Agenda, decisions and minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. Officers were asked to introduce themselves one by one to the meeting. The chair also confirmed the councillors in attendance.

There were none.

There were none.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 02.05.23 as an accurate record of the proceedings.

Minutes of the meeting held on the 2^nd May 2023 were approved as an accurate record of proceedings.

Minutes of the meeting held on the 2nd May 2023 were approved as an accurate record of proceedings.

Members asked to confirm any apologies. The democratic services officer confirmed the list of apologies received. It was requested that for future meetings, apologies would be an item on the agenda.

The report was noted.

Jonathan Burns presented the report to inform the Committee of the Swansea Bay City Deal Quarterly Monitoring report for both the Swansea Bay City Deal Portfolio and its constituent programmes/ projects.

Jonathan Burns also explained that the quarter 4 financial report is not present as it needs to go through program board and joint committee and considered for Joint Scrutiny Committee at a future date.

Members feel there are substantial risks on the RAG status as stated on page 2 of the report and wanted to know what the mitigations were.

Officers agreed that there are seven red risks and advised that the risk register has a mitigation in place for each risk. Some of the risks aren’t controllable by the Swansea Bay City deal and a watching brief is kept on those. Officers explained that for the ones under control of Swansea Bay City deal there are mitigations in place, at least for monitoring of the risks. There are also mitigations such as course corrective action in some cases.

Members were concerned about private sector funding contribution not being in line with business case projection and the slippage in delivery programme against key milestones. Officers explained that at a portfolio level, private sector funding is a red risk as £600,000,000 of funding is private sector funding. This is why at a portfolio level it is at a red risk, however, no project within the portfolio is identified as a red risk.

Officers explained that in relation to the slippage, all infrastructure project’s nationally have been affected by delays caused by issues such as contract negotiations taking longer and increased costs. A construction impact assessment is ongoing to try monitor and mitigate against rising construction costs and slippage which tend to coincide.

Members referred to the amount of value engineering, especially the waterfront refurbishment where it is refurbishment rather than re-build. Officers advised that a change management process would need to take place, this would mean change approval.

Members also asked about whether some projects would start suffering because of these cost increases.

Officers explained that they can only when things go out to tender do projects know if there is a problem. The construction impact assessment highlights a gap of £31,000,000 that needs to be plugged. Officers advised that the mitigations against that are value engineering and gaps are also plugged by the host authority. Officers advised that they are looking at what mitigations can help with contractors.

Members were informed that on each of the project statuses included in the report. Officers explained that there are 9 headline projects and programmes and within those are 35 projects. Of these 3 are complete and in operation, 17 are in delivery and build started. This equates to approximately £400,000,000 of investment. Officers also highlighted that 15 of the 35 are in pre-commencement activity.

Members asked about the homes for power stations and asked if the risk should go to amber from red as there is only one member of staff  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The report was noted.

Officers provided an overview of the report as circulated, they explained that Neath Port Talbot were leading the proposal of the provisional allocation of £5,300,000 City deal funds and it is intended to go into supporting innovation and low carbon growth program to bolster and enhance the advanced manufacture production facility as part of it.

Members were advised that program board had endorsed this on the 18th of April 2023 and Joint Committee approved it on the 11th of May. Members were advised that the approval means that Neath Port Talbot can now update their business case to support innovation & low carbon growth to enhance the advanced production facility with the inclusion of a national NetZero Skills Centre of Excellence.

The national NetZero Skills Centre of Excellence is a physical build, housing a Centre for Excellence for Skills. Officers explained that this is a consequence of the removal of the Centre of Excellence and Next Generation Services, The Factories of the Future and Steel Science. All of which lead by NPT in 2019.

Officers explained that what came as a consequence of that, was the support and innovation low carbon growth program which was incorporated into the programme and approved by the Governments in March 2021.

Members were advised that this meant that the £5,300,000 of the City Deal funds remained unallocated to any project or programme and Neath Port Talbot requested to amend the low carbon business case with a PMO. Officers requested to Joint committee that they approve these unallocated funds go to Neath Port Talbot in principle, for the purposes outlined in the report.

Officers requested that Neath Port Talbot can formally proceed with the development of a business case to include the advanced manufacturing production facility project and go through a process which is included in appendix b. around the business case approval change process associated with that. The development of the business case is currently being processed.

Officers explained thar in relation to target dates, there has been a lot of engagement with further and higher education, Industry Wales, NetZero Industry Wales and local industry through the Economic Development team. Officers are basing this on need and demand from the industry and as such, this is an industry lead facility and industry lead skills; Welsh Government are also very interested in it.

Officers advised that in relation to timeline that they are working through the economic and business cases at the moment and are hoping to have the first draft of the economic case by this week. They will then review the document with Jonathan Burns’ team and other parties they have been engaging with.

Officers are going to the Low Carbon Growth Program Board of Governors on the 14th of September 2023 and then the City Deal program board on the 31st of October 2023 and then for decision at City Deal Joint Committee on the 16th of November 2023.

Officers advised that because this is a significant change, it will likely need to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The report was noted.

Members were provided with an update on the current situation with Swansea Bay City Deal portfolio private sector investment and contributions as included in the report circulated.

Members queried about the digital infrastructure numbers and in relation to the £14,600,000 investments from Virgin which makes up three quarters of the actuals to date in terms of private investment.

Members asked if that funding is work that would have happened anyway and for Pentre Awel’s investment projections for this year, how can it be expected that £20,000,000 investment can come this year as that is a considerable amount of money.

Officers explained that it wouldn’t be possible to answer the first question, but nobody expected that much investment to be accelerated as fast as it had been.

Officers felt that the model has benefitted the region. Officers explained that in comparison to other areas, they are doing well and have expanded and accelerated their digital infrastructure roll out. This is because they have organised regionally and having lines of engagement and employed staff in the local authorities supporting digital infrastructure.

The Virgin Media numbers of £7,000,000 of expenditure in the region was excluded by the City Deal Infrastructure team from the £14,500,000 as that was not a direct involvement with the City Deal infrastructure team or project so they excluded it from the assessment. The spend in the region was higher if you include that money, but for the reasons mentioned they could not include it.

Members referred to the fact that almost half of the actuals and projected private investments are virgin media related and members are aware that Virgin were already aggressively investing in this area for market share. Members queried whether City Deal was underselling itself.

Officers advised they didn’t think so when you look at the breakdown of the providers and localities and felt that City deal has been ahead of where they thought in terms of stimulating private sector market and done so to good effect. Officers advised it would get more difficult as the fully fibred areas dry up, however there will be an acceleration of 5g test beds and the IOT workstreams are fully on boarded.

Members were told that this is a better position than originally thought and is qualified in terms of claimable investment impacted from city deal and the digital infrastructure team.

Officers explained that the first tranche of funding for Pentre Awel is coming from private sector borrowing and they are going into the market to pull down some money for the core element of the site they are constructing at the moment. Officers advised that the funding of that will come from the occupiers that are going on to tenancy agreements within the Pentre Awel complex.

Members were informed that this first element may slip slightly because there is an intention to use the funding in the first place and there has been a slippage in the project, although the core element of the project is still on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Members agreed to hold a Forward Work Planning meeting in September.

Members agreed to hold a Forward Work Planning meeting in September.

Any urgent items at the discretion of the Chairperson pursuant to Section 100BA(6)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended).

There were none.

There were none.