Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. Apologies were received from David Taylor, Katherine, O'Conner, Murryam Anwar and Martin Kelly.

Miranda Barker declared a non-pecuniary interest in Item 8 Skills Policy and Careers Hub update.

Councillor Stephen Atkinson declared a non-pecuniary interest in Part II - Item 15, Samlesbury Enterprise Zone Update due to Ribble Valley being part of the Agreement and would exit the meeting at the appropriate time.

Resolved: That the minutes of the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Board meeting held on 22 June 2021 be approved as an accurate record.

Laurie Peake, Director at The Super Slow Way was welcomed to the meeting and gave Board members a presentation on The Pennine Lancashire Linear Park project.

The Super Slow Way was an arts, cultural and development programme that worked across East Lancashire, they received core funding from the Arts Council and had been successful in receiving other funding streams as well. The group was hosted by Canal and River Trust.

Board members were informed that the Pennine Lancashire Linear Park project was an exciting, pioneering and deliverable vision and programme of change for a 23-mile section of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal corridor. A feasibility study had been commissioned with partners to consider the short, medium and long term steps needed to transform the stretch of the canal corridor into the Pennine Lancashire Linear Park.

The project sought to marry physical improvements in landscape, infrastructure and buildings to expansive programmes of environmental, cultural, leisure, educational and economic activity. The Emscher Landscape Park in Germany had been used as a case study. It was highlighted that the project was about partnership, and co-investment and cross party and cross boundary working.

There were three main areas of intervention, activity, and investment involved creating a green movement economy, providing for culture, leisure and tourism and stimulating resilient local economies. 

Details of potential projects for the short and medium term were shared with Board members which had been identified through the feasibility study. The recommended next steps from the report included formalising Pennine Lancashire Linear Park as a regeneration initiative across the four district authorities involved, secure funding and to continue to engage with local communities and businesses.

Resolved: The Lancashire Enterprise Partnership Board welcomed the update presentation and expressed its continued support for The Pennine Lancashire Linear Park project.

Bryan Megan, Democratic and Member Services Manager, Lancashire County Council presented a report which provided an update on LEP Governance and the LEP committee meetings since the last LEP Board meeting.

Resolved: That the LEP Board:

  i.  Note the updates provided in this 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.

  ii.  Note that Debbie Francis has been appointed as a Director on the LEP Board and appointed to the role of Chair of the LEP Board.

  iii.  Note that County Councillor Phillippa Williamson is appointed as the Lancashire County Council representative on the City Deal Executive, as set out in the committee Terms of Reference, and County Councillor Aidy Riggott is appointed as a nominated observer.

  iv.  Note that Neil Shaw, CEO of Rossendale Borough Council, has been nominated by the Lancashire Local Authorities to the Lancashire Skills and Employment Advisory Panel to replace Dean Langton.

Anne-Marie Parkinson, LEP Investment Programme Manager presented a report which provided the Board with an update on the arrangements being put in place nationally and locally in respect of the United Nations Annual Climate Change Conference COP 26 which was due to take place in Glasgow for a two week period from the end of October to mid November 2021. The conference was a major milestone in international efforts to combat climate change.

It was highlighted that COP took place each year, however every fifth year the conference was more significant in its decision making and this year was that year. A programme of activity had been published online and each day had a theme.

Senior leaders and business representatives from the North West would attend the conference to participate in discussion panels around the theme for a particular day. Anne-Marie provided a detailed update on the plans for the conference and in particular the itinerary for the North West which was scheduled for the 10 and 11 November.

In addition to the main conference, to show case what the whole country was doing to tackle climate change, a domestic campaign would also take place with the principle aim to gather narrative around projects that are being delivered to help combat climate change and support the government's net zero ambitions.

A proposed North West programme of activities had been developed by a steering group which comprised of NW LEP representatives in consultation with the wider North West Net Zero group. The programme included a series of events and site visits in October to coincide with a national Roadshow, gathering 125 case studies to be promoted and organise three North West events (Green Zones) being aligned with COP26 themes.

Councillor Alyson Barnes informed the Board that they would be having their own Climate Change Conference in Rossendale on the 10 November 21, a £1 million fund had been set aside to spend over the next 4 years to support various activities such as tree planting, rewilding and supporting businesses. 

Tony Attard informed Board members as part of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee next year, part of the celebrations included the planting of trees for the Green Canopy, it was noted that the rate of tree planting in Lancashire was very low and behind the national average. Businesses in Lancashire were being encouraged to get involved in activities like this, for example Panaz Limited were planting a tree in Ribble Valley for every 100 meters of fabric sold with the Ribble Valley Trust, the trust were looking for more businesses to get involved. It was requested that the Board received updates on the preparations for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee moving forward. 

