Issue - meetings

Alwen Williams (Chief Executive) to present the report.

1.         To agree the recommendation and preferred way forward - Revised Land and Property Programme (Option 2) stating that it will be a matter for the Sub-Committee to determine the projects to be prioritised and the approval of funding from the Growth Deal.

2.         To request that the Portfolio Director begins the transition process to formally include these elements in the Land and Property Programme.

The report was presented by the Chief Executive and Head of Operations.

DECISION

1.         To agree on the recommendation and preferred way forward – Revised Land and Property Programme (Option 2) stating that it will be a matter for the Sub-Committee to determine the projects to be prioritised and the approval of funding from the Growth Deal.

2.         To request that the Portfolio Director begins the transition process to formally include these elements in the Land and Property Programme.

REASONS FOR THE DECISION

In March 2025, North Wales Ambition launched an 'Expression of Interest' process to select projects for the new Reserve List that would be able to bring forward business cases for funding in the future. One of the criteria set was that projects needed to be within the scope of the five existing Growth Deal programmes – Digital Connectivity, Low Carbon Energy, Land and Property, Innovation in High Value Manufacturing and Agri-Food and Tourism.

Of the 27 Expressions of Interest submitted, four were considered to be outside the scope of the Growth Deal. One of these was a revenue-based project and the other three were primarily transportation projects. It was noted that two had been submitted by the Welsh Government and one by Cyngor Gwynedd. Only one of the projects, 'Padeswood', met the scoring threshold to be considered for inclusion on the reserve list; however, the report to the sub-committee made clear that this would be subject to a separate decision on the inclusion of transport projects within the Growth Deal.

At the Economic Well-being Sub-Committee in May, it was agreed that:

a)         the Sub-Committee agrees to initiate a process to assess and review the scope and case for extending the current Growth Deal to include transport projects.

b)         the Sub-Committee commissions the Portfolio Director to prepare a detailed options report in consultation with the Welsh and UK Governments and officers of the Constituent Councils and Education Partners.

c)         the options report be submitted to the Sub-committee with the intention of determining whether the formal change process should be commenced to ensure agreement for the extended Growth Deal to include Transport projects.

DISCUSSION

The members were reminded that this report was being submitted following a request from the board following the last meeting in order to be able to decide whether or not it was necessary to consider initiating a formal change process to extend the Growth Deal to accommodate projects with Transport elements.

It was explained that if the 'Padeswood' project were to be approved on the Reserve List, this would enable the possibility of adding more schemes to the reserve list in the future, provided they met the requirements of the Growth Deal. It was noted that this was the only scheme that met the scoring thresholds following an Expression of Interest process to be on the Reserve List, carried out by North Wales Ambition in March 2025.

The background and relevant considerations that had been achieved prior to submitting this report  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7