CUMBRIA LOCAL ENTERPRISE PARTNERSHIP MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF CUMBRIA LOCAL ENTERPRISE PARTNERSHIP HELD BY VIDEO CONFERENCE ON FRIDAY 18 SEPTEMBER 2020 AT 2.00PM DIRECTORS PRESENT Lord Richard Inglewood, Chair; Jim Jackson, Deputy Chair; Barrow Borough Council represented by Lee Roberts; Graham Booth; Copeland Borough Council represented by Mike Starkie; Steve Cole; John Coughlan; Steve Curl; Eden District Council represented by Mary Robinson; Lake District National Park Authority represented by Peter Allan MBE; Julie Mennell; Emma Porter; Lorrainne Smyth, Chief Executive ACTion with Communities in Cumbria; Sarah Swindley; Rebecca Weston and Nigel Wilkinson. IN ATTENDANCE • Harry Colwell, Baines Wilson LLP • Jen Hewitt, PA & Office Manager, CLEP • Andrew Hill, Company Secretary • Maisie Hunt, Head of Secretariat, CLEP • Jo Lappin, Chief Executive, CLEP The Chair opened the meeting by welcoming all attendees to the Cumbria LEP Annual General Meeting. 1. APPOINTMENTS TO THE BOARD 1.1. The meeting was asked to note that the Board had ratified the appointment of Lorrainne Smyth to the Board as a private sector member to represent Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise interests. Lorrainne Smyth would take over the work of her predecessor, Patricia Livsey who had stood down from the position. The Board gave its thanks to Patricia Livsey for her commitment. 1.2. The meeting was asked to note that the Board had ratified the re-appointments of John Coughlan and Nigel Wilkinson as private sector Board members. 2. APOLOGIES FORDRAFT ABSENCE Apologies for absence were received from Cumbria County Council represented by Stewart Young, Vice-Chair; Carolyn Dodwell; Mike Smith OBE and Andrew Wren. 3. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST !1 The Members were invited to declare any interests. No declarations of interest were made. 4. MINUTES OF PREVIOUS ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 3.1 The minutes of the previous Annual General Meeting held on Friday 27 September 2019 were discussed. The Chair asked the Members if they had any additions or amendments to make to the minutes. 4.2. The Members had no additions or amendments to the minutes and agreed that the minutes were an accurate and correct record of the previous Annual General Meeting. Accordingly, IT WAS RESOLVED that the minutes be approved and accepted in the form provided. 4.3. The Members confirmed that there were no further matters arising not elsewhere covered on the agenda. 5. CHAIR’S OVERVIEW 5.1. The Chair informed the meeting that it has been an unusual year and that COVID-19 had dominated the CLEP’s activity as well as the activity of the whole country. The Chair thanked all of the CLEP members of staff, who had been in the forefront of the steps taken to counter the damage from COVID-19. In particular the Chair acknowledged the Chief Executive’s appointment as Chair of the Business and Economic Response and Recovery Group (BERRG) which is part of the governance arrangements established by the Local Resilience Forum in response to the national emergency. In addition to chairing BERRG, CLEP had also taken on its Secretariat function. 5.2. The Chair welcomed back Peter Allen, who the meeting was informed had personally had COVID-19 and as such been away from his activities for a considerable period of time. 5.3. The Chair divided the activities of CLEP over the last twelve months into three key themes: 1. Covid work under BERRG and the LRD Structures; 2. ContinuationDRAFT of activities engaged; and 3. Implications of the end of EU Exit Transition period. 5.4. The Chair acknowledged that the transition period for EU Exit, which comes to an end on 31 December 2020. He recognised that this could cause significant business dislocation, and it was important that businesses did not get deflected from thinking about the challenges and opportunities that might lie ahead. 5.5. The Chair recognised that the operating environment was also changing with positive and increased focus on net zero and a green economy. !2 5.6. He said that things were literally changing by the minute, and the work that CLEP had been doing to address all of the issues was partly reflected in the Annual Report. There had also been interest about the future role of CLEP and the structure of wider governance in the county. The Chair acknowledged that the government was looking at devolution and local government reorganisation, which would potentially have implications for both Cumbria and CLEP. However, LEPs are currently part of the wider system of ‘government’ and were politically neutral and would work in whichever way best benefits Cumbria. 