New Anglia Board Meeting Minutes (Confirmed)

21^st November 2018

Present:

David Ellesmere (DE)

Ipswich Borough Council

Doug Field (DF)

East of England Coop

Matthew Hicks (MH)

Suffolk County Council

Dominic Keen (DK)

High Growth Robotics

William Nunn (WN)

Breckland District Council

Steve Oliver (SO)

MLM Group

Andrew Proctor (AP)

Norfolk County Council

Johnathan Reynolds (JR)

Nautilus

Lindsey Rix (LR)

Aviva

Sandy Ruddock (SR)

Scarlett & Mustard

Nikos Savvas (NS)

West Suffolk College

Tim Whitley (TW)

Jeanette Wheeler (JW)

Birketts

Attendees

Gail Harris

Norwich City Council (For Alan Waters)

Vince Muspratt (VM)

Norfolk County Council

Sue Roper (SuR)

Suffolk County Council

Chris Dashper (CD)

New Anglia LEP (For Items 8)

Ellen Goodwin (EG)

New Anglia LEP (For Item 5)

Chris Starkie (CS)

New Anglia LEP

Rosanne Wijnberg (RW)

New Anglia LEP

Helen Wilton (HW)

New Anglia LEP

Actions from the meeting: (21.11.18)

Infrastructure

For the LEP team to ensure that links are progressed with other sub-national transport bodies

Performance Reports

To receive clarification on the Dashboard outputs and RAG status

Finance Report

To receive further detail on the receipt of loan repayments and interest receipts

AOB

A summary of achievements to be circulated to Board members to assist with promotion of

educational achievements

Welcome from the Chair

Doug Field (DF) welcomed everyone to the meeting including Gail Harris who was deputising for

Alan Waters.

Apologies

Apologies were received from Alan Waters, David Richardson and John Griffiths.

Declarations of Interest

Full declarations of interest can be found at http://www.newanglia.co.uk/about-us/the-board/ .

None

Minutes of the last meeting 18^th October 2018

The minutes were accepted as a true record of the meeting held on 18^th October 2018.

Infrastructure

Ellen Goodwin (EG), Infrastructure Manager for the LEP, provided the meeting with an

update on the infrastructure strategy and ongoing delivery highlighting the fact that

infrastructure improvements are critical to achieving the ambitions of the Norfolk and Suffolk

Economic Strategy.

The meeting discussed the importance of linking with and influencing the work of other key

sub-national transport bodies such as England’s Economic Heartland given that their

priorities will not always be the same.

Matthew Hicks (MH) advised that Norfolk, Suffolk & Essex had been invited to join

England’s Economic Heartland and had chosen to have observer status at this stage with 2

places on the body with the option to join in full at a later date.

Jeanette Wheeler (JW) noted the importance of infrastructure to businesses when

considering relocation to the area and proposed highlighting the main infrastructure projects

on the web site.

Steve Oliver (SO) asked for an update on the major bridge building projects in Suffolk.

MH advised that the Lowestoft bridge was proceeding as planned however the Orwell

Crossings currently faced a £43m shortfall which the Council is unable to fill. Discussions

are ongoing with Government to address this with a decision to be taken by the end of

December.

SO noted that, if the project did not continue, then a clear communications strategy would

be required given the LEP’s £2m investment.

Tim Whitley (TW) asked if links had been set up to connect Felixstowe port with other

national areas such as the Northern Powerhouse who rely on the ports for receiving goods

from Europe.

EG advised that New Anglia LEP had convened a LEP Network Ports & Logistic Group to

look at wider ports issues collectively.

Johnathan Reynolds (JR) noted the national significance of the energy infrastructure in the

region and the importance of emphasising this.

David Ellesmere (DE) suggested producing high level details of the LEP’s delivery

objectives.

The Board agreed:

• To note the content of the presentation

• To receive a regular high-level summary of projects by theme including next steps and

objectives.

• For the LEP team to ensure that links are progressed with other sub-national transport

bodies

Tier 2 Review

Chris Starkie (CS) reviewed the work carried out to date as part of the Tier 2 Review and the

proposals relating to the advisory boards covering transport, skills, innovation, inward

investment and sectors.

The recommendations are detailed as follows:

Skills Board - For the LEP Board to endorse the continuation of the LEP Skills Board in its

current form and its terms of reference to be amended to bring it into line with the main

Board.

Local Transport Body and Local Transport Board - To amalgamate the Local Transport

Body and Board into a single forum, the Transport Implementation Group, which will focus

on implementing the Norfolk and Suffolk Integrated Transport Strategy.

Further work will be carried out to determine the required composition, membership and

name of this group and produce appropriate Terms of Reference, ensuring it aligns with

other bodies in the second tier Governance review.

New Anglia LEP Innovation Board - For the LEP Board to endorse the continuation of the

Innovation Board in its current form and for a review into its Terms of Reference,

membership and outputs to be carried out.

