“It is noted that Carmarthenshire will receive £38.6m over the next 3 years through the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund and that a high-level regional Investment Plan has been submitted for approval. Please could the Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Leisure, Culture and Tourism advise on the following:
1. The process for agreeing which local projects go forward and who will be involved in these decisions.
2. Arrangements for ensuring that the needs and priorities of all communities across Carmarthenshire are reflected in the approved projects.
3. Whether safeguards in place to ensure that local priorities are not subsumed into those set at regional level, and what these safeguards are.
4. The state of preparedness of proposed projects, which will obviously need to ‘hit the ground running’ to optimise spend and outcomes, particularly in Year 1.
5. Whether the spend profile for the Fund is split proportionately across each year, with a smaller allocation in Year 1 because approved projects are unlikely to start until late 2022 at the earliest”.
Minutes:
“It is noted that Carmarthenshire will receive £38.6m over the next 3 years through the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund and that a high-level regional Investment Plan has been submitted for approval. Please could the Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Leisure, Culture and Tourism advise on the following:
1. The process for agreeing which local projects go forward and who will be involved in these decisions.
2. Arrangements for ensuring that the needs and priorities of all communities across Carmarthenshire are reflected in the approved projects.
3. Whether safeguards in place to ensure that local priorities are not subsumed into those set at regional level, and what these safeguards are.
4. The state of preparedness of proposed projects, which will obviously need to ‘hit the ground running’ to optimise spend and outcomes, particularly in Year 1. 5. Whether the spend profile for the Fund is split proportionately across each year, with a smaller allocation in Year 1 because approved projects are unlikely to start until late 2022 at the earliest.”
Response by Councillor Gareth John – Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Leisure, Culture and Tourism:-
“Thank you for the question and also for the opportunity of updating Council and the wider public as to the state of play with regards to Carmarthenshire’s plans to maximise the benefits and opportunities afforded by the UK’s Shared Prosperity Fund [SPF]. Cllr. Palfreman has been, and will continue to be, regularly updated during our regular one-to-one briefings which I, and hopefully Cllr. Palfreman, find beneficial and really productive. In Wales the SPF will be delivered via 4 regional areas with local government being given responsibility for developing a high level regional strategic investment plan and thereafter its delivery. So turning to the question:
1. Whilst it has been agreed that Swansea Council will serve as the Lead Local Authority for the administration of the £138m UKSPF allocation for the region, decision making is very much at local level, with each Local Authority adhering to their own constitutional arrangements and protocols. Carmarthenshire’s confirmed allocation is £38.6m which comprises of £32m core funding and £6.6m for the multiplied skills programme. There is an expectation that project proposals are taken to local Regeneration Partnerships (made up of public, private and third sector representatives) in each Local Authority for approval prior to Cabinet sign off. In Carmarthenshire, this Partnership has already been established, has met twice, and is made up from up of local stakeholders from the public, private and third sectors. It has been agreed to establish 3 thematic sub groups concentrating on communities and place, supporting business and people and skills. All projects will be considered initially by the Regional Partnership Sub Groups, then to the Regional Partnership itself before consideration and approval by Carmarthenshire County Council’s Cabinet. Since the submission of the plan our officers have been working with the regional team to develop a consistent process, procedure and delivery model for the funding. The outline delivery models agreed at last Friday’s Carmarthenshire Regeneration Partnership are basically fundamentally the same throughout the whole region and indeed as I understand it those being developed in the other 3 regions within Wales. We anticipate that the way which projects will be invited to apply is likely to be a combination of grants schemes and open calls for applications. The process will be agreed at the regional level to ensure a high degree of communality and also, importantly, consistency with implementation of the statement in the regional investment plan.
2. A Carmarthenshire Local Investment Plan detailing the needs and priorities of the County has been developed, which feeds into the wider Regional Investment plan. This was considered and approved by Cabinet on the 25th July 2022. All applications for funding will be assessed against the priorities identified within the Carmarthenshire Local Investment Plan to ensure local needs are fully supported.
3. The Shared Prosperity Fund is very much concentrated on local priorities and Carmarthenshire will be responsible for the way the SPF is delivered within Carmarthenshire. Whilst Swansea Council will serve as the Lead Local Authority for the administration of the SPF, decision making will be made at a local level. The Carmarthenshire Regeneration Partnership will be consulted on all applications for funding. In addition, as part of the application and assessment process, applicants will be required to demonstrate alignment with our Local Investment Plan.
4. The whole programme has been run within an incredibly tight timeline and it is testament to our officers here in Carmarthenshire and indeed the regional team that all timeline deadlines have currently been met. We recognise that the need to proceed matters as soon as formal approval is issued by UK Government and we hope that the approval will come through sometime during October. Work progresses as I speak to ensure the County will be able to open up opportunities for funding via a series of grant schemes and open calls as soon as the approval is received so that we can ensure that our allocations are fully taken up each year.
5. And finally the spend profile. Yes your comment with regards to a smaller allocation in year 1 is correct and Carmarthenshire’s spend profiles are as follows:
2022/23 - £3.8m Core SPF, £2m Multiply;
2023/2024 - £7.7m Core SPF, £2.3m Multiply;
2024/25 - £20.3m Core SPF, £2.3m Multiply.
These have been set by UK Government recognising the late start which is reflected by the modest year 1 funding allocation. I hope that addresses your question”.
Supplementary Question by Councillor Martyn Palfreman:-
“Given that Carmarthenshire is going to have a lot of control over its own destiny in this case will there be opportunities for members represented in this chamber to have an active part in the dialogue deciding what priorities or what projects actually go forward potentially, for example, through the Community and Regeneration Scrutiny Committee and I think that would be very much in keeping with the commitment the Leader gave at the beginning of the meeting today to a proactive approach to policy development and implementation?”
Response by Councillor Gareth John – Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Leisure, Culture and Tourism:-
“I can assure you that the answer is yes. The key thing we await at the moment is the approval and we anticipate that sometime in October. After that then it’s a matter of inviting the bids and after that it’s the scrutiny of the bids as they are submitted. The process as I’ve outlined earlier with regards to analysing and scrutinising the bids that are made will be undertaken through the process I have outlined which is the all important Carmarthenshire Regeneration Partnership and the stakeholder groups, there will be 3 sub-groups – they will be reporting to the full Partnership, and the Partnerhip will be making recommendations through to Cabinet and Cabinet will be making the final decisions. That said there is an important role within Scrutiny as well and that’s where the members will have the opportunity of scrutinising. I would also say that up until now all our meetings have been on a consultative basis which have included all elected representatives, including UK Parliament representatives locally and the Senedd. Once we get the approval we go into the decision making stage and the politicians will not be invited only the main stakeholders who will be determining and making recommendations and our officers and ourselves, as an authority, will be ensuring that it meets the policies already identified within our local investment strategy.”