RESOLVED to appoint Councillor Simon Greaves as the Vice Chair of this Committee for the municipal year 2019/20.

As Councillor David Mellen, Chair of the Committee, was absent Councillor Simon Greaves, Vice Chair of the Committee, chaired the meeting.

Councillor David Lloyd

Councillor David Mellen

Councillor Simon Robinson

Councillor Jason Zadrozny

None.

To confirm the minutes of the last meeting held on 4 February 2019

The Committee confirmed the minutes of the meeting held on 4 February 2019 and they were signed by the Chair.

Presentations from Chris Henning, Corporate Director for Development and Growth, Nottingham City Council and Adrian Smith, Corporate Director of Place, Nottinghamshire County Council

This item does not contain any decisions subject to call in.

Chris Henning, Corporate Director for Development and Growth Nottingham City Council, and Adrian Smith, Corporate Director for Place Nottinghamshire County Council, gave presentations about place plans for Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County respectively prior to the presentation of these plans to the D2N2 Place Board.  It is anticipated that there will be a call from Government in the near future for projects to be funded through Local Enterprise Partnerships and therefore D2N2 is preparing for that request.

Chris Henning highlighted the following information in his presentation:

a)  Nottingham City benefits from factors such as historically low unemployment rates and a young population but faces challenges including that 10% of the population are unqualified and 51% of people working in the City travel in from outside the City.  GVA per hour is also significantly lower than Derby;

b)  Nottingham City Council is about to consult on a strategy for the city centre as part of its response to challenges currently facing high streets, helping to decide where and how the Council needs to intervene to build business confidence; 

c)  The ambition is to make Nottingham the most liveable Core City;

d)  Lots of development is taking place in the City with approximately £2bn worth of development opportunities either underway; with planning permission agreed; or with progress being made; 

e)  Development priorities include heritage work to bring buildings and streets back into use and make buildings sustainable; boosting the visitor economy, for example the restoration of Nottingham Castle, which needs to be linked to the tourism offer in the rest of the County; development of new commercial space including replenishing Grade A office space stock; building more homes with the appropriate mix of housing stock and tenure; opportunities for the establishment of a new urban village on brownfield land at the Island site; linking with key developments on the outskirts of the city including at Trent Basin; and expanding the Science Park and Boots Enterprise Zone;

f)  Improving transport infrastructure is key to supporting development and HS2 and improving access to East Midlands Airport are critical projects.  The tram extension has opened up opportunities in areas on the tram line and early consideration is being given to a further extension.  The corridor between Nottingham and Derby is key but there needs to be sufficient transport links to access this corridor.  Currently too much of the road network currently goes through the city centre but it can be very challenging to tackle road infrastructure issues;

g)  Digital connectivity is important and there needs to be 100% fibre to premises and 5G infrastructure installed;

h)  Nottingham City Council has an ambition to be carbon neutral by 2028 and a lot more needs to be done to maximise opportunities to contribute to this agenda;

i)  Nottingham City Council is looking for D2N2 to support with capital investment; improving connectivity including HS2 and the East Midlands Growth Corridor; and supporting collaboration between areas because businesses  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Verbal update

The item does not contain any decisions subject to call in.

Anthony May, Chief Executive of Nottinghamshire County Council, informed the Committee of recent announcements regarding the Future High Streets Fund and Towns Fund and proposed that more detail on bids from eligible areas in Nottinghamshire and the implications of those bids is presented to a future meeting of the Committee.

RESOLVED to add an item on the Future High Streets Fund and Towns Fund to the agenda for the next meeting of the Committee.

Update from the Leader of Nottinghamshire County Council

This item does not contain any decisions subject to call in.