International and Inward Investment Sub-Group - For a review of the aims, objectives

and terms of reference of the International and Inward Investment Sub-group to be carried

out.

Sector Groups - Given the range of approaches across the sector boards it is

recommended to standardise the approach and develop common TOR for a group which

focusses on the leadership and promotion of the sector and improves accountability to the

LEP Board.

Where the group is part of a membership organisation, this will mean creating a separate

sector group to focus on the leadership and coordination of the sector.

MH asked for reporting back from the other Boards to be built into the Board Forward plan

providing regular reporting to the LEP Board.

The meeting discussed the complexities of the various sub-groups and the issues faced in

ensuring that they were aligned.

The Board agreed:

• To note the contents of the paper.

• To accept the recommendations as detailed above.

• To receive a future paper from both the Innovation Board and the International and

Inward Investment Sub-Group following the review their own TORs

• To require LEP sector groups to develop common Terms of Reference focusing on

the leadership and promotion of the sector

• That sector groups need their own governance distinct from membership bodies

• To receive regular reports from all Sector groups

LEP Board Governance

CS presented the paper proposing the process for the appointment of the deputy chair in

order to comply with the LEP Review requirements.

CS confirmed that Government had confirmed that the deputy chair must be from the private

sector which now included Board members from the Education sector although anyone

deputising for these Board members would not be able to act deputy chair.

The Board agreed:

• To note the contents of the paper

• To adopt the process for the appointment of the deputy chair

Enterprise Zone Accelerator Project - Confidential

Brexit

CS reviewed the paper detailing the ongoing work on Brexit which is currently focussing on

delivering intelligence to businesses.

CS noted that Brexit is not currently being raised to the Growth Hub as a key issue therefore

SMEs will be contacted proactively to ascertain their concerns.

JW advised that there was a lot of anecdotal evidence which needed to be captured as part

of the questionnaire.

It was clarified that the LEP was signposting to information collated by a wide variety of

organisations and was not providing advice to businesses as this is a specialist field.

The Board agreed:

• To note the content of the report

Chief Executive’s Report

CS presented his report to the Board and asked for questions.

CS confirmed that the Annual LEP Performance Review was taking place in January and

preparatory work was ongoing. Declarations of Interest had been issued for review and CS

asked Board Members to return them as soon as possible in order for them to be updated

on the web site.

Board members were advised that the National Assurance Framework had been received

and the LEP team are working to ensure everything is in place by the end of March.

Engagement with individual businesses - confidential

The Board agreed:

• To note the content of the report

November Programme Performance Reports

RW presented the report included in the meeting pack and advised that Johnathan Rudd

had been appointed as the Growth Deal Manager.

The Board was advised that to date 30 enquiries have been received for the latest capital

projects call which would usually result in approximately 15 applications. Appraisals will

take place following the closure of the call in January.

LR asked whether the rating of green on the Government dashboard was correct given the

outputs achieved to date. RW advised that the outputs would be realised in stages and not

in a smooth delivery therefore the status reflected the expectation of future deliveries.

The meeting discusses this further and agreed that the figures did not appear to reflect the

RAG status allocated.

RW advised that the Economic Dashboards use proxy indicators and provided an overview

of the trends and outputs.

CS stated that the delay to achieving the Housing outputs would be resolved when the

Winerack was delivered.

CD noted that there was a difference in outputs between the LEP dashboard and the

Government one as the Government does not recognise indirect outputs.

DF suggested adding comments which would provide details of key projects which would

lead to the delivery of the targets and therefore reflect the Green rating.

The Board agreed:

• To note the content of the reports

• To receive clarification on the Dashboard outputs and RAG status. Once received

approve the submission of the Government Dashboard

• To add commentary on future reports

Finance Report

RW reviewed the finance report and detailed any key variances.

LR asked where loan repayments would appear in the accounts provided. CS advised that

they would not be in this Profit and Loss statement as this was the LEP’s operational

budget..

The meeting discussed the visibility of interest receipts and loan payments asked for

clarification on the reporting of such items.

The Board agreed:

• To note the content of the report

• To receive further detail on the receipt of loan repayments and interest receipts

Board Forward Plan

CS reviewed the Forward Plan and asked for suggestions for agenda items from the Board.

The Board agreed:

• To note the content of the plan

Any Other Business

Nikos Savvas (NS) - advised that Suffolk One has been rated as BTEC College of the year,

has repaid its debts and is now full and is rated as 3^rd among collages across the county.

NS also advised that Apple would be visiting the region and are interested in participating in

the Festival of Learning.

Action: A summary of these ratings is to be circulated to Board members to assist with

promoting the achievements - NS

Next meeting:

Date and time of next meeting:

10.00am - 12.30pm, 30^th January 2019

Venue: The Seminar Room, The Innovation Centre, University of Suffolk, Ipswich, IP4 1QJ