New Anglia Board Meeting Minutes (Confirmed)

23^rd May 2019

Present:

Claire Cullens (CC)

Norfolk Community Foundation

David Ellesmere (DE)

Ipswich Borough Council

Doug Field (DF)

East of England Coop

Pete Joyner (PJ)

Shorthose Russell

Dominic Keen (DK)

High Growth Robotics

Johnathan Reynolds (JR)

Nautilus

Andrew Proctor (AP)

Norfolk County Council

David Richardson (DR)

UEA

Lindsey Rix (LR)

Aviva

Jeanette Wheeler (JW)

Birketts

Attendees

David Pomfret (DP)

College of West Anglia

Mike Stonard (MS)

Norwich City Council

Shan Lloyd (SL)

BEIS

Bethan Hacche (BH)

BEIS

Vince Muspratt (VM)

Norfolk County Council

Ray Harding (RH)

King’s Lynn & West Norfolk Borough Council - For Item 3

Brian Long (BL)

King’s Lynn & West Norfolk Borough Council

Nigel Best (NB)

New Anglia LEP - For Item 6

Chris Dashper (CD)

New Anglia LEP

Chris Starkie (CS)

New Anglia LEP

Rosanne Wijnberg (RW)

New Anglia LEP

Helen Wilton (HW)

New Anglia LEP

Actions from the meeting: (23.5.19)

Growth Hub Presentation

Growth Hub Annual Review to be submitted to the Board when published

LEP Capital budget 2019/20

The criteria for the Growing Business and Growing Places Funds to be circulated to Board

members

Welcome from the Chair

Doug Field (DF) welcomed everyone to the meeting including Brian Long and Ray Harding, the

Leader and Chief Executive of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council and thanked them

for hosting the meeting.

DF also welcomed Claire Cullens (CC) and Pete Joyner (PJ) to their first board meeting and David

Pomfret (DP) and Mike Stonard (MS) who were representing Nikos Savvas and Alan Waters

respectively.

Apologies

Apologies were received from Steve Oliver, Sandy Ruddock, Nikos Savvas, Tim Whitley, John

Griffiths, Matthew Hicks and Alan Waters.

Welcome from King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council

Ray Harding (RH) welcomed the Board to the meeting and provided an overview of the successful

work going on in the local Enterprise Zone.

He also detailed investments being made to support new retailers such as H&M moving into the

town centre to support the high street. Significant investment has also been made in the market

places and in the Town Hall itself to boost the town centre. To accompany this a programme of

events has been developed to help maintain footfall in the town.

The Council is also investing in housing with 350 of the planned 1000 new homes already built and

work is ongoing to ensure that the new dwellings have all supporting infrastructure in place to build

the desired communities.

RH also updated the meeting on the ongoing work to support the local business community

including tourism which is particularly vital to the area.

RH thanked the LEP for their support in the past and conformed that KLIC was performing well with

tenants expanding within the building as they require more space.

DP provided a brief overview of the work of the College of West Anglia including its focus on the

skills development of the students with the particular aim of ensuring that students are ready for

workplace. Over £50m has been invested including funding from the LEP to improve facilities for

students.

MS asked if a separate company had been set up for the housing construction work. RH advised

that this has not been done so far in order to avoid incurring additional costs and that the work had

been funded internally to date. Sales from one phase have funded the next and this approach has

been very successful.

Declarations of Interest

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

Item 7: Enterprise Zone Accelerator Fund Proposal

PJ and David Richardson (DR) declared and interest in this item

Item 8: LEP Capital Budget 2019/20:

DR declared an interest in this item

Minutes of the last meeting 27^th March

The minutes were accepted as a true record of the meeting held on 27^th March 2019.

Actions from last meeting updated as follows:

Amendments to Articles of Association

To include details of the term of appointment of the Deputy Chair - Complete

March Performance Reports

To provide details of employment numbers for the agri tech sector - Complete and

included in performance reports.

LEP Board Diversity Champion

Jeanette Wheeler (JW) advised that she had met with David Ellesmere to discuss

the diversity policy and there would be aBoard update shortly.

New Anglia Growth Hub

CS provided the meeting with the background to the Growth Hub presentation and

introduced Nigel Best (NB), Growth Hub Manager, to present to the Board as requested at

the January Board meeting.

NB provided the Board with an overview of the support available to businesses prior to the

establishment of the Growth Hub and detailed the work carried out by the Growth Hub now.

The team is currently undertaking a mapping exercise to establish what support is available

for new and existing businesses to identify where improvements can be made.

NB advised that the Growth Hub is one of the top 3 largest in the country and is working

closely with Government in order to develop closer links. The team provides a wide range

of advice and looks to identify long term support for businesses as well as sources of

funding. The Hub provides a central point of access for all business support providing free

impartial advice and helps to provide access to specialist advice where required. In addition

the Hub now has 2 specific skills advisers funded by BEIS.

The Board was informed that the team will have provided £47m worth of business support

by March 2022 through the Business Growth Programme which covers the Growing

Business Fund, Small Grants Scheme, support for start up companies and the Growth Hub

itself.

NB detailed the support currently being provided to companies in advance of Brexit and the

work with government on this issue. When firm plans for Brexit are known the Hub will be

able to provide more detailed support and assist companies with planning.

NB reviewed the current work with companies identified with the potential to scale up and

stressed the importance of identifying new and different ways of working.

Andrew Proctor (AP) asked if support was being provided to those specific sectors identified

by the LEP and how the team’s success was being measured in relation to measures like

productivity.

NB confirmed that those key sectors were being targeted however the Hub did not have the

capacity to be involved in every sector.

