Confirmed Minutes of the Twenty Second meeting of the SEMLEP Board held at 10.00am – 2.00pm on Wednesday 4th February 2015 at the Innovation Centre, Cranfield University Technology Park, University Way, MK43 0BT

Present Dr Ann Limb OBE DL (Chair) Mayor Dave Hodgson (Director) Bedford Borough Council Cllr Mary Clarke (Director) South District Council Rae Levene (Director) HCB Park Woodfine (left after item 22.10) Alan Humphreys (Director), Grand Union Housing Cllr Pete Marland (Director), Milton Keynes Council Ian Stuart (Director) Global Radio Cllr David Mackintosh (Director) Northampton Borough Council Cllr James Jamieson (Director) Central Bedfordshire Council Cllr Mahmood Hussain (Director) Luton Borough Council Jane Roemer Voluntary & Community Sector Alex Burns (Director) Millbrook Proving Ground Dave Richards, (Director) Prodrive Ali Hadawi CBE (Director) Central Bedfordshire College Prof. Tim Blackman (Director) Open University

Apologies Cllr Neil Blake (Director) Aylesbury Vale District Council Tom Wells (Director) Charles Wells Brewery Ltd Cheryl Smart MBE (Director) Bedfordshire Chamber of Commerce

In attendance Daniel Charles Mouawad, Chief Executive, SEMLEP Hilary Chipping, Head of Infrastructure, SEMLEP Naomi Green, Assistant Director, BIS Local

Minutes Gayle Pope, Partnership Services Manager, SEMLEP

Agenda Action Item No 22.1 Introductions

AGL welcomed everyone to the 22nd Board meeting. She Recruitment will made the Board aware that an Extraordinary General commence for 2 Meeting had been conducted prior to the Board meeting. new private At the meeting the following changes were approved to the sector Board articles of association: directors

To approve the separation of Higher Education and Further Education Members into two groups, which will each have a Board Director. Consequent changes will be made to the Articles of Association. Carried by 11 votes for, 1 against and 1 abstention.

To approve an increase in the number of private sector Directors from 7 to 9 with the consequent change to the Articles of Association. Carried by 11 votes for, 2 against and 1 abstention.

AGL introduced the 4 new Board directors Ali Hadawi, Principal & CEO of Central Bedfordshire College, Tim Blackman, acting VC at Open University, Alex Burns, CEO of Millbrook Proving Ground and Dave Richards Chairman of Prodrive.

22.2 Apologies

Apologies were noted as above.

22.3 Declarations of Interest

Noted as per the Agenda.

22.4 Unconfirmed Minutes of 21st meeting of the SEMLEP Board held on 12th November 2015.

Confirmed as a true record.

The minutes of the AGM were also noted, Jane Roemer and GP to amend the Ali Hadawi were both there but not recorded as attending. minutes of the AGM 22.5 Actions Log

It was noted that a number of the actions from the previous Board meeting were amber but that these were well in hand.

22.10 Velocity Update

It was agreed that RL cover his item next on the agenda as he had to leave the meeting early.

He told the Board that the project was well on its way to

meeting its targets and that a review of the project had

been carried out by Regeneris.

The programme was coming towards the end of the current funding but it had been very successful and we had received additional funding of £300k through the Local Growth Deal. He asked the Board to sign off the budget for Velocity for 2015/16.

DCM gave his thanks to RL for chairing the project board

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and said that we were looking to expand the number of people that sat on the Board. We would be asking the users of the service if they would like to be involved.

We launched our Digital Workshops and Healthchecks in January with a target of 300 businesses engaged. The take

up so far has been excellent.

The future funding of the service was discussed and DCM told the Board that we will be putting in a bid for EU funding with a view to extending the service for 3 years. NG agreed to ask what the future AGL also asked NG to take a note back to BIS about how funding looked Growth Hubs would be funded going forward. like for growth hubs He also told the Board that the delivery model was currently being debated by the project Board which was being led by RL.

The Board supported a free entry point for businesses but suggested that a charging model be introduced to take businesses to the next level. Report on the breakdown of the The Board also agreed to ensure the EDOs were involved end beneficiaries and asked that they should be provided with information by local authority about who was benefitting from Velocity in their area. to be produced

22.6 Budget 2015

Alan Humphreys was proposed as an additional member of the Finance Committee.

Board Decision: The Board agreed

The Board were notified of the Finance & Remuneration

committee support for the internalizing of 2 posts in the SEMLEP team; Finance Officer and Business Development Manager.

It was decided that the EDOs be involved in the recruitment process to ensure that the role complemented activity that was already being carried out in local authorities.

