Agenda item

Purpose of Report

To approve the Heads of Terms offered by the Government in respect of the Lincoln Town Deal and the proposed management and governance arrangements for the next stage of the process.

Decision

That the Executive:

(1)          Approves the Heads of Terms offered by Government in respect of the Lincoln Town Deal.

(2)          Approves the proposed management and governance arrangements for the next stage of the process, set out within the appended Local Assurance Document.

(3)          In approving the Local Assurance Document, delegates the following decisions to the Section 151 Officer and the Strategic Director of Major Developments, working in partnership with the Town Board and its Investment Sub-Committee:

·         the final selection of projects to be taken forward to full business case;

·         approval of final project business cases and funding awards, except for projects to be delivered directly by the Council, which would be subject to full Executive approval;

·         any future changes which are required to the Local Assurance Document to reflect the terms of the Heads of Terms Offer or any further guidance for this programme.

(4)          Authorises the submission of a planning application in respect of the Central Market project and delegates approval of the final planning submission to the Strategic Director of Major Developments and Portfolio Holder for Economic Growth.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

None.

Reason for Decision

As part of the Government’s analysis of the projects associated with Lincoln’s Town Deal Fund bid, fourteen of the fifteen projects had scored high enough to qualify for this stage of the process equating to an offer of a £19million investment in the city.

The next stage of the process consisted of the following:

·         confirmation of Lincoln’s acceptance of the Heads of Terms by 24 March 2021;

·         confirmation of which projects, out of the fourteen accepted as part of the bid, Lincoln wished to progress further, within two months of accepting the Heads of Terms;

·         within twelve months of the Town Deal being agreed, development and

submission of final businesses cases for those projects selected.

The report set out an Assurance Framework and governance model that would be used to determine how the Lincoln Town Fund Programme would be managed and governed, taking account of the Heads of Terms agreement with the Government. It also provided further detail to support the arrangements set out within Lincoln’s Investment Plan.

The framework and governance had been drafted with reference to the Local Growth Assurance Framework developed by the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership for the management of its programmes and the existing policies and protocols which were in place for the City of Lincoln Council, as accountable body for the Town Fund Programme. The document outlined specific information in relation to governance, transparency, confirmation of the accountable body, scope and undertaking of due diligence, decision-making, contracting and claims, monitoring and grant claims, independent evaluation, claw-back and variation orders.

The newly established Investment Sub-Committee would have responsibility for approving final business cases, mirroring the principles followed by the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership. To assist in the decision-making, each business case would be subject to an independent due diligence check in the same way as for the Local Enterprise Partnership funding projects to ensure transparent and robust decision-making. It was reported that having this framework in place would enable the determination of projects to be fast-tracked in order that delivery could commence as soon as possible, once the final selection of projects to proceed to business case stage had been confirmed.

Councillor Ric Metcalfe put on record his thanks to the City Council’s team for the excellent work they had undertaken in preparing Lincoln’s bid. These sentiments were shared by Councillor Christopher Burke.

Councillor Neil Murray commended an excellent result for the city in confirming £19 million of funding for investment in Lincoln. He was particularly pleased to see inclusion of the Central Market project and the associated recommendation contained within the report.

Councillor Donald Nannestad asked whether the Investment Sub-Committee reported to the main Lincoln Town Deal Board.

It was reported that the Investment Sub-Committee would assess individual business cases when they came through for specific projects, which was a process mirroring that used by the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership, and make recommendations to the Town Deal Board and, ultimately the Council’s Executive for final approval. Councillor Metcalfe responded to this point and said that it was hoped a consensus would be achieved by the Town Deal Board, however, if a consensus could not be reached and the Board was unable to agree upon a way forward, final adjudication would rest with the City Council as accountable body, through its Executive.