of the programmes in which it has been involved. The
presentation included details of the importance of the UK and the East in the world renewable
energy market. Johnathan then left the meeting.
5
Minutes of the last meeting 22nd November 2018
Actions from last meeting updated as follows:
LEP Governance Review
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To express preferences over committee roles to LiR by 1st December - Complete - a table of
ALL
proposed committee members will be circulated prior to next Board.
Business Investment Proposal - Confidential
NK
To receive more detail on the skills spending within the proposal - details are available at the
meeting or on request.
May Ney Review Including Standards of Conduct
HM
To receive details of where the policies can be accessed - complete
Board Forward Plan
ALL
To provide feedback on the plan and propose any additional items - complete
Business Performance Reports
To receive a proposal on the Eastern Agi-Tech initiative by email - On hold due to the winding
CS
up of GCGP and awaiting clarification about their financial position.
6
Aims and Objectives for the Year
Chris Starkie (CS) provided a presentation on the strategic aims and objectives for the LEP for
2018.
Board members discussed the importance of promoting the East as a brand and Dominic Keen
(DK) felt that more could be done to champion local business success stories.
David Ellesmere (DE) asked how New Anglia compared to other high performing LEPs and
whether it was proactively looking to identify best practise elsewhere. CS confirmed that New
Anglia was actively involved in the LEP network and was also increasing its involvement in
ADEPT.
Sandy Ruddock (SR) noted that the region had many micro and start-up businesses who would
benefit from support from the LEP which needed to be promoted as the go-to organisation for
small businesses.
DF asked CS what he viewed as the 3 key aims to be achieved in the next 12 months. CS
stated that he wanted the Board to have confidence in the LEP’s internal processes, to
continue to promote local business successes and to have secured a local industrial strategy.
Steve Oliver (SO) asked that the LEP’s aims include social mobility and social inclusion.
The Board agreed:
To note the content of the presentation
7
Capital Growth Programme Projects
DF proposed breaking this item into the various bid groupings namely those which were
proposed to be approved, deferred or rejected. It was agreed that meeting attendees would
register their interest in each group individually.
Chris Dashper (CD) took the majority of the paper as read and reviewed the key points of the
proposal.
He explained that the projects had also been considered by the Investment Appraisal
Committee.
Approved Projects
David Richardson (DR) and SO declared an interest in this item and left the room
CD proposed that the Board approve the award of Growth Deal grant funding to the Bacton to
Walcott Coastal Management Scheme and to the Cefas Research Centre.
This was approved by the Board
DR & SO returned to the room.
Deferred Projects
Nikos Savvas (NS), Richard Smith (RS), Cliff Jordan (CJ), Sue Roper (SuR), Tracy Jessop (TJ)
declared an interest in this item and left the room.
CD advised that further work would be carried out on these projects and some would be
included in a later round of funding as appropriate.
LR noted that the Board should have a holistic view of future projects in order to properly
assess which were the best projects in which to invest the limited funds available so that
investments were not solely made in those projects presented first.
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The meeting discussed the issue of whether flood defences should be funded locally or
nationally. SR asked if other LEPs had received requests to fund similar projects.
CD asked for approval to defer the projects as listed. This was agreed by the meeting.
Rejected Projects
DR declared an interest in this item and left the room. NS returned to the room.
RS, CJ, SuR and TJ also declared an interest in this item and therefore remained outside the
room.
CD reviewed the list of rejected projects detailing the rationale behind the decisions.
SO asked whether any could be referred to New Anglia Capital. CD advised that Liquid 11
could possibly apply for New Anglia Capital but would be more suitable for Growing Business
Fund.
CD asked for approval to reject the projects as listed. This was agreed by the meeting.
DR, RS, CJ, SuR and TJ returned to the meeting.
The Board agreed:
To note the contents of the report
To approve the award of Growth Deal grant funding to the following projects in table 1:
Bacton to Walcott Coastal Management Scheme
Cefas Research Centre
To approve the recommended decision option for each of the projects in tables 1, 2 and
3. (Table 2: Recommended to defer and Table 3: Recommended to reject)
CD to identify whether other LEPS have received requests for investment in flood
CD
defence schemes.
8
New Anglia Voluntary Community Sector Programme Extension
Iain Dunnett (ID) took the majority of the paper as read and reviewed the key points of the
paper including the history of the fund and its achievements to date.
DE expressed his support highlighting the importance of multi-year grants for organisations in
order to assure future funding. He noted that this should be based on performance over a 1
year deal rather than the size of the organisation.
DE also queried how performance was rated proposing using the length of unemployment prior
to entering employment as one criteria.
ID advised that the criteria would be reviewed as part of the re-scoping of the fund.
The meetings agreed to the proposal.
NS and SO offered to sit on the Funds Appraisal Panel.