Amanda Melton suggested a press plan could be considered in terms of joining up the work and showcasing what was being done. Mark Rawstron highlighted that this was about raising Lancashire's profile in this sector as a whole, and it was proposed that once Anne-Marie has received all the submissions for case  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Joseph Mount, Skills and Economic Intelligence Officer, LEP presented a report summarising the LEP's Economic Outlook. The Dashboard information had been put together based on the prescribed approach of the Base Framework for assessing the economic outlook for LEP areas. The Dashboard was an online interactive tool and helped to summarise all the different information that was used to compile the RAG rating detailed in the Outlook report which compared Lancashire to other areas in the North West.

Several key points detailed in the report regarding the data were highlighted to Board members, the following key headlines was noted: 

-  Gross Value Added (GVA) in Lancashire for 2019 was £34.4 million, this was a pre-pandemic figure, a further update was not likely until 2023/24. Lancashire was ranked 16^th nationally in terms of the size of GVA, this was an improvement of one place since the last update in 2010.

-  There had been 2.91% annual growth for Lancashire from 2015-19, based on more recent data. The rank for Lancashire based on the annual growth figures meant it was ranked 28^th out of the 38 LEPs nationally.

-  In terms of productivity, GVA per hour for Lancashire from 2018 was £31.32, per average output per Lancashire worker, this ranked us 20^th nationally, and had come up considerably as Lancashire was in the bottom 10 as of 2010. The annual growth rate for GVA per hour worked and GVA per filled job grew at a rate of 3.3% annually since 2015, this was the second and third fasted growing of all LEPs nationally and was a positive picture. 

-  Regarding Growth by Sector, the Manufacturing sector from 2018-19 contracted by £15m, a negligible number compared to total GVA generated. Further information on this was available on Lancashire Skills website.

Miranda Barker commented that the way the sectors were represented, statistics for low carbon and energy were not represented. A recent LGA report highlighted for working health population, Lancashire had potentially the highest low carbon jobs coming in the area and therefore this was a significant growth sector for the area. The importance of capturing this data was highlighted.

Board members thanked officers for the depth of information and analysis detailed in the report.

Resolved: That the Board note the contents of the paper.

Dr Michele Lawty-Jones, Director, Lancashire Skills and Employment Hub presented an update report on Skills Policy.

The following points were highlighted:

·  In regard to the Careers Hub there was an update on the various grants that had been submitted to the Careers  Enterprise Company, the main grant had been accepted, and the last two schools had now come on board, meaning the Hub was now at full capacity, one of a very few in the country. 156 secondary schools including all special schools were now part of the programme. As a result of this the Hub still needed to recruit business volunteers to support the process, there were currently 160 volunteers working with schools and colleges to develop inspirational careers programmes. any new volunteers that were able to support the process were directed to the Lancashire Skills Pledge.

·  In regard to Research and Evaluation projects, there had been an opportunity to bid for two projects and we had been successful in both. One was targeted at Strategies to prevent Not in Education or Employment (NEET) and the other one was targeted at Digital projects with there being a real drive to encourage girls to participate and to select Computer Science at GCSE level.

·  It was noted that a higher offer of grant for £117k had been offered from the Blackpool Opportunity Area Twinning Fund to enable further joint working between Blackpool and Lancashire to share good practice. Board Members were happy to accept the higher proposal and they welcomed the grant.

·  Dave Holmes provided an update on a partnership with BAE, whereby the company had a share forfeiture scheme, by cashing in shares that have not been claimed over a period of time. Dave's team had been working closely with the Skills and Employment Hub and a proposal was put together through the Corporate Group. This had resulted in two schemes being put forward, Create Education and Innovate Her and they had been successful in receiving a contribution of £300k for both schemes, £150k for each of the two schemes. 

·  An update was provided on new developments linked to the Skills White Paper which was published in January 21. A new project, Skills Accelerator had provided two opportunities from the Department for Education for Trail Blazers, one was for Local Skills Improvement Plans and the other for a Strategic Development Fund. Both were being run concurrently and needed to be completed by March 22.

·  An update was provided on Plan for Jobs, a range of projects were available. It was noted that it was a complex environment currently and the labour market was vastly dynamic. The team were working closely with partners and providers to maximise impact. The website which was launched during the pandemic to support people into employment had received over 16,000 hits to-date.

Resolved: That -

1.  The board are asked to note the contents of the paper, the funds secured to support skills and employment activity across the LEP area, and efforts in place to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Sean McGrath, External Investment/Funding, Lancashire County Council was welcomed to the meeting and gave a presentation to accompany the report provided to Board members on the role of European Structural Investment Funds in promoting Economic Development Activity in Lancashire.

The fund which had expanded over 7 years was the largest dedicated programme of European funds for Lancashire. The two main programmes had been the European Regional Development Fund at £145.5 and the European Social Fund at £116.5m. Several partners had been involved in delivering projects and financial allocations had related to SME Competitiveness, Skills & Employment, Research & Innovation and Low Carbon Economy.

