Agenda item

1.    Mr Dance, as Cabinet Member for Economic Development, explained that the report on the changes to the Regional Growth Fund (RGF) and its evolution into the Kent & Medway Business Fund (KMBF) had been developed to address comments and concerns raised by the Scrutiny Committee previously.  Mr Dance advised the Committee that the KMBF sought to bring improvements to the work already done by the RGF, balancing the local focus afforded by having sub-county schemes with the effective corporate governance benefits achieved through centralised management and decision making.  He explained that there would be continued funding across the three previous areas and that key local partners would be involved in regular strategic meetings to review the success and efficacy of the funding scheme.  Mr Smith, Director of Economic Development, advised the Committee that the KMBF already had available  £9.6m of repaid loans for future rounds of applications.

2.    Members thanked Mr Dance and the Officers for attending and providing a detailed and useful report.  A Member highlighted the RGF and KMBF as a good example of the Scrutiny Committee’s activity leading to positive improvement and that it reflected well on the Economic Development team that they had taken on board the key issues highlighted by the Committee previously and had provided suitable reassurance.

3.    Members commented that it should be noted that the RGF had had a significant positive effect across the county and that it was hoped that the KMBF would be able to continue this work effectively.

4.    Responding to a Member question, Mr Dance and Mr Smith explained that in addition to core team of Economic Development officers, led by Jacqui Ward, support for the schemes was also provided by various private sector individuals and companies.  Mr Smith also noted the support provided by the members of the funding boards who made the relevant decisions using local knowledge and business acumen with the support of professional advisors providing due diligence advice and audit.  It was clarified that the Board members do not receive remuneration with the exception of one who receives fees for also acting in a consultant capacity for the scheme.  Mr Smith explained that these fees covering the administration costs were now being recovered by way of a small administration charge for each successful application.

5.    Responding to Member questions, Mr Smith and Mr Riley (Economic Development Officer) explained that while they had recognised a potential risk of receiving an insufficient number of quality applications for the new funding round, this had not been the case.  Mr Riley clarified that 124 pre-applications had been received and of these, 84 had been invited to submit full applications. Only  full applications were received which resulted in 18 conditional agreements and  6 were eventually rejected.

RESOLVED that the Committee thank Mr Dance, Barbara Cooper, David Smith and Martyn Riley for attending and answering Members’ questions; that the Economic Development department be congratulated on responding comprehensively and positively to comments from the Scrutiny Committee at previous meetings and that the report be noted.