Venue: Via Microsoft Teams
Contact: Chloe Plowman - Email: c.plowman@npt.gov.uk
No. | Item |
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Welcome and Chairs Announcements Minutes: The
Chairperson welcomed everyone to the meeting. |
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Declarations of Interests Minutes: There
were no declarations of interests received. |
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Minutes of Previous Meeting Minutes: The
minutes of the meeting held on 15 April 2024, were approved as an accurate
record. |
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Delivery Update - Economic Wellbeing and Regional Economic Development Minutes: Members received an
update on the implementation of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF) in South West Wales, which was noted to be a key pillar of
delivery for the Regional Economic Delivery Plan. Officers explained that
in previous updates the Committee had been informed of the timescales from UK
Government and the creation of the Regional Investment Plan, detail of which
was outlined in section one of the circulated report; and the steps that had
been taken to proceed with implementation, which could be found in section two
of the circulated report. It was noted that the
key difference with the programme in South West Wales,
compared to some of the other regions, was that a series of anchor projects had
been created in line with the overarching project. Officers highlighted that
some of the anchor projects were deployed across all four Local Authorities,
such as the business development theme, to ensure that there was regional
consistency whilst also allowing each Local Authority area to adapt
implementation of that programme to its own particular requirements. It was
mentioned that this also applied to other themes such as rural, place making
activity and supporting communities. The Committee was
informed that under 4% of the programme was being used for administration,
which compared to previous programmes, was considerably cheaper; Officers
confirmed that this was one of the positive elements of this programme. Officers stated that
during the early stages of this programme, they took a view there needed to be
as much delegation and flexibility as possible, whilst maintaining a consistent
approach; in some instances where Local Authorities had open call for standalone
projects, they were also required to discuss what they were proposing with
anchor leads, particularly around the business and employability themes. It was
noted that this had resulted in very strong local networks operating at local
level, which was equally as important as those partnerships at national level. It was mentioned that
there were good quantities of monitoring information now coming through, which
Elected Members will be receiving at local level through extensive quarterly
monitoring reports; these reports will summarise the information that every project
was producing, including the spend data and good news stories highlighting
businesses and communities that had received support. Officers highlighted
that they met with Welsh Government colleagues to ensure that officials were
fully briefed on proposals in order to check that they didn't conflict with
what Welsh Government were proposing from their level. For example, with
business grants, any referral must go through Business Wales as a requirement
of receiving grant support in order to ensure that businesses received the full
support available and that it linked in with Welsh Government priorities. Members were informed that outcomes of projects were starting to come in; there was more than £1million being committed to just under 500 businesses across the region. In addition, Officers were seeing developments with job creation; including startup companies, some of which were taking space in the high streets which complemented ... view the full minutes text for item 4. |
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Forward Work Programme Minutes: The
Forward Work Programme was noted. |
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Urgent Items Any urgent items at the
discretion of the Chairperson pursuant to Section 100BA(6)(b) of the Local
Government Act 1972 (as amended). Minutes: There
were no urgent items received. |