5.7. The Chair advised that nationally government is giving thought to a system of supra-regional bodies and therefore changes are likely to happen, although it was currently unclear as what these changes were going to be. CLEP would respond as best as it could, putting the best interests of the county at the front of its activities. The future is uncertain, although there are a number of very serious concerns facing Cumbria economically, commercially and more widely. The Chair assured the meeting that CLEP would do its best to stand with the rest of the community to mitigate any damaging impacts and to grasp any opportunities that might arise in the future. 6. INVESTMENT OVERVIEW 6.1. The Deputy Chair provided an investment overview for the previous twelve months. He thanked the LEP officers, members of the Investment Panel, Board Members and colleagues, who had kept CLEP on track throughout such a difficult period, as well as the businesses, which continued to progress their investment plans. 6.2. He identified that £60.32 million of funding had been secured through the Growth Deal, which had unlocked £146 million of investment in Cumbria. Attendees were informed that this was the final financial year of the Growth Deal, which ended in March 2021. £47.5 million had been spent to date, with £12.82 remaining to be spent by March 2021, with more than sufficient projects in the pipeline to deliver the remaining funds. CLEP was slightly over programmed at the moment as a contingency and further contingency projects were available, if required. 6.3. The Deputy Chair acknowledged that the Investment Panel had now exceeded three of the delivery targets and will by 2025 achieve all of the Growth Deal targets. He recognisedDRAFT that housing and jobs tended to be a lagging indicator as infrastructure needs to be built to enable these to be delivered. Clearly, COVID-19 presented a risk for the achievement of jobs, given the level of economic contraction. !3 6.4. The Deputy Chair informed the meeting that CLEP had invested in over 20 projects over the last 6 years, across a range of activities and geographies. The programme was large and far reaching. He had been pleased about the introduction of the Growing our Potential Fund, which had been designed to provide easier access to relatively small amounts of money and had been a considerable success. The initial allocation of £1 million, had been increased and was now fully subscribed. The funding has gone to provide grant support to private businesses to make capital investments to support growth. CLEP would look to replicate this, should further funding be made available. 6.5. He went on to inform the meeting that in July, a Getting Building fund of £10.5 million had been received from government, which was allocated to two projects; vertical farming (£5.5 million) and A595 Bothel (£5 million), subject to due diligence. These projects needed to be completed by March 2022, and business cases were expected in November of this year. 6.6. The Deputy Chair acknowledged that the future funding horizon was uncertain. Therefore, the primary focus would be on building a pipeline of projects, which had been welcomed by government colleagues, in anticipation of further funding coming forward. Sustainable economic growth is a focus, as well as jobs and housing. Key themes also include clean energy, net zero, active travel, vibrant places, agriculture and manufacturing. 7. MAKING A DIFFERENCE 7.1. The meeting was informed by the Chief Executive that CLEP thought it would be helpful to outline the work of three of the governance bodies, which were all focused on working in and with places. Peter Allen would begin with the Places Strategy Group, followed by Steve Cole who would talk about the Barrow Towns Board and finally Emma Porter who chaired the Construction Sector Panel. PLACES STRATEGY GROUP – PETER ALLEN, MBE 7.2. Peter Allen began by highlighting key priorities of the Places Strategy Group: • the promotion of Cumbria as the place to live work and invest; • to address cold spots of worklessness and social deprivation in Cumbria; • to support local place shaping programmes; • encouragingDRAFT housing which is the right product at the right price in the right place; • supporting the development of bespoke local area economic diversification strategies, and • to work with the public sector to deliver high quality public services. !4 7.3. He started by highlighting the Your Future campaign that had been developed to sell Cumbria using real life case studies of people who had relocated to work in the area. This campaign had now been ‘rebooted’ following the lifting of lockdown. Multiple routes to markets were being used for the campaign. Attendees were then shown images showcasing the campaign including the alliterative campaign - Calming Cumbria; Clever Cumbria, Captivating Cumbria; Creative Cumbria etc. 7.4. Peter Allen acknowledged the work to support partners to deliver housing that meets the needs of all - both current and new residents. The meeting was informed that Lichfields had been appointed to identify barriers to housing delivery and opportunities that could be taken forward.