He noted that Government has strict measures against which Growth Hubs have to record

their results however measures such as productivity are being investigated as well as some

of the qualitative measures.

Johnathan Reynolds (JR) asked if the receipt of ERDF funding had caused any issues as

there were limits on what it could be used for as primary agriculture, retail, hospitality and

care sectors are all out of scope.

NB confirmed that this was the case and noted that it was important that the future UKSPF

should not follow the same rules and the LEP should lobby for these changes.

DF asked how feedback was monitored and NB advised that an annual review was carried

out.

ACTION

Growth Hub Annual Review to be submitted to the Board when published

The Board also requested for more case studies to be highlighted to them.

Lindsey Rix (LR) asked if there were common enquiries and themes and if these had shifted

over time.

NB advised that skills queries were always common often relating to the use of new forms

of media and also enquiries around generic management skills.

LR suggested providing more holistic businesses support such as peer to peer support to

assist managers.

It was noted that many businesses needed advice at an earlier stage to help stay relevant in

changing markets and that this could avoid the need for financial aid at a late date.

NB stressed the importance of supporting those businesses who are keen and willing to

change rather that those who remain with a model which is not working.

CS noted that as part of the LIS work a review of all programmes was being carried out to

ensure the best value for money is being achieved and that this includes the Growth Hub.

The Board agreed:

• To note the content of the presentation

• To receive the Growth Hub Annual Review

Enterprise Zone Accelerator Fund Proposal - Confidential

LEP Capital Budget 2019/20 - Confidential

Rosanne Wijnberg (RW) confirmed that the accountable body had reviewed the budget and

was content. She also said that much of the capital spend had already been approved by

the Board.

RW reviewed the key points and noted that the budget was currently overcommitted by £7m

but this was in the expectation of project slippage and that the allocation from Government

doubled in the following year therefore the spend was being planned in advance of the next

funding allocation.

AP asked how the future allocation of grants and loans from the Growing Places Fund would

be allocated. CS advised that this was an open call and projects would be assessed and

funds allocated on an individual basis.

Chris Dashper (CD) confirmed that extra promotion would be done to extend the current

pipeline.

AP asked if projects which have historically been unsuccessful could be included especially

those previously limited by delivery timescales. This was confirmed.

JW asked for further details of the Capital Growth Programme call criteria. CS confirmed

that this had been agreed by the Board and would be amended for each future call in line

with LEP targets and the Economic Strategy.

ACTION

The criteria for the Growing Business and Growing Places Funds to be circulate to Board

members

David Ellesmere (DE) asked if the future spend should be brought further forward in case of

future project slippage. CS advised that last year’s spend had been spent in full but it had

not cleared the earlier backlog. DE proposed starting the process much earlier to have the

projects ready as soon as the funding is received from Government

DF asked how the capital budget would be monitored. RW confirmed that reporting would

be back to the Board at programme level.

The Board agreed:

• To note the content of the report

• To approve the capital budget for the 19/20 financial year

• To approve the allocation of £1m to New Anglia Capital

• To receive the criteria for the Growing Business and Growing Places Funds

Chief Executive’s Report

CS reviewed the report highlighting key areas of interest.

CS updated the Board on the work on the LIS including the engagement events and invited

Board members to the event on 19^th June at the John Innes Centre.

Place Branding

The Phase 2 consultants have been approved - Land Communication in Ipswich and Quick

Fire Digital in Norwich.

The launch is currently planned for 26^th July at Adastral Park. It was proposed changing it to

launch at the AGM in September. This was agreed.

In his capacity as Chair of the Innovation Board DR asked if bids for the Innovative Projects

Fund could go to the Innovation Board prior to the IAC in order to benefit from its expertise

and experience.

This was agreed by the Board.

DR noted that the LEP Board needed to find a successor to him as Chair of the Innovation

Board.

The Board agreed:

• To note the content of the report

• To change the Place Branding launch date to 25^th September to coincide with the AGM

• For bids for the Innovative Projects Fund to go to the Innovation Board prior to

submission to the IAC

May Programme Performance Reports including Dashboards

RW reviewed the May reports and asked for questions from the Board.

Dominic Keen (DK) asked if there were any areas on the dashboards causing issue.

RW advised that skills and housing were always areas of concern given that the outputs

were achieved on an ad hoc basis given timing issues.

AP expressed disappointed that the Ely Rail project had not been progressed as expected,

noting this was outside of the LEP’s control.

The Board agreed:

• To note the contents of the report

• To approve the dashboard

Brexit

CS reviewed the paper included in the meeting papers and asked for questions from the

Board.

Shan Lloyd (SL) noted that businesses were refraining from investment but asked if this was

impacting onto the grants scheme applications.

CD confirmed that both size and volume of the grant requests had reduced slightly recently

but this was also a seasonal trend.

The Board agreed:

• To note the contents of the report

South East Energy Hub

CS asked for questions from the Board.

The Board agreed:

• To note the content of the report

• To delegate authority to Chris Starkie New Anglia LEP CEO to sign the Accountable

Body agreement for the Greater South East Energy Hub on behalf of the LEP

• To delegate authority to Lisa Roberts, Head of Strategy, to represent and make

decisions for the LEP on the Greater South East Hub Board and to Ellen Goodwin,

Infrastructure Manager as Deputy, to operate subject to and within the guidelines and

parameters laid down by the LEP Board.

Board Forward Plan

CS advised that, due to a rescheduled Parliamentary event the June board meeting would

now possibly take place in Ipswich.

The Board agreed:

• To note the content of the plan

Any Other Business

None

Next meeting:

Date and time of next meeting:

10.00am - 12.30pm, 25^th June 2019

Venue: TBC