Anthony May, Chief Executive of Nottinghamshire County Council, gave an update on key regional economic issues.  He highlighted the following points:

a)  At a Midlands Engine level there has been success in drawing down funds including for the development of a national rehabilitation centre and to carry out a feasibility study exploring the potential for a Development Corporation for some sites in Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire;

b)  Work to explore the potential for the establishment of a Development Corporation is being funded by Government.  It would potentially cover sites including the HS2 station at Toton, the soon-to-be redundant power station at Radcliffe on Soar and the East Midlands Airport site and some surrounding business parks.  The study is currently half way through completion and initial proposals have to be submitted to Government by early 2020.  There is an oversight board comprising Leaders from affected areas and an executive group made up of officers from those local authorities and other partners.  The project reports to the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP). While there has been some commitment from Government, proposals will need to be fully evaluated and therefore it is not yet known whether they will be successful.  However, if it is successful then it could be a template for development elsewhere in the County.

Councillor Mrs Kay Cutts gave an update on HS2.  She highlighted the following points:

c)  An East Midlands arm of HS2 will open up the whole of the Midlands.  West and East Midlands are similar areas and they would benefit from being better connected.  The East Midlands region incorporates the docks at Immingham and the West Midlands would benefit from access to this sea port;

d)  Government is reappraising the costs of the project and there is concern that the East Midlands section of the scheme may not go ahead.  It is recognised that there are competing priorities but benefits for the Midlands are significant so authorities are focused on putting the best case forward;

e)  This is a long term project and discussions are ongoing regarding improvements that can be made to existing rail infrastructure in the meantime, for example electrification.  These infrastructure developments will support and unpin the case for an East Midlands section of HS2.

Committee members expressed their support for an East Midlands section of HS2.

RESOLVED for Councillor David Mellen, as Chair of the Committee, to write a letter of endorsement from the Committee for East Midlands Councils’ submission to the HS2 Review Panel.

Report of the Chief Executive, Bassetlaw District Council

Neil Taylor, Chief Executive of Bassetlaw District Council, introduced the report setting out revised proposals for utilising the surpluses generated by the business rates (NNDR) pooling arrangements.   

RESOLVED

(1)  to review the situation with power stations as part of a formal National Non-Domestic Rates (NNDR) Pool assessment in March each year, or as required if there are developments on either the closure programme or the mitigation sought from Ministers;

(2)  to allocate £0.5m from the Business Rates Pool for 2018/19 (when the final figure is declared) towards feasibility studies for a few specified strategically significant infrastructure schemes that will help unlock the growth potential of the area.  These studies will be integral to the eventual business cases for submission to Government or the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership for funding and an annual sum is being sought to increase the County’s capacity;

(3)  to set aside a further £0.1m as a contingency for countywide issues/ planning;

(4)  to return all other surpluses to the constituent authorities for economic development purposes as a matter of course each year once the figures are declared as at 31 March; and

(5)  for a paper to be taken annually in October to the N2 Chief Executives meeting to review the projected pool performance with a further report in March annually to agree any future top slicing and contingency funding.

Reasons for decision

The decision aims to collectively unlock the growth potential of the area whilst boosting the finances of the constituent authorities.

Other options considered

The option of returning 100% of the surpluses to constituent authorities was rejected because it would deny an opportunity to make strategic interventions to unlock economic growth where needed.

Report of the Chief Executive, Bassetlaw District Council

Neil Taylor, Chief Executive of Bassetlaw District Council, introduced the report seeking support from across the City and County for Bassetlaw District Council’s ‘Legacy Oaks’ project.  During discussion the following points were highlighted:

(a)  Planting oak trees is a fitting commemoration of the Mayflower pilgrims and builds on Sherwood Forest as an asset for the County;

(b)  The project links with schemes already in place at several district councils to plant more trees;

(c)  The project is supported at a Midlands Engine level.

RESOLVED to support the Mayflower Legacy project.

Reasons for decision

The planting of legacy oaks, grown from acorns from Sherwood Forest will commemorate the Mayflower Pilgrims and provide a legacy for hundreds of years to come.

Other options considered

Not supporting the project would reduce the impact of the legacy project and therefore this option was rejected.

Date of next meeting (including Joint D2N2 Leaders Meeting) - December 2019 (tbc)

RESOLVED to hold the next meeting of the Committee in either December 2019 or January 2020.