Agenda item

Update by the Chief Operating Officer of the Local Enterprise Partnership.

Members received a general update from the Chief Operating Officer of the Local Enterprise Partnership on the LEP including developments since the last meeting of this committee, as well as a specific update on the LEP Annual Performance Review.

Regarding the LEP Annual Performance Review, Members were advised that the Heart of the South West LEP had been judged to have met performance targets in each of the three key areas that LEPs were being reviewed on, namely Delivery, Governance and Strategic Impact. The Committee was provided with a number of key successes, and areas for improvement, across these three areas.

With reference to Governance, Members were advised that, since the performance review, the Heart of the South West LEP’s board had dropped below the requirement for LEP boards to consist of one-third female members owing to two staff retirements, and that the LEP was looking to move back above that threshold.

Under Delivery, the Scrutiny Committee was advised that the approximately £35 million of ‘Getting Building’ funding that had been secured was on track to be spent by the required March 2022 deadline, where a monitoring phase would follow; and that under the Growth Deal, the vast majority of the funding had been spent or allocated and that the monitoring phase for this funding stream had begun.

With regards to Strategic Impact, Members were assured that the Build Back Better strategy remained the guiding ethos for LEPs in their strategic oversight for the region. Notably, the LEP had recruited a Head of Delivery to work across LEPs and with numerous stakeholders in the South West across various sectors.

The general LEP update focused primarily on the uncertainty surrounding LEPs, with the Government broadly encouraging LEPs being absorbed into devolution deals (where LEP responsibility would be handed to Local Authorities). It was explained to Members that the Government had acknowledged the difficulty of absorbing LEP responsibility in this way would be difficult for some areas. This specifically pertained to Devon owing to continued talks surrounding the future of Devon’s status as a ‘two-tier’ Local Authority.

Member discussion points included:

·         the future of LEP funding or, where LEPs would cease to exist, funding for current LEP functions. It was explained to Members that, from current indications, no significant future funds would go through LEPs and that what funding would be available to Local Authorities was unclear. The £2.6 billion UK Shared Prosperity Fund had been announced by Government with an ‘allocation based formula’ but further details had not been released. Additionally, prior to Brexit, EU funding was matched with UK domestic funding which would no longer be the case, exacerbating the uncertainty;

·         ensuring that, referring to gender balance targets on LEP boards as highlighted under Governance, LEPs were also giving sufficient consideration to ensuring representation of those with other protected characteristics; and

·         that, despite uncertainty surrounding the future of LEPs and the specifics surrounding project delivery, the Build Back Better plan still provided the overall logic and framework that the relevant organisation – be that the LEP or Local Authority – should use.