Agenda item

Hedd Vaughan-Evans, Portfolio Director to present report.

1.     To note the Q4 performance report and the updated Portfolio Risk Register.

2.     To approve the submission of the Quarter 4 Performance Report to the Welsh and UK Governments, along with local authority scrutiny committees.

The report was presented by the Portfolio Director

DECISION

1.     To note the Q4 performance report and the updated Portfolio Risk Register.

2.     To approve the submission of the Quarter 4 Performance Report to the Welsh and UK Governments, along with the scrutiny committees of the local authorities.

REASONS FOR THE DECISION

Quarterly reporting on progress against the North Wales Growth Deal is one of the requirements of the Final Growth Deal Agreement. 

DISCUSSION

A number of highlights that had been achieved within this quarter were reported, such as the approval of three Outline Business Cases, the Full Business Case for the EGNI project, as well as several Requests for Change. He was pleased that an initial event had been held for the Dairy Sheep Wales project as well as the first investment panel meeting of the Clean Energy Fund, where the first projects for that fund had been approved.

He was pleased that 161 jobs had been created so far and explained that 63 of these were new jobs and 58 of them were construction jobs. These numbers were noted to be slightly higher than predicted. It was explained that the Members had received additional information about jobs data beyond the documentation of this meeting, and he explained that this information would be shared publicly when job numbers increased. It was acknowledged that they could not be shared publicly at present to ensure that no individuals could be identified from the information.

It was confirmed that the investment into the Growth Deal now stood at £30,652,413.01 noting that the total investment was now over £34.2 million, and he reported that this met the investment targets for the year. He elaborated that the projects had now secured over £7 million of revenue budget.

It was explained that 7 projects were now operational, acknowledging that this was less than the number of projects expected to be operational by the end of the year. He noted that there had been delays on some projects such as Parc Bryn Cegin. It was elaborated that some schemes had been delayed due to the political regulations of the Pre-Election Period: Senedd Cymru election, and it was hoped that those projects would be operational as soon as possible.

It was shared that there were 10 projects that had been approved but were not currently operational. The committee was assured that most of those projects were expected to be operational within six months.

It was also noted that Outline Business Cases were being developed for 8 projects. One project continued to report red at present, and was currently under review as a result, namely the Holyhead Hydrogen Hub. It was pleasing that the Outline Business Case had been developed and was being assessed jointly with external advisers.

The Portfolio Risk Register was detailed, confirming that the residual risks to 'affordability' and 'political change' had recently been increased following the war in the middle east and also the need to start working with new members of the Senedd following the election.

During the discussion, the following observations were made:-

The current Affordability risks following the war in the middle east were discussed. It was pointed out that the economic climate had changed significantly since 2020, when a Financial Agreement for the Growth Deal was agreed. In response to an enquiry on the discussions that were taking place with the UK and Welsh Governments regarding the 'expected outputs', the Portfolio Director confirmed that officers had been communicating with the Portfolio Board and the Chief Executives of the region's Councils in order to prepare a document highlighting the current situation and preparing for the future. It was explained that it was essential to ensure that future procedures were carefully designed to ensure that any plans that addressed the increase in costs and affordability were not harmed by further developments in the war. It was confirmed that no discussions had taken place with the Governments at this time, noting that officers were preparing for them. Members shared their desire for the discussions to take place as soon as possible. The Welsh Government Observer added that the Government was ready to hold these discussions with officers and was eager to seek solutions.

The members expressed their thanks for the report and for the detail of the data across the region. Some members shared that they would like to receive further data per county in the region in future, so that they could further justify the investment with their fellow local members, from the public funds. It was recognised that reporting this type of data could be challenging as some of the projects did benefit neighbouring counties and the region as a whole, even though they were based in another county. However, it was considered that the receipt of such information would encourage individual counties to identify new developmental and commercial opportunities, whilst also working towards the main regional targets. In response to the comments, the Portfolio Director reported that this type of information had not been presented within this type of report in the past, however, officers would make contact with members in order to obtain recommendations about the information they wished to receive within these quarterly reports in future, as the next report would reflect the first quarter of the year 2026/27. A discussion took place on this issue where a number of views were presented for and against the inclusion of this information within future reports including issues of population, transport and cross-county benefits.

The report was considered to be very positive, noting that it was vital to ensure that the public was aware of these achievements. In response to the comments, the Portfolio Director confirmed that there were many opportunities to inform the public of the successes, through press releases and events that were already underway, and he emphasised that this had not been possible in recent weeks because of the Pre-Election Period regulations of the Senedd Cymru Election.

The members expressed their thanks for the report.