Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Ivan Taylor, Kate Shane, Claire Whelan, and Councillor Phil Riley.

The Board is asked to consider whether, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, it considers that the public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items of business on the grounds that there would be a likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the appropriate paragraph of Part I of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 as indicated against the heading to the item.

At this point the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership Board approved that the meeting move into Part II, Private and Confidential, to consider the remaining agenda items as they contained information defined as confidential or exempt in accordance with the relevant paragraph of Part I to schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 as set out in each report or presentation. It was considered that in all the circumstances of the case the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information.

Presentations will be provided as follows:

Houndshill Extension Scheme – Nick Gerrard

Abingdon Street Market – Nick Gerrard

M55 Transport Scheme – Neil Stevens

Hillhouse International Scheme – Mark O'Brien

REDCAT – Miranda Barker

Miranda Barker, Chief Executive, East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce declared an interest in this item as one of the parties that had submitted an application to the Getting Building Fund.

Houndshill Extension Scheme

Nick Gerrard, Growth and Prosperity Programme Director from Blackpool provided a private and confidential presentation regarding the Houndshill Extension Scheme.

Resolved:

  (i)  The Lancashire Enterprise Partnership Board welcomed the presentation and expressed its support for the Houndshill Extension Scheme.

  (ii)  The Board agreed to hold virtual themed workshop sessions to focus on the strategic plans for towns across Lancashire for Members to get up to speed on town centre plans and strategies for increasing town centre activity during the current climate.

Abingdon Street Market 

Nick Gerrard, Growth and Prosperity Programme Director from Blackpool provided a private and confidential presentation regarding Abingdon Market.

Resolved: The Lancashire Enterprise Partnership Board welcomed the presentation and expressed its support for the Abingdon Street Market.

M55 Transport Scheme

Neil Stephens, Highways Development Control Manager, Lancashire County Council provided a private and confidential presentation regarding the M55 Transport Scheme. 

Resolved: The Lancashire Enterprise Partnership Board welcomed the presentation and expressed its support for the M55 Transport Scheme.

Hillhouse International Scheme

Mark O'Brien, NPL Group Director, Energy Projects gave a private and confidential presentation regarding the Hillhouse International Scheme.

Resolved:

  (i)  The Lancashire Enterprise Partnership Board welcomed the presentation and expressed its support for the Hillhouse International Scheme.

  (ii)  Mark O'Brien to share with Board Members details of the speed of Superfast Fibre broadband network.

REDCAT

Miranda Barker, Chief Executive, East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce gave a private and confidential presentation regarding the REDCAT – Lancashire's Centre for Alternative Technologies.

Resolved:

  (i)  The Lancashire Enterprise Partnership Board welcomed the presentation and expressed its support for REDCAT.

  (ii)  Miranda Barker and Sarah Kemp to organise a net zero workshop for Board Members to work through the topic covering areas such as skills, investment and standards for procurement.

Michele Lawty-Jones, Director of the Lancashire Skills Hub and Kerry Harrison, Digital Skills Coordinator, LEP provided a private and confidential update report on Lancashire's Digital Skills Landscape Research and extension of the Lancashire Digital Skills Partnership funding.

Resolved:

The Lancashire Enterprise Partnership Board:

  (i)  Noted achievements to date

  (ii)  Noted the findings and recommendations from the research; and

 (iii)  Approved the receipt of further funding (£75k) from DCMS to support the LDSP, should this be approved by DCMS.

Resolved:  The minutes of the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership Board meeting held on 23 June 2020 were approved as an accurate record.

In regards to establishing a Task Group to review the LEP Assurance Framework and LEP Committee structures it was noted that the group had met but the work was not yet complete, an update would be provided to a future meeting of the Board.

Miranda Barker, Chief Executive, East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce declared an interest in respect to Item 12 on the agenda.

Anne-Marie Parkinson, LEP Programme Manager, presented a report (circulated) which provided the Board with a high level update for each of the LEP programmes including Boost, City Deal, Enterprise Zones, Getting Building Fund, Growing Places, Growth Deal, Lancashire Skills and Employment Hub and Social Value.

An update was provided on the social value indicators, these indicators had been embedded into every programme since 2015 and had started predominately with the Growth Deal programme. The team had developed a social value toolkit which had a number of key performance indicators that have been developed in line with national social value mechanisms and practices of ways of working. The long term objective was that social value was embedded in pre-project identification and pre-procurement, where projects are developed in acknowledgment of what the social value aims are and what can be achieved out of them.

