Agenda item

The Portfolio Holder for Growth and Prosperity to provide an overview of the work undertaken to date since the Council secured investment to deliver its UKSPF investment plan.

Cabinet:

1.    CONFIRMED commitment to delivery of the UKSPF Investment plan as previously submitted to Government.

2.    DELEGATED Authority to Director for Growth and Regeneration, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Growth and Prosperity, to authorise spend and undertake decisions, approvals and awards of contract that ensure continued delivery of the UKSPF programme in line with the investment plan. This is to include, not only council led projects, but also where funding needs to be released for delivery by a third party (via grants, commissioning, procurement of services etc).

3.    DELEGATED authority to Director for Growth and Regeneration, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Growth and Prosperity, to make amendments to the plan, as required, and to submit change requests to Govt, relating to the delivery of Melton’s UKSPF programme, in accordance with the requirements of the fund.

4.    DELEGATED authority to the Director for Growth and Regeneration, in consultation with the Portfolio holder for Growth and Prosperity, to agree and implement the Council’s Business Grant policy and to make any future amendments required to continue to deliver the UKSPF investment plan.

Director for Growth and Regeneration introduced the report, the purpose of which provided Members with an overview of the work undertaken to date since the Council secured £1.19m of investment to delivery its UKSPF investment plan. They were advised that significant work has been undertaken to ensure the programme is ready to begin delivery to provide support to residents and local businesses.

The Portfolio Holder for Growth and Prosperity said that the UKSPF has come from the vision that partners, stakeholders and workshops held over the last two years, the benefits are now starting to be seen in the town centre and rural borough. The Council has significant responsibilities to meet the requirements and ensure we meet the agreed timelines.  Monitoring is in place to ensure that all the requirements are met a local advisory board is being set up with local stakeholders and partners to evaluation delivery of the programme.

Members asked for clarification for members of the public that the funding will be used for investment in the town centre and rural communities.  That business that are struggling with energy costs will be helped and there will be  improvements for the street scene in the town centre.

Cabinet:

1.    CONFIRMED commitment to delivery of the UKSPF Investment plan as previously submitted to Government.

2.    DELEGATED Authority to Director for Growth and Regeneration, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Growth and Prosperity, to authorise spend and undertake decisions, approvals and awards of contract that ensure continued delivery of the UKSPF programme in line with the investment plan. This is to include, not only council led projects, but also where funding needs to be released for delivery by a third party (via grants, commissioning, procurement of services etc).

3.    DELEGATED authority to Director for Growth and Regeneration, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Growth and Prosperity, to make amendments to the plan, as required, and to submit change requests to Govt, relating to the delivery of Melton’s UKSPF programme, in accordance with the requirements of the fund.

4.    DELEGATED authority to the Director for Growth and Regeneration, in consultation with the Portfolio holder for Growth and Prosperity, to agree and implement the Council’s Business Grant policy and to make any future amendments required to continue to deliver the UKSPF investment plan.

Reason for Recommendations:

The UKSPF programme is an allocation made to the council to support its local communities and economy. Its successful implementation will directly support growth throughout the borough. Following significant consultation with partners across the borough, all with direct experience of the issues being faced by our communities and local businesses, the UKSPF programme interventions have been prioritised and selected precisely because they directly target and provide support where it is most needed.

The UKSPF programme is a package of interventions that will align with, and are complimentary to, the recently successful Levelling Up Fund submission to further support extensive growth within key sectors and key locations. The UKSPF will deliver key interventions that have been highlighted by our business community through direct feedback at UKSPF workshops but also through information collated through the adopted Town Centre Vision.

The UKSPF programme is a significant investment in our local communities and economy. The programme has clearly defined objectives and expectations regarding outputs and outcomes generated. There is also a very short timeframe for delivery and sets out the level of investment that must be made per year across the many different interventions.

Melton Borough Council as the accountable body for the programme has significant responsibilities to ensure the funding is spent in a timely and, more importantly, compliant manner. This will be managed internally but will require the council to be able to be flexible in its delivery approach to ensure it continues to deliver against these expectations and meets the targets it is responsible for delivering. This will require officers, in accordance with relevant local and national regulation, to be able to make decisions regarding project and programme delivery to ensure effective delivery of the proposed interventions.

Due to the fast-paced nature of these projects and the length of time for delivery there is an ongoing need to ensure the programme can react to changing local needs and reflect the demands of our local communities and economy at any point in time. There will be a need to continually monitor outputs, engage with partners and assess how projects are delivering to identify any potential required changes. These changes then need to be agreed at the local level and a request made to government to secure their sign off to put these changes in place. This will be often a small-scale change and delegated authority is sought to retain flexibility to enable these changes to be made in a timely manner to enable ongoing delivery against original programme expectations.