Agenda, decisions and draft minutes

To note the Joint Committee’s membership and to receive apologies for absence from Members.

The meeting commenced at 5:17pm.

The Chair, Cllr Mike Bell, Leader of North Somerset Council, opened the meeting.  The following additional persons were present:

Cllr Claire Young, Leader, South Gloucestershire Council

Mayor Marvin Rees, Bristol City Council

Apologies for absence had been received from Cllr Kevin Guy, Leader, Bath & North East Somerset Council.

The following persons were also present:

Richard Bonner, Chair of the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership Board

Cllr Ed Plowden, Chair of the West of England Combined Authority Overview & Scrutiny Committee

Cllr Geoff Gollop, Chair of the West of England Audit Committee.

Members who consider that they have an interest to declare are asked to: a) State the item number in which they have an interest, b) The nature of the interest, c) Whether the interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest, non-disclosable pecuniary interest or non-pecuniary interest. Any Member who is unsure about the above should seek advice from the Monitoring Officer prior to the meeting in order to expedite matters at the meeting itself.

There were no declarations of interest declared under the Localism Act 2011.

To consider and approve the minutes from 16 June 2023 of West of England Joint Committee Meeting.

The minutes of the meeting held on 16 June 2023 were agreed as a correct record,

To receive announcements from the Chair of the West of England Joint Committee.

There were no Chair’s announcements.

WRITTEN PUBLIC QUESTIONS (written procedure)

1.      Any member of the public can submit a maximum of two written questions in advance of this meeting.

2.      The deadline for the submission of questions is 5.00 pm, at least 3 clear working days ahead of a meeting. For this meeting, the deadline for questions is 5.00 pm on Monday 2October 2023.

3.      Questions should be addressed to the Chair of the meeting and e-mailed to democratic.services@westofengland-ca.gov.uk

4.      Under the direction of the Chair, wherever possible, written replies to questions will be sent to questioners by the end of the working day prior to the meeting.

5.      Please note - under the Combined Authority’s committee procedures, there is no opportunity for oral supplementary questions to be asked at committee meetings.

6.      The written questions and replies will be circulated to committee members in advance of the meeting and published on the Combined Authority website.

PUBLIC STATEMENTS

1.      Any member of the public may submit a written statement (or petition) to this meeting.

2.      Please note that one statement per individual is permitted.

3.      Statements must be submitted in writing and received by the deadline of 12 noon on the working day before the meeting. For this meeting, the deadline for statements is 12 noon on Thursday 5 October 2023. Statements should be emailed to democratic.services@westofengland-ca.gov.uk

4.      Statements will be listed for the meeting in the order of receipt. All statements will be sent to committee members in advance of the meeting and published on the Combined Authority website.

Please note:

If any member of the public wishes to attend the meeting to orally present their statement, they are asked please to notify the Combined Authority’s Democratic Services team of this at the point when their statement is submitted and by 12 noon on the working day before the meeting at the very latest.

For those presenting their statements at the meeting, up to 3 minutes ‘speaking time’ is permitted for each statement. The total time available for the public session at this meeting is 30 minutes

There were six questions received from members of the public.  The responses to these questions had been circulated to Members of the Committee and published on the Authority’s website.

In addition seven statements had been received from members of the public.  These statements had been circulated to the members of the Committee and published on the Authority’s website in advance of the meeting.  The following members of the public attended the meeting and were invited to address the Committee for up to three minutes on the topic of their statements:

·       Robbie Bentley;

·       Dave Redgewell.

The Chair of the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership to be invited to address the meeting.

The Chair of the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Board, Richard Bonner, was invited to address the meeting and made the following points:

·       He welcomed the mid-term review undertaken and welcomed the feedback from stakeholders for the quality of the service from Invest Bristol & Bath (IBB) and hoped that the recommendation to set more ambitious plans and targets for the future would be agreed;

·       He hoped that the links between the UAs and the MCA would be strengthened even further through the work of the IBB;

·       He welcomed the investment and activities in the region such as Bristol Temple Quarter, QTIC, the opening of IAAPS and urged continual work in attracting inward investment in the region;

·       In respect to the report on the LEP and IBB forecast and change requests he stated that it was vital that it was recognised that the combined authority was changing and growing, and that to deliver the work programme it was vital to continue to collaborate with the LEP Board and other partner organisations.

The Chair of the Authority’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee to present the comments of that Committee.

The Chair of the West of England Combined Authority’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee, Cllr Ed Plowden, was invited to address the meeting.  The comments received on behalf of the Committee had been circulated and published in advance of the meeting.

In respect to Agenda Item 9, the Committee had welcomed the review of Invest in Bristol and Bath and noted the successes to date, especially the high level of local employees benefitting. The Committee agreed that the targets had been easily met and that more ambitious targets would be in order.

The pressures on the budgets and the work under way to resolve this had been noted.

The Chair of the Authority’s Audit Committee to present the comments of that Committee.

The Chair of the Authority’s Audit Committee, Cllr Geoff Gollop, was invited to address the meeting and raised the following points:

·       He stated that he thought it would be useful to receive an update on the progress of the integration of the Local Enterprise Partnership Board;

·       The Authority operating two meetings (main Committee and Joint Committee) and with North Somerset Council not being part of the West of England Combined Authority led to constitutional difficulties;

·       Additionally the function of the Joint Committee without an elected member of the Combined Authority present meant that procedures and protocols needed to be carefully established and asked for a report to be brought to a future meeting to outline the decision-making arrangements for the Joint Committee,

To present the outcome of the mid-term review of the West of England Inward Investment Service ‘Invest Bristol and Bath’, setting out the findings and the consultants recommendations and the planned next steps

Resolved:

(1)   That the findings of the Gateley mid-term IBB service review as discussed in this report and outlined in the Executive Summary attached as appendix 1, be noted

(2)   That the proposed short-term high-level plan through to the end of the current funding ending March 2025, as summarised in the proposal section below and attached as appendix 2, be agreed. Detailed delivery activity to be worked on between the Head of Enterprise, Investment and Trade at the Mayoral Combined Authority (MCA) and the Unitary Authority (UA) Economic Development Managers and reported to the Business and Skills Directors and Chief Executive Officers.

