Issue - meetings

Sub-Committee Update - Economic Wellbeing and Regional Economic Development

Meeting: 30/07/2024 - South West Wales Corporate Joint Committee (Item 4)

4 Sub-Committee Update - Economic Wellbeing Shared Prosperity Delivery Update pdf icon 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to the spend figures, Officers confirmed that they were still working to the original profiles, which were currently out of date; whilst the spend figures looked as though they were substantially behind, they were proportionate to the regions current position.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.