New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership

Investment Appraisal Committee

Wednesday 29th November 2023

TEAMS Meeting

9am to 9:45am

Agenda

No. Item

1. Welcome

Main Agenda

2. Apologies

3. Declarations of Interest

4. Minutes of previous meeting, 25th October 2023

Items for Discussion

5. Confidential: Growing Places Fund loans update

6. Confidential: Growing Places Fund loan request

Other

7. Any Other Business

Committee Members

Neil Macdonald Ipswich Borough Council

Kay Mason-Billig Norfolk County Council

Sandy Ruddock Scarlett and Mustard

Mike Stonard Norwich City Council

Dominic Keen High Growth Robotics

Kathy Atkinson Valeo

Martin Williams Williams Business Advisory

Exec Members

Rosanne Wijnberg New Anglia LEP

Chris Dashper New Anglia LEP

Jonathan Rudd New Anglia LEP

Date and time of next meeting: Wednesday 31 January 2024, 9:00am

Venue: TEAMS Meeting

New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership

Investment Appraisal Committee

Wednesday 25th October 2023

Minutes

ACTIONS

Item 6 – GPF Loan request

MW & CD to review loan security outside of the meeting

1 Welcome from the Chair

DK welcomed everyone to the meeting.

2 Apologies

Apologies were received from Kathy Atkinson

3 Declarations of Interest

KMB declared in interest Item 6 – the GPF loan request.

4 Minutes of previous meetings

MW requested an amendment to the item on the Waypoint cinema loan request with addition of

the work “not” in the 2nd paragraph.

The minutes of the meeting held on 20th September were then agreed as accurate.

5 Growing Places Fund loans update – Confidential

JR provided the committee with an update on current and future potential loans.

Projects raised include:

The Committee agreed:

To note the content of the report

6 Confidential: Growing Places Fund loan request

The Committee agreed:

To note the content of the report

7 AOB

None

Committee Members

Neil Macdonald Ipswich Borough Council

Kay Mason-Billig Norfolk County Council

Sandy Ruddock Scarlett and Mustard

Mike Stonard Norwich City Council

Dominic Keen High Growth Robotics

Kathy Atkinson Valeo

Martin Williams Williams Business Advisory

Exec Members

Rosanne Wijnberg New Anglia LEP

Chris Dashper New Anglia LEP

Date and time of next meeting: Wednesday 29th November 9:00am

Venue: TEAMS Meeting

New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership

Investment Appraisal Committee

Wednesday 29th November 2023

Agenda Item 5

Growing Places Fund: Loans Update - Confidential

Author and presenter: Jonathan Rudd

Summary

This paper provides an update on both existing & potential loans.

The current allocation available for loan provision from the Growing Places Fund budget is

approx. £2million. Given the transition plan for the LEP going forward it is judged appropriate to

continue considering loan applications until the end of December 2023.

Recommendation

The committee is requested to note the progress of extant projects and new applications being

considered and the wider context of LEP provision.

Existing Loans

Winerack

On Wed 20 September 2023, the Committee received an update on the Regatta Quay

development and the proposal by Homes England to write off its residual loan exposure

and release the Freehold of the building to the developer. The Committee agreed in

principle to this proposal and for New Anglia LEP to accept a £500 thousand interest

payment and forgo any further outstanding interest costs on the loan.

Homes England were notified of the committee’s decision in early October. Papers are now

moving through the Homes England financial approval process, although no final decision

has been taken yet.

OneFarm Ltd

OneFarm entered administration on 12 October 2023 to be shut down and broken up, with

assets being sold off. The administrators, Resolve LLP held an auction of OneFarm assets

in late October, recovered the energy deposit and were arranging to pay employee claims.

Amounts are a fraction of the overall debt at just a few %.

Relations with the landlord are improved, with regular security visits of the premises to

ensure the safety of remaining equipment, principally the growth towers. The premises are

expected to be vacated by the end of the year and marketing to attract a new occupant has

begun.

On 17 November 2023, the supplier, Intelligent Growth Solutions submitted their

substantive Letter of Response to the OneFarms Letter of Claim against them for

fraudulent and negligent representation, as well as breach of contract and warranty. As

perhaps expected, this response contests the claim and blames OneFarm for the failure to

achieve crop yields sufficient for full production. OneFarm have already begun work to

refute IGS assertions with facts and evidence.

This claim is still at the ‘pre-action stage’, it has not been issued with the Court and it is not

clear whether it will proceed to formal litigation. OneFarm, taking advise from legal counsel,

will have to determine if (and when) it is appropriate to do so. However, a litigation funding

broker is working on finding an investor for the potential litigation process.

Potential Loans

Building Partnerships Ltd - Broadway Enterprise Park

On 25 October 2023, the committee considered a proposal from Building Partnerships Ltd

for a £1million loan toward development of infrastructure at Broadway Enterprise Park. The

committee agreed to support provision of the loan subject to Building Partnerships meeting

all conditions and increased loan security. Accelerating repayment of the loan was also

discussed.

Improving security for the loan and repayment of the capital was thereby discussed outside

the meeting. In addition to increasing the area covered by a legal charge as security, it was

proposed that the loan be repaid as a specified percentage of nett proceeds from the future

sale of plots, thereby ensuring repayment of the loan at the earliest opportunity. These

conditions are included in the LEP Board paper recommending support for this project and

will be incorporated into the loan facility agreement.

Sales of the initial 5 plots should be completed by the end of November 2023 with detailed

planning applications submitted for approval. Building Partnerships are meeting with

Broadland District Council to discuss the delivery of the infrastructure and avoid problems.

There were 9 expressions of interest for constructing the infrastructure, tenders are

expected in December with a decision for contract award likely in January 2024. Works are

expected to start in April and be complete by December 2024.

Waypoint Cinema Ltd- The Friendly Invasion

At its meeting on 20 September 2023, the committee received an update on this project and

a request for an in-principle commitment to loan of up to £1M, subject to meeting

conditions, satisfactory due diligence and appropriate security. The committee declined the

request for support, although agreed to receive updates and a further paper when the

conditions had been fulfilled.

We reiterated the conditions to be met regarding the property lease, planning consents,

match funding and security for the loan. Additionally, we asked Waypoint to consider their

direct financial contribution, the marketing pitch deck for their crowdfunding campaign and

how they might establish a suitable community of interest &/or support. We also asked for

additional details about production of ‘The Friendly Invasion’.

Waypoint have made progress with these matters, which include a decrease in cost and

reduction in size of the loan. We have therefore produced a separate paper that includes

the revised details and requesting a loan of £500k.

Recommendation

The committee is requested to note the progress of extant projects and new applications

being considered within the wider context of LEP provision.

New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership

Investment Appraisal Committee

Wednesday 29th November 2023

Item 6 - Waypoint Cinema loan request- Confidential

The LEP Executive team have continued to work with the Waypoint Cinema project

applicants since the project was discussed at the September 2023 meeting of the

committee.

Following feedback from the IAC, considerable progress has been made with the

project and a number of improvements have been made, including:

 Funding request from the LEP reduced to £500k from £1m

 Additional match funding applied for and outlined in the funding breakdown

 Project costs reduced by £500k

To allow the opportunity for the updated supporting information to be incorporated into

the paper for the IAC meeting, the paper will be circulated to all IAC members no later

than Monday 27 November. This also allows for an update on potential match

funding, a decision on which is anticipated on Thursday 23 November, to be included

in the paper.

Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any questions on the above.

Kind regards

Chris