4 Sub-Committee Update - Economic Wellbeing Shared Prosperity Delivery Update PDF 504 KB
Minutes:
Members received an update on the implementation of the UK Shared
Prosperity Fund (SPF) in South West Wales, which was a key pillar of delivery
for the Regional Economic Delivery Plan.
Officers explained that the delivery mechanism that the South West Wales
region had opted for was to use an anchor project approach, in which each Local
Authority had its indicative allocation. It was noted that trough this
approach, there was a link back to core provision in each Local Authority,
particularly where there was small business support resource available;
building on that core area of working, using Shared Prosperity Funds to augment
the support and create budgets for grants to be used by businesses and
communities.
It was highlighted that creating the Economic Delivery Plan assisted
with progress when the Shared Prosperity Fund was announced; it made it easier
to direct the funding into pressures that Officers were aware of across the
region.
In regard to the spend figures, Officers confirmed that they were still
working to the original profiles, which were currently out of date; whilst the
spend figures looked as though they were substantially behind, they were
proportionate to the regions current position. It was stated that the delay in
the approval of the programme meant that progress was approximately two
quarters behind; Officers had been verbalising the need to extend the programme
by at least two quarters in order to maximise the outputs and the delivery of
the programme.
The Committee was informed that delivery was extensively reported at
local level. It was mentioned that there was a number of outcomes that were
currently being achieved across the region, particularly regarding business
development; there were a large number of businesses that were being directly
supported and the affects were being noticed and felt by the businesses.
It was highlighted that the Chair of the South West Wales Corporate
Joint Committee had written to UK Government requesting additional time to
ensure finalisation of the projects.
Members expressed that it had been demonstrated regionally how positive
this model was and its suitability for running schemes such as this; it had
been made clear that they did not want to revert back to the previous model
that was used.
It was queried if any feedback had been received in regard to amending
the timescales of the programme. It was confirmed that there had been no formal
response as of yet, however the interactions with both Welsh and UK Governments
had been progressive; the Chair could not guarantee an extended timescale,
however was hopeful that the response would be positive.
RESOLVED: That the report be noted.