(3)   That the planned approach to developing a model for future delivery as summarised in the proposal section below and recognising the long-term recommendations set out in appendix 2, be agreed. This would consider evidence set out in the mid-term review and draw on other factors such as the emerging regional strategy and on UA strategic ambition. The outcome of this work would be a business case for inward investment activity in the region from April 2025 to 2030. This work to deliver a business case to Committee for decision by mid-2024.

The Joint Committee received a report which presented the Committee with the outcome of the mid-term review of the West of England Inward Investment Service ‘Invest Bristol and Bath’, and which set out the findings and consultants proposed recommendations.

The Joint Committee was asked to endorse the detailed recommendations of the review, including proposed changes to the current programme over its last 18 months of delivery, and to inform the development of a case for future delivery post March 2025.

Cllr Young asked that in respect to recommendation (2) that there be effective rigour introduced in the governance process with the implementation of an advisory panel and in respect to recommendation (3) that all the options be fully considered and evaluated, including the implementation of a ‘hub and spoke’ model delivered by the unitary authorities.

Mayor Rees stated that there was a lot of outreach work carried out by the Unitary Authorities with a lot of climate work evolving around finance and the importance of keeping these communication channels open to get as much alignment as possible and to become more than the sum of the constituent parts of the region.

The recommendations were moved by Cllr Mike Bell and seconded by Cllr Claire Young.

[voting arrangements: Decision required majority agreement of Committee Members in attendance, or their substitutes (one vote representing each Authority)].

It was unanimously

Resolved:

(1)   That the findings of the Gateley mid-term IBB service review as discussed in this report and outlined in the Executive Summary attached as appendix 1, be noted

(2)   That the proposed short-term high-level plan through to the end of the current funding ending March 2025, as summarised in the proposal section below and attached as appendix 2, be agreed. Detailed delivery activity to be worked on between the Head of Enterprise, Investment and Trade at the Mayoral Combined Authority (MCA) and the Unitary Authority (UA) Economic Development Managers and reported to the Business and Skills Directors and Chief Executive Officers.

(3)   That the planned approach to developing a model for future delivery as summarised in the proposal section below and recognising the long-term recommendations set out in appendix 2, be agreed. This would consider evidence set out in the mid-term review and draw on other factors such as the emerging regional strategy and on UA strategic ambition. The outcome of this work would be a business case for inward investment activity in the region from April 2025 to 2030. This work to deliver a business case to Committee for decision by mid-2024.

This report represents the forecasted revenue and capital to the West of England Joint Committee for the financial year 2023/24 based on data from the period April to July 2023. The report covers the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and Invest Bristol and Bath (IBB) revenue budgets. Change request approvals are also included as part of this reporting process.

Resolved:

(1)   That the Committee notes the Revised Analysis of LEP External Grants as at the end of July 2023 as set out in Figure 1; The LEP Revenue Forecast as set out in Appendix 1 and the LEP Capital Forecast as set out in Appendix 2;

(2)   That the change requests for schemes in the Local Growth and Getting Building Fund programmes as set out in Appendix 3 be approved;

(3)    That the change requests for schemes in the Economic Development Fund programme as set out in Appendix 4

(4)    That approval be given for the project change request and the award of an additional £20.21m from the Economic Development Fund for the design and construction of North Filton Station and detailed design of Henbury Station, subject to the approval of the updated Full Business Case, delegated to the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority (MCA) Director of Infrastructure in consultation with the Directors of Infrastructure of the constituent Councils

The Joint Committee received a report representing the revenue and capital forecast to the West of England Joint Committee for the financial year 2023/24 based on data from the period April 2023 to July 2023. The report covered the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and Invest Bristol and Bath (IBB) revenue budgets. Change request approvals had also been included as part of this reporting process.

The recommendations were moved by Cllr Mike Bell and seconded by Mayor Rees.

[Voting Arrangements:

Item 1:                   None required – Recommendations were for noting purposes.

Item 2:                   Decision required majority agreement of Committee Members in attendance, or their substitutes (one vote representing each Authority)

Item 3 & 4:            Decision required majority agreement of Committee Members in attendance, or their substitutes (one vote representing each Authority) ]

It was unanimously

Resolved:

(1)   That the Committee notes the Revised Analysis of LEP External Grants as at the end of July 2023 as set out in Figure 1; The LEP Revenue Forecast as set out in Appendix 1 and the LEP Capital Forecast as set out in Appendix 2;

(2)   That the change requests for schemes in the Local Growth and Getting Building Fund programmes as set out in Appendix 3 be approved;

(3)    That the change requests for schemes in the Economic Development Fund programme as set out in Appendix 4

(4)    That approval be given for the project change request and the award of an additional £20.21m from the Economic Development Fund for the design and construction of North Filton Station and detailed design of Henbury Station, subject to the approval of the updated Full Business Case, delegated to the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority (MCA) Director of Infrastructure in consultation with the Directors of Infrastructure of the constituent Councils