Agenda item

10.1

The committee considered a report of the Executive Director, City Futures providing an overview of progress to deliver the second round of the Economic Recovery Fund (ERF) now that the application and scoring phases are complete. The report lists the outcomes of the scoring process for all applications and provides information about the geographical spread and make-up of the areas that applied for funding. The report marks the point at which ERF moves from the application and scoring phases into the contracting phase, which will enable successful projects to start delivering improvements and activities in their areas.

10.2

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Economic Development and Skills Policy Committee;

1. Note that Finance Committee have been asked (at their meeting on 11

September 2023) to approve the allocation of funding to areas offered over

£50,000 (up to £200,000) and, subject to due diligence and other checks being

undertaken to the satisfaction of the Director of Economic Development, Culture and Skills, for SCC to enter into a funding agreement with an appropriate lead organisation for each of the areas listed in the table below:

2. Note the areas listed in the table below have been allocated funding of up to £50,000 subject to due diligence and other checks being satisfied:

10.3

Reasons for Decision

10.3.1

The report updated the Committee on the progress of this project, which the Committee approved on 19th October 2022. This update marked a key milestone in the project cycle, at the transition from application and scoring to contracting and onwards to delivery. The Committee would be kept updated as the project continued to develop.

10.4

Alternatives Considered and Rejected

Programme

10.4.1

As noted, a range of options for delivering ERF2 were considered over summer and autumn 2022. Several alternative ways of delivering the second round of funding were considered as part of this process and proposals were made in relation to changing and improving the second round of funding. These were approved by the EDSP Committee at its meeting on 19th October 2022. This approach has subsequently been enacted so the proposals here are the outcome of an agreed process

Outcomes

10.4.2

Because the Fund was oversubscribed, Steering Group had to look at ways of managing that and ensuring funding offers were within the available budget and made in a fair way (as described in appendix 1).

10.4.3

Alternatives to that included the following, but the agreed approach was felt by the Steering Group to be a balanced, individualised and fair way of dealing with the budget pressure that took into account the specific elements within each project and strengths and weaknesses. It was felt that any blanket measures would cut across these nuances and lead to outcomes unreflective of their scoring judgements.