Board Decision: The Board agreed

The funding paper was discussed and it was noted that some of the RAG ratings had already changed from amber

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to green e.g. the Skills Funding Agency. DCM will write to TB asked what the HE/FE contribution was and it was all of the HE/FE agreed that DCM would review what the level of organisations contribution should be with FUSE/SEMU then write to all of outlining the the organisations outlining the proposal and ask for a proposal and ask contribution to the SEMLEP budget as part of the for a contribution partnership commitment.

GP to get AGL The Board was then asked to agree the Core Funding signature and 2015/16 proposal which outlined how the LEP intended to submit the match fund the £250k contribution from DCLG. proposal to DCLG

Board Decision: The Board Agreed

DCM asked the Board to note that Electric Corby is seeking an extension to their £200k loan under Growing Places Fund and that the GPF task group had recommended that the proposal be accepted.

He also wanted the Board to note that the Enterprise Zone budget and business rate uplift implications was also dealt with by a separate EZ Board, though expected to be presented to SEMLEP Board at a future meeting.

The Board then considered the proposed expenditure budget for 2015/16. E&D monitoring Board Decision: The Board Agreed to be added to our website The Board also noted the Equalities and Diversity policy and agreed that it should be adopted. Living Wage to be researched and AGL suggested we could report our monitoring of options presented equalities and diversity our website. to the Board after the election They then discussed the issue of Living Wage and agreed that there should be more research carried out on this before it became policy. 22.7 Planned Work-streams

The Board were given an overview of the planned work- A list of Board streams for 2015. members and their portfolios to AGL suggested including the Board strategic Leads on the be tabled at the document for the next Board meeting. next Board

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meeting The Board also agreed that it would be useful to have a Board away day following the election. GP to find a date end of June NG suggested that at the next Board meeting we should beginning of July have a paper on how the LEP should position itself post- for the Board election. Away Day

The Board then discussed the proposal from NG to liaise with Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire to DCM and HC on bid to become a combined authority. It was felt that this what needs to be would need additional discussion post-election. included

22.8 Local Growth Fund

SEMLEP now had confirmation that their 2016/17 allocation of Local Growth Fund would be £46.7m. This would support a list of projects but government had not been specific yet about what each project would be receiving. A

letter was also tabled from Sir Bob Kerslake which assigned

our list of projects into a number of different categories. As

this had so recently been received further discussion as to what this meant for each project needed to take place with BIS Local.

AGL suggested that the Board would be responsible for agreeing the profile of spending for each of the projects listed in the letter from Sir Bob Kerslake subject to Government approval.

The Board then discussed the Local Growth Fund Task Group which was made up of the 10 local authority Chief Executives. It was suggested that this group should have a permanent Chair and that Chair would come to each Board meeting to give them an update.

MC wanted to note that she had been pleased with the

support SEMLEP had given in raising the profile with

ministers of the Abthorpe roundabout but wanted us to keep a watching brief going forward. HC to raise the Quarterly Monitoring of Business Plan issue at the PDIIDG meeting A discussion followed on the targets in the Business Plan. on 10th February The number of housing completions was likely to remain 2015 red. The Local Authority Leaders asked that the issue be raised and debated with PDIIDG.

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The other targets that were likely to remain red related to skills and apprenticeships. This was partly as a result off the accuracy of the data from the Skills Funding Agency.

JJ wanted to note that the transport announcements in SEMLEP had been extremely positive including improvements to the A428 and the A1. The development Discuss the of the East West Rail continued to make good progress and targets for he was now involved in a group called Midlands Connect 2015/16 at the which consisted of LEPs across the West and next Board working together to look at transport infrastructure on a meeting larger scale.

The Board also asked to look at the targets for 2015/16.

22.9 EU Funding

DCM updated the Board on the timetable for calls under our allocation of structural funds. We would be putting out calls for projects under ERDF and EAFRD in March.

The VCS were having a number of workshops in March to help them to be in a position to bid for some of the projects.

Sue Smith has asked that SEMLEP increases its capacity in order to cope with level of work that will be needed. Local authority partners were asked if they could offer any staff on secondment to help.

22.10 High Performance Technology

DCM said that the HPT group were planning to run another business event in Grand Prix week. The date of which is 1st July 2015 and will be open to any engineering business or business that supplies into the industry. There was also inward investment tours being planned to coincide with the event.

Enterprise Zone

DM gave an update on the EZ saying the Northampton If any other Board Station was now open. Cosworth would be opening shortly directors wanted along with the Innovation Centre. The Vulcan ironworks to have a tour had now got planning permission. A number of the new please liaise with Board directors had been on a tour of the EZ and found it GP. very useful.

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22.11 A.O.B. Please let GP We need to recruit two additional private sector Board know if you have directors in time for the Board meeting on 15th April. any nominations for private sector board director

These minutes are a true and fair record of the SEMLEP Special Board meeting on 4th February 2015

Signed Date

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