Decision details

Background:

On 10^th June 2020, the Government made a call to Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP) for shovel-ready schemes that were able to spend in the next 18 months, as a way to stimulate economic recovery and help mitigate the impact that COVID-19 has had on employment levels.

Consequently, the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (KMEP), via the Kent and Medway Economic Partnership (KMEP), wrote to local stakeholders (including KCC) asking for their shovel-ready scheme suggestions. All forthcoming proposals were then submitted to Government, via SELEP, on 18^th June 2020. The accumulated total of these SELEP suggestions equalled £573m.

On 3^rd July 2020, the Government informed the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP) that it would receive £85million of ‘Getting Building Fund’ (GBF) to deliver ‘shovel-ready’ schemes. GBF is capital grant funding.

The Government asked SELEP to prioritise its original scheme suggestions for inclusion within the £85m funding envelope. The SELEP Strategic Board met on 16^th July 2020 to make its decision.

The SELEP Strategic Board chose seven Kent projects to be included within the £85m ask of Government. Three of these projects are to be delivered directly by Kent County Council and are covered by Decision 20/00085.  Four projects are to be delivered by third-party promoters. These third-party schemes are:

The approval of Ministers to SELEP’s £85m list is awaited.

If Ministerial approval is granted, the business cases for these third-party projects will be presented to the SELEPAccountability Board in October or November 2020 for their approval of the funding award.

Subject to the necessary approvals being granted, SELEP will require Kent County Council to enter into a grant agreement with Essex County Council (which is SELEP’s accountable body) for all schemes awarded GBF by SELEP within KCC’s administrative boundary, whether the projects are Kent County Council projects, or alternatively projects promoted by a third party (e.g. a private sector business). For these projects, where Kent County Council is not the project promoter, Kent County Council is asked to enter a back-to-back grant agreement with the third party.

This key decision is therefore required to enable grant agreements to be entered into, so that funding may be secured for the Kent projects from the Getting Building Fund.

Options (other options considered but discarded)

If Kent County Council were to choose to not enter into a grant agreement for the GBF projects selected by the SELEP Strategic Board, the GBF funding could be either (i) retained by central government or (ii) reallocated by SELEP to another project(s). It is not clear at the time of writing if the project would be in Kent’s geographical area, or from another area of the SELEP.

The Leader of the Council agrees to:

a)    endorse the projects in Kent that the South East Local Enterprise Partnership’s Strategic Board has prioritised to receive Getting Building Funding (GBF) at its board meeting on 16 July 2020;

b)    County Council acting as the accountable body for third-party projects within Kent’s geographical boundaries that are selected by the SELEP to receive GBF grant funding; and

c) Delegate to the Section 151 Officer the authority to sign on KCC’s behalf a grant agreement or equivalent, where this is required to draw down funds following business case approval.