6 Celtic Freeport - Seed Capital Proposals PDF 245 KB
Minutes:
Officers presented a
report which was seeking approval for the list of seed capital proposals to be
included in the Full Business Case for the Celtic Freeport.
The Chief Executive of Pembrokeshire
County Council provided an overview of the background regarding the Freeport
endeavour thus far, and the next steps in moving forward with the Outline
Business Case and Full Business Case.
It was explained that
the Outline Business Case had previously been endorsed by the two Local
Authorities and submitted to UK Government; Officers had expected to receive
feedback and a decision to approve the Outline Business Case by now, however
the snap General Election held in July 2024 had disrupted the timetable.
Members were informed that this process was still yet to be completed.
In regard to the Full
Business Case, UK Government had recently asked for the submission of this to
be accelerated to early October 2024; this was to try to ensure that this
process was completed by the end of October 2024. It was noted that Members of
both Local Authorities will receive the draft Full Business Case over the
coming weeks for review and decision before final submission to UK Government.
The Committee was
informed that within the Full Business case, was the requirement to submit
proposals for the investment of the seed capital funding from UK Government.
The circulated report set out the proposed use of seed capital for the
consideration of the Joint Committee and Officers sought a decision on the list
of projects to be included in the Full Business Case.
It was mentioned that
the proposals had been subject to a fairly rigorous process, however the
accelerated timeline had impacted on the level of scrutiny for some specific
projects.
Members were informed
that the seed capital element of up to £25million per Freeport, was a
long-established part of the package; with the idea to help propel prime
investments at an early stage in order to help the Freeport deliver on its
objectives.
It was highlighted that
the Full Business Case was one stage in the process of allocating seed capital;
if the Full Business Case was approved, there were then individual business
cases required to fill in the details of each of the propositions. Officers
stated that other Freeports had experienced the need to re-visit their
allocation as the detailed business cases in respect of some of the
propositions didn’t deliver; there were many reasons for this, such as business
plans had changed, and/or private match funding hadn’t arrived.
A discussion took place in regard to the series of processes that the Freeport had established to progress with allocations; this involved recommendations from an independent panel going to the Freeport Board, before being brought to the Joint Committee. It was noted that this process had to be foreshortened, specifically the scrutiny of the individual propositions by the independent panel; however, recommendations were provided to the Freeport Board, which then shaped the recommendations contained within the circulated report for consideration by ... view the full minutes text for item 6