Agenda item

Ian Curryer, Chief Executive, Nottingham City Council  

David Ralph, Chief Executive of D2N2 presented the item on the outcomes of the D2N2’s local Growth Deal following Government announcements made on 7 July 2014, highlighting the following:

(a)  subject to the satisfactory negotiation of a series of freedoms and flexibilities with Government departments, D2N2 has secured £173.4 million from the Local Growth Fund to support economic growth in the area, with £31.6 million of new funding confirmed for 2015/16 and £69.5 million for 2016/17 to 2021. This funding includes an indicative award of a further £30.4 million for projects starting in 2016 and beyond and £42.8 million funding which the Government has previously committed as part of Local Growth funding to the area;

(c)  by 2021 the Local Growth Deal will deliver at least 18,000 jobs, allow 8,000 homes to be built and support over 147,000 learners. The key projects directly relevant to Nottingham and Nottinghamshire are: the Southern Growth Corridor, Gedling Access Road, A57/A60 Worksop, Bioscience Expansion, Nottingham skills hub, Nottingham Broadmarsh / Southern Gateway, Newark Southern Link Road, Vision University Centre in Mansfield, Harworth Access Road and D2N2 Sustainable Travel Programme;

(d)  the Government also confirmed support to the D2N2 Growth hub (£525,000) and the Superfast Broadband scheme by providing D2N2 with the flexibility to reallocate underspends to enhance the delivery of broadband projects;

(e)  the onus is on local authorities to deliver projects following the release of funding in April 2015, so mobilisation is crucial at this stage.

Following questions and comments from the Committee, the following information was provided:

(f)  further clarity is sought from Government ministers to establish the submission deadline for 2016/17 and beyond as there are conflicting reports. D2N2 are working to reports that the 2016/17 submission date is March 2015 which would leave 6 months to identify “stellar” projects and a manageable framework to avoid the time constraints and issues faced with the last submission. There have been other reports, voiced by Councillor Neil Clarke, that projects for 2016/17 will be considered in the next two months;

(g)  prior to identifying “stellar” projects for 2016/17 and committing valuable local resources, Chief Executives and Leaders of all constituent authorities would benefit from seeing the criteria for the reorganisation of the Strategic Economic Plan submitted in March 2014, including who made the decision to reprioritise the submission;

(h)  in terms of the submission of projects for 2016/17, the list would need to be reprioritised and refreshed so that the weaker schemes are replaced with higher quality projects. Any future submissions will need to better reflect the composition of Nottinghamshire County and District areas.

RESOLVED to

(1)  request D2N2 to circulate to the chief executives and leaders of the constituent authorities:

(a)  the criteria on how the Strategic Economic Plan (SEP) was reorganised and prioritised following submission from the Committee, who made the decision to reprioritise the submission and on what authority the reorganisation was made;

(b)  confirmation that previous schemes were not dead from their perspective;

(c)  a clear process for the next round of bidding;

(d)  establish the date for the submission of the SEP for 2016/17 and report back to the Committee;

(e)  minutes of previous and ongoing D2N2 Board minutes.

Reasons for decisions:

The Economic Prosperity Committee forms a key pillar of D2N2’s governance arrangements and disclosure of the background to Local Growth Deal outcomes enables the Committee to better understand the implications for the funding of projects.

Other options considered:

No other options were considered. Further rounds of Local Growth Funding are expected and there may be opportunities to accelerate delivery if underspends occur elsewhere.