Agenda item

Dewi Morgan (Host Authority Head of Finance and Statutory Finance Officer) and Sian Pugh (Host Authority Assistant Head of Finance) to present the report.

To approve:

1.     The 2023/24 Revenue Budget as presented in Appendix 1.

2.     Funding contributions to include the partner contributions and local authorities’ supplementary contributions.

3.     Capital Budget for the Growth Deal as presented in Appendix 2.

4.     Extension of the fixed term staff contracts from March 2025 to March 2026.

The report was presented by the Host Authority's Head of Finance Department.

RESOLVED

To approve:

1.     The 2024/25 Revenue Budget as presented in Appendix 1.

2.     Funding contributions to include the partner contributions and local authorities’ supplementary contributions.

3.     Capital Budget for the Growth Deal as presented in Appendix 2.

4.     Extension of the fixed term staff contracts from March 2025 to March 2026.

REASONS FOR THE DECISION

In order to operate effectively within the funding available, the NWEAB requires an annual budget to be approved.

Appendix 1 sets out the proposed budget per expenditure heading and the corresponding funding streams for the year.

Appendix 2 sets out the proposed capital budget per project and the corresponding capital funding for the Growth Deal of £240m.

Appendix 3 provides a summary of the 2024/25 budget against the draft budget for 2025/26.

DISCUSSION

Members were guided through the revenue budget of the Ambition Board and specific attention was drawn to the following headings:

·       Portfolio Management Office - noting that expenditure included twenty employees as well as a student placement grant-funded post until August 2024.

·       Support Services - it was explained that these included finance, legal, corporate support, information technology and insurance.

·       Joint Committee - it was noted that these were relevant to the Ambition Board as a joint committee and it included external legal costs for the Governance Agreement, Financial Budgetary Fees, External Audit Fees and the budget of the Business Delivery Board.

·       Projects - it was confirmed that it included the revenue expenditure that was associated with the capital projects of the Growth Deal, which included the projects' business cases, external legal and procurement support as well as Assurance Reviews by the Government.

·       Grant Schemes - it was explained that it was relevant to the Local Area Energy Schemes that were funded by a specific grant from Welsh Government and also included the schemes funded by the UK's Shared Prosperity Fund.

          Attention was drawn to the Funding Contributions heading within the revenue budget, noting that it included partners' contributions and councils' supplementary contributions. It was elaborated that it also included a Growth Deal Grant of £1.1m and which was part of the 2.15% that had been earmarked for revenue expenditure. It was noted that Welsh Government's Energy Grant funded the expenditure of the 'Grant Schemes' along with the UK's Shared Prosperity Fund. It was explained that the Shared Prosperity Fund funded the expenditure of the 'Grant Schemes' heading and also contributed towards the costs of core staff of the Portfolio Management Office. It was reported that £211,000 would be in the reserve fund after £67,000 was used in the budget this year.

          It was added that one student from Bangor University worked with the Portfolio Management Office and the salary was funded by Welsh Government following a request from Ambition North Wales to one of the government's procurement programmes. It was noted that this plan was very valuable and other universities in north Wales would be happy to benefit from them.

          It was reported that the capital budget was based on expenditure profile that had been adapted according to risk and was reviewed during the year if business cases were approved by the Ambition Board. It was noted that expenditure of £240 million would be funded from the Growth Deal but the timing of receiving the grant would mean that short-term borrowing would be required. It was elaborated that the cost of borrowing would be funded by partners and sponsors of projects who had already been contributing an annual sum towards this in a specific reserve fund. It was confirmed that substantial interest had accumulated on the balances and it would be transferred to the same fund.

It was explained that the Growth Deal grant would not be received in 2023/24 and Ambition North Wales had been discussing the implications of this with both governments, and a report had been submitted to the UK Government on the logic behind an amended funding profile and the reallocation of funding from this year onwards. As a one-off measure for 2024/25, it was reported that partners would not be invoiced for interest contributions to meet additional costs when they arise, and the levels of contributions would be reviewed as required for the coming years as more information would be available throughout the financial year.