Agenda item

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 the Joint Committee.

The Joint Committee agreed that Appendix 1 and 2 to the circulated report were not for publication pursuant to Regulation 5(2) & (5) of Statutory Instrument 2001 No. 2290 and Paragraph 14 of Part 4 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972. Pursuant also to Paragraph 21 of the Schedule, and in all the

circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the

exemption is considered to outweigh the public interest in

disclosing the information.

In order to discuss and consider the private Appendices, Members took the decision to move into private session, for the reasons above. Following discussion of these private Appendices, the Joint Committee resolved to resume in public session. The decision below was agreed in public session.

RESOLVED:

That the list of projects set out in Appendix 2 of the circulated report be approved for inclusion in the Full Business Case.