Board Members were asked to consider the KPI's, dashboard and infographics and if any Member had further feedback to email Anne-Marie Parkinson directly. It was suggested that social value could be extended to social and economic value and a further KPI that could be captured within the region was profit generation within local firms that were appointed as part of procurement exercises, not just employment and local labour utilisation.

Resolved:  The Lancashire Enterprise Partnership Board agreed to:

(i)  Note the updates contained in the report;

(ii)  Note the forthcoming decisions; and

(iii)  Approved of the reporting structures for future reports and agreed that any further feedback in regards to KPI's be fed directly to Anne-Marie Parkinson.

Sarah Kemp, Chief Executive, presented an update report (circulated) providing the LEP Board with an overview of activity carried out in the previous period and planning for the next period.

It was highlighted that work was ongoing with the Strategic Framework to develop it into a delivery plan and a work planning session would take place in November for Board Members to set key priorities. A consultation exercise was proposed with all key partners as part of that process to make sure the LEP was aligned to the strategic objectives of partners.

Clarification was sought on the proposed review of all current economy-related Strategy, Plans, Policy and Programmes to determine strategic fit and identify gaps in the Framework and whether this was intended for just the LEP or whether this would be county-wide. Sarah Kemp, Chief Executive clarified that the Framework and the review was considered more of a system of the whole of the economic functioning of Lancashire including an understanding of the context of what was already being delivered on the ground and not seeking to duplicate or replicate it but to enhance it. This was not a formal review process of partner programmes, it was more about acknowledging that they were already there and the impact they were having.

In regards to the Review of Form and Functionality detailed in the report and the 4 core functions of the LEP and key policy areas, it was highlighted that the current form of wording made it appear that the LEP was responsible for many different policy areas which were the responsibility of local authorities or other partner organisations. Sarah Kemp, Chief Executive noted the point in regards to the wording and clarified that this was about setting out the broad economic framework for Lancashire.  In addition it was stated that the framework was about bringing together the private sector with the public sector in those policy areas providing an opportunity for the private sector to input into the advice and strategic input alongside the public sector and was not about overlooking the statutory responsibilities of local authorities and other partners. 

Appendix A contained the Corporate Risk Register which covered the strategic risks, existing controls and a proposed action plan. Board Members were asked to provide any feedback directly to Sarah Kemp.

Resolved:  The Lancashire Enterprise Partnership Board noted the contents of the report.

Sarah Kemp, Chief Executive, presented an update report (circulated) providing the LEP Board with an update on LEP finances since the last Board meeting in June 2020.

Following discussions it was suggested that in relation to point (iv) of the report recommendation this should be approved and not just noted by the Board.

Resolved:  The Lancashire Enterprise Partnership Board noted the following:

(i)  The August position on income and expenditure of the LEP's Operating Budget and changes to forecast and actuals.

(ii)  An end of year forecast of an in year deficient of £1,686,666 based on the use of retained reserves to fund delivery of the agreed budget.

(iii)  The current position of the Income and Expenditure Account for the current financial year to date surplus of £148,651 compared to a surplus to date in July of £154,901

In relation to recommendation (iv) of the report, it be approved as set out below:

(iv)  The Section 151 officer commentary on the operating budget position and recommendation that a medium term financial strategy be developed alongside the strategic framework.

Andy Milroy, Senior Democratic Services Officer, Lancashire County Council presented a report (circulated) which contained LEP Governance updates and updates from all the LEP Committee meetings since the last LEP Board meeting.

The Chairman, Steve Fogg, informed the Board that with the agreement of Mark Rawstron he had decided to change roles on the City Deal so that Steve Fogg would become the Deputy Chairman and Mark Rawston would become the Chairman of the City Deal Executive and also the LEP Strategic Lead for Economic Development on the City Deal Stewardship Board.

Resolved:  The Lancashire Enterprise Partnership Board noted the updates provided in the report in relation to Governance, urgent decisions taken since the last LEP Board meeting and the Committees of the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership as set out in the report.

None

The next LEP Board meeting is scheduled to be held on 8^th December 2020 at 4:30pm via Zoom.

It was noted that the next meeting of the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership Board is scheduled to be held on 8 December 2020 at 4:30pm via Zoom.