Agenda item

Mick Lazarus, Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, provided an update following completion of the first cohort of Town Investment Plan submissions as part of the Government’s Town Deal programme which consisted of three cohorts.

It was reported that 13 towns had submitted Town Investment Plans during the first cohort which had now been assessed and considered, with advice in respect of each having been forwarded onto Ministers. The next stage of the process would be to agree heads of terms over the next few weeks, with four or five of the propositions likely to be confirmed by the end of October.

It was recommended that attention should be given to the prioritisation of projects and their scalability which, despite this not being a specific requirement, had been the subject of assessment in respect of those Town Investment Plans considered as part of the first cohort.

Further reflections from assessments undertaken as part of the first cohort were noted as follows:

·         Town Improvement Plans seeking more than £25 million would undergo more in depth scrutiny via a Panel. One Town Improvement Plan had exceeded £25 million and the Panel to undertake the process of additional scrutiny was in the process of being established;

·         some Town Improvement Plans included very little reference to stakeholder engagement, which was perceived negatively. It was acknowledged that Lincoln’s Town Improvement Plan was relatively strong in this respect;

·         an important inclusion as part of the narrative in submissions were comparisons to national averages and regional averages in the use of statistical analysis. Statistics within the submission had to be meaningful and demonstrate how they compared nationally;

·         feasibility should not be submitted as a standalone item as there were no specific outcomes that could be demonstrated. Feasibility should therefore feature as an attachment to individual projects;

Ursula Libetter asked whether a steer could be provided regarding project prioritisation and what aspects would be looked at more favourably as part of the assessment, questioning for example whether a project’s perceived importance, impact or deliverability should be categories of prioritisation. It was noted that the way in which projects were prioritised should be a decision of the local area as part of the submission of the Town Improvement Plan, but that some form of prioritisation would need to be demonstrated.

It was reported that accelerated funding had been confirmed and local authorities should receive a letter of confirmation along with their designated funding shortly. Angela Andrews confirmed that the City Council had received its confirmation this morning and that the money would be in the Council’s account on 30 September 2020.

Kate Ellis asked of those projects included in the first cohort’s submissions whether an element of those scoring highest as part of the assessment were due to their ability to be scoped and delivered early. It was noted that deliverability was not a key part of the assessment at this stage, with more emphasis on projects being aligned with the intervention framework and strategic rationale as part of the Town Investment Plan.

Ivan Annibal, in response to the importance of including national and regional comparisons, highlighted that the Transformation Plan which sat under the Town Investment Plan, included national and regional comparisons for five, ten, fifteen and thirty years. It also included benchmarking analysis against nine towns or cities with similar characteristics to Lincoln.

Ivan Annibal took those present through the first draft of the Lincoln Town Deal Investment Plan that had been prepared for the check and challenge stage of the process. It had not been made publicly available at this time as it was still a working document which needed to go through the check and challenge procedure. The document consisted of the following main parts:

·         context analysis;

·         location and profile;

·         key assets and strengths;

·         evidence of need, challenges and opportunities;

·         Investment Plan focus;

·         wider investment and interventions;

·         vision and objectives;

·         strategic context;

·         outcomes and targets;

·         spatial strategy;

·         project plan;

·         project profiles;

·         governance;

·         partnerships and engagement;

·         business case development and appraisal;

·         Investment Plan summary;

·         programme management and delivery.

Caroline Killeavy highlighted that reference under the heading ‘key assets and strengths’ should be made to the importance of the not for profit sector, particularly in relation to the contributions not for profit organisations would make to the development and implementation of projects within the Town Improvement Plan. It was agreed that the document would be amended to included reference to the not for profit sector under the narrative for the ‘key assets and strengths’ section.

Mary Stuart highlighted that the Universities and College had been identified as key strengths in the document, but acknowledged that Lincoln itself was largely a low wage and low skilled area. This therefore demonstrated a slight mismatch and gap which needed to be adequately addressed. It was agreed that more be included in the narrative about what the projects were specially planning to achieve, how they would make Lincoln more attractive, create more highly-skilled jobs and, as a result, benefit the local economy.

Ursula Lidbetter, in support of this, cited the development of the Cornhill Quarter as an example of doing something significant not solely to attract shoppers or generate footfall but to contribute to the creation of a city that would attract people to Lincoln and ensure they stayed in Lincoln.

It was RESOLVED that:

(1)          The document be noted, subject to the amendments set out above.

(2)          That any further comments on the content of the document be submitted directly to Ivan Annibal.