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There is no summary of this meeting yet. One is written once the council publishes the minutes. The agenda and papers are below.
In accordance with the Code of Conduct adopted by the City & County of Swansea, the following interest were declared: Councillor R Francis-Davies – Personal – Minute 23 – Update UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
Resolved that the Minutes of the Economy & Infrastructure Service Transformation Committee held on 12 December 2024 be approved and signed as a correct record.
The Strategic Economic Regeneration Manager presented an update on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. The UK Shared Prosperity Fund was one of the partial replacements for the European funding that used to be received when we were members of the European Union. The Shared Prosperity Fund was one of the levelling up funds under the previous UK government. Welsh local authorities had been required to work regionally, with a regional level allocation which was further specified down to local level, with each local authority having a certain amount to work with. In terms of implementation, the Authority chose to operate a strategic approach with anchor projects with certain key themes/projects around business, employability, communities, place making investments, cultural, tourism and rural development. These previously identified as manifesto commitments for the Authority to ensure that there were a number of tailored access routes to the program for businesses and communities, as well as an opportunity for third party organisations to bid for funding. The partner local authorities in South West Wales adopted a similar approach adapting to existing partnership and governance structures. Each of those schemes included a balance of staff to run and administer the program and provide services. In addition to the money allocated for organisations to access, the flexibility of the programme had enabled funding delivery to a huge range of activities from very large capital projects to very small Community activities. The Strategic Economic Regeneration Manager referred to the Swansea Quarterly Monitoring Report Q2 2024 which was included within the report and detailed the significant results. Confirmation had been received that £900m has been allocated across the UK, which represented approximately a 42% reduction over the existing year. Swansea would receive £10m of revenue and £4m of capital funding which had to be utilized by the 31st March 2026 at which point the program will cease completely. The months leading up to March 2026 will be significant in determining what future funding arrangements will be and who administers them. The UK Government are in discussions with the Welsh Government regarding future format, partnership arrangements and delivery of the funds. The manner in which the current programme operated provided the local authority with a great level of flexibility to design funding opportunities that enable ongoing access for the private and 3rd sector organisations at varying scales which created job creation in the economy during the program which was quite rare. The measurable outcomes were detailed in the monitoring report. The real debate focussed around what would happen with funding post March 2026. Local authorities would need to feed back on how this program has gone and what expectations are from all partners as to the next stages. The Cabinet Member for Investment, Regeneration, Events & Tourism thanked the Strategic Economic Regeneration Manager and his team for the tremendous work that they have done, not just for Swansea, but the entire Swansea City region which equates to £158m being processed. He referred to the expertise that has grown within that workforce and expressed his concerns for the future should it revert back to money going from Central Government to Welsh Government which could delay funding for schemes. The Scheme had been successful because it had been administered locally which had been greatly beneficial to communities. In response to Member questions, the Strategic Economic Regeneration Manager stated that: · Timescales for spending on current/new projects prior to the Programme concluding in March 2026 - Swansea and South West Wales were well placed due to the current structure and the Programme could be quickly adapted to absorb the extra money. A report would be submitted to Cabinet within the next few weeks recommending the existing structure, with some modest refinements to keep various grant programmes alive, particularly for the private and third sectors and the services that the teams are providing across the Council. As well as then potentially extending some of the third party projects, where appropriate, there are certain examples where projects are already very strategically aligned and it would make more sense to be able to extend those programmes using the extra money rather than inviting new projects that will only have a very short timescale to operate, but with caveat that all the grant schemes will be available for smaller projects to access. There are some capital schemes that the Council could look to support with the approval of Cabinet. There are significant staffing implications connected to the program with a large number of jobs across the region that are tied up in delivery. However, less than 4% of funding is allocated to administration. The uncertainty of knowing if there is a direct successor Scheme will result in staff retention becoming an issue which will be a matter for ongoing discussion. · Penalties for extending projects – funds cannot be carried over from this financial year. The majority of projects are on track to spend so any underspend will be quite small and there is potential to reallocate to existing projects. The option exists, subject to Cabinet approval, for extending anchor projects, in particular the ability to extend commitments into the following year. However, these commitments would have to come out of the following years’ money. The Cabinet Member for Investment, Regeneration, Events & Tourism confirmed that representations had been made to Welsh Government regarding the future administration of the Programme. The Strategic Economic Regeneration Manager stated that he would contact the Chair directly regarding a query in relation to a community meeting held in March and October 2024. The Chair thanked the Strategic Economic Regeneration Manager for his informative report. Resolved that the update report be noted.
The Chair presented the Committee Work Plan 2024/25. Resolved that 1) the Work Plan 2024/25 be noted.
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