In relation to governance, it was noted that despite being national programmes some of the governance arrangements were brought down to a local level through the Lancashire ESIF Committee which comprised of local partners and three government departments who were the Accountable Bodies for each fund and had the final say on which projects were approved. Each fund had a different appraisal and management fund which had resulted in some complexities in terms of timing and management and how projects were dealt with.

In terms of any future funding, there had been some key delivery issues that were highlighted which would be important to consider moving forward. As the fund had been a 7-year funding allocation, this had allowed time for project development and long-term planning where significant capital projects had been dealt with. There had been local co-ordination and strategic advice in terms of developing projects, working with applicants on their applications and lobbying the government on local priorities, and where possible engaging with and on behalf of local partners.  Support was offered through the Technical Officer Group, various groups under the Skills and Employment Hub and Boost which acted as an umbrella for business support work.

It was highlighted that a key point for any future funding would be if there was a requirement for match funding or whether the Government would offer some flexibility in this. Match funding had played a key requirement of the European funding with at least 40% match funding required and this had to some extent dictated which organisations could apply for funding.

In terms of lessons learnt and how future iterations could be influenced, it was highlighted that co-ordination at a local level played a key role in terms of identifying priorities, this was linked back to the Employment Strategic Framework and working with providers to ensure that dots were joined together on ESF. A Skills Escalator Model was developed and linked to mainstream provision and data was used to ensure that provision was focused on areas of need to maximise impact. Moving forward, ensuring that priorities could be influenced at a local level was a critical element. 

Resolved: That:

The Board noted the report and presentation and were recommended to use lobbying opportunities, through bodies such as the LEP Network, to ensure that Lancashire retained a similar level of investment and determination over the use of this resource in the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

Please note that Appendix 'J' to this report is in Part II and appears as Item 14 on the Agenda.

Anne-Marie Parkinson, Programme Manager, LEP 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 on the LEP Programme Risk Register was also provided to the Board.

In regards to the Dashboard, it was noted that the contents of this were being considered for the future to include matters such as the data presented in the Economic Outlook Report, the outcome of the LEP Review, the Growth Plan and other recent strategies. 

A review of each of the programmes was due over the next 12 months, the Growing Places one had been completed and the full report was now available on request.

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

The Chair reminded Board members that the Gifts and Hospitality Register needed to be completed and that moving forward Director expenses would be made public and therefore needed to be submitted on time.

Regarding Part II, moving forward the Chair informed members that Part II items on the agenda would be restricted to Directors, the Section 151 Officer, Company Secretary and anyone that had been specifically invited to present an item in Part II. A single representative from company member local authorities would be sought moving forward to act as a sole representative in Part 11 items. In accordance with the Local Assurance Framework, observers of LEP Board meetings must contact the Company Secretary in advance stating the reason for their attendance and seek specific approval.

The next meeting of the LEP Board will be held on Tuesday 23 November 2021, at 4.30pm. Venue to be confirmed.

The next meeting of the LEP Board will be held on Tuesday 23 November 2021, at 4.30pm, Health Innovation Centre, Lancaster University.

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.

Resolved: 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 in Part I to schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972.

It was considered that in all the circumstances the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information.

Anne-Marie Parkinson, Programme Manager, LEP, presented a private and confidential update on LEP Inward Investment.

Resolved: That the update presented in the appendix be noted.

Sarah Kemp, CEO, LEP, presented a private and confidential report which provided the LEP Board with an update on the Samlesbury Enterprise Zone, specifically the next phase of infrastructure development and the requirement to agree a Memorandum of Understand between Lancashire County Council and the LEP with regards to the retention of business rates collected on the LEP's behalf by LCC to be used to repay infrastructure costs.

It was noted that the site carries international significance with a pipeline of enormous strategic importance and that it is essential to reach agreement on the MOU as soon as possible.

With respect to the MOU, there needs to be a fundamental set of principles which governs the relationship between the two parties, offering some form of independent oversight and absolute clarity on what is to be agreed.

The Board discussed independent assurance for the two parties involved, Lancashire County Council and the LEP and the need to protect the interests of both. The Section 151 Officer agreed this was something that had been discussed between herself and the LEP Chief Executive and agreed that the LEP should secure independent legal and financial advice, specifically in respect of the Memorandum of Understanding.

It was agreed that the LEP and LCC would negotiate the conclusion of the MOU, each receiving independent advice and return to the November LEP Board meeting with a proposal for approval.

Resolved: That the recommendations in the report, be approved as set out, with the exception of Recommendation 5, where an additional recommendation was agreed to request that prior to the Chief Executive in consultation with the Enterprise Zone Governance Committee and S151 Officer be authorised to conclude negotiations and enter into a Memorandum of Understanding, a further update on negotiations and the Memorandum of Understanding come back to the LEP Board at their next meeting in November 2021 for approval.

Due to time constraints it was agreed to postpone this item until the next meeting.