The Board agreed:
To note the content of the proposal
To agree the re-scoping of the criteria for the fund as described in the paper.
To agree that the LEP makes the further commitment of a £250,000 grant from the
Growing Places Fund for 2018/19 and to agree to review further commitments for two
years beyond 2018 at an appropriate stage.
To agree that NS and SO would sit on the Funds Appraisal Panel.
9
Integrated Health and Employment Service Proposal
CJ & TJ declared an interest in this item and left the room.
Iain Dunnett (ID) took the majority of the paper as read and reviewed the key points of the
paper.
RS expressed support for the project noting that there was a similar scheme in Suffolk and CD
confirmed that the LEP were already in discussion with them.
CS proposed that the funding be agreed subject to the funding being matched as detailed in
the proposal.
The meeting discussed the benefits of the project.
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The Board agreed:
To note the content of the proposal
To support the overall purpose of the proposal against the key LEP objectives of
employability and skills.
To provide matching finance at a rate of £120k per annum for three years to the project
to assist in leveraging over £2million of European Social Funds (ESF). This is
dependent on other matched funding being secured.
10
Growing Places Fund investment The Malthouse - Confidential
The Board agreed:
To note the content of the proposal.
To approve a recommendation made by the LEPs Investment Appraisal Committee that
an offer of a £600,000 loan is made to the current owner of the Ipswich Malthouse for its
redevelopment into bespoke business units.
11
New Anglia Capital
DF declared an interest in the New Anglia Capital investments MBASO and Novofarina and
took no further part in the discussion.
CD advised the meeting that this was the bi-annual report as requested by the Board and took
the majority of the paper as read and asked the Board for questions.
The Board reviewed the approach to risk with DE noting that some investments will naturally
fail but that the portfolio should be assessed as a whole.
CS noted that the jobs created by NAC were generally high value jobs with a lower cost per job
than that in the Growing Business Fund.
The Board agreed:
To note the content of the report.
12
Chief Executive’s report including PwC and Mary Ney Review Implementation Plan
CS took the majority of the paper as read and provided an update on the following items:
Mary Ney Review - CS noted that the Board is compliant with the Mary Ney recommendations
on the issuing and publication of papers and minutes however this process is still being rolled
out to the relevant sub-committees. This will be achieved by 28th February 2018.
Government Dashboard - The proposed dashboard was circulated to attendees. CS
requested approval for the dashboard and asked whether the Board wanted to see the report
on a regular basis. Board agreed to the Dashboard and confirmed that there was no
requirement to include it in Board papers. Improvements to Board reporting are being
progressed in line with the timeframes included in the PwC report.
Unilever - The meeting discussed the current situation. Jeanette Wheeler (JW) noted that the
recent press stories had provided a negative view of the state of investment in the region and
that more positive promotion was required. CS agreed noting that the LEP had to balance
sensitivity to job losses and the promotion of other investments.
COO Recruitment - short listing has begun with first interviews scheduled to take place before
the end of January.
CGCP - CS reviewed the issues raised by the changes to GCGP including the impact of
possible changes to the boarders of the LEPS. CS offered to produce a paper on the subject
Page 5 of 6
detailing known facts and potential impacts. JW requested details of the impact of changes on
LEP programmes and investments.
The Board agreed:
To note the content of the report
To endorse the Dashboard
CS
For CS to produce a paper on the impact of GCGP changes
13
Finance Report
CS took the majority of the papers as read and asked for questions from the Board.
The Board agreed:
To note the content of the report.
14
Appointment of New Director
Andrew Proctor (AP) & LR had met to interview two candidates and proposed Jonathan
Reynolds as the new board member.
The Board agreed:
To approve the appointment
16
Any Other Business
It was agreed that Item 16 would be completed prior to Item 15 given the latter’s confidential
nature.
Tim Whitley (TW) advised that Adastral Park is hosting the Innovate UK Conference on 27th
January to which Board Members were invited.
TJ updated the meeting on the position with Carillion advising that the Council had been in
discussion with Highways England and received confirmation that contingency plans were in
place and no projects in the East would be impacted by the collapse.
NS advised that on 16th April East of England Education providers would be hosting a
promotional event and requested promotion from the LEP.
15
Remuneration Committee
Non Board Members left the meeting.
The confidential minutes of the Remuneration committee were presented by DF. The minutes
contained a salary recommendation for the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and a salary banding
for the Chief Operating Officer (COO). There was also details of the performance management
process for the CEO.
The Board agreed:
To note the content of the minutes for the Remuneration Committee
To agree the recommendations made by the Remuneration Committee
Next meeting:
Date and time of next meeting: 21st February, 2018. 10am-12.30pm
Venue: The Marble Hall, Surry Street, Norwich, NR1 3NG
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