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Agenda, decisions and minutes

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Media

Items
No. Item

66.

Disclosures of Personal and Prejudicial Interests.

Decision:

Medwin Hughes, Geraint Flowers and Barry Liles declared personal interests in minute 73 “Swansea City & Waterfront Digital District - Innovation Matrix Change Request”.

Minutes:

In accordance with the Code of Conduct the following interests were declared:

 

Medwin Hughes, Geraint Flowers and Barry Liles declared personal interests in minute 73 “Swansea City & Waterfront Digital District - Innovation Matrix Change Request”.

67.

Announcement(s) of the Chair.

Decision:

None.

Minutes:

There were no announcements.

68.

Public Questions

Questions must be submitted in writing, no later than noon on the working day prior to the meeting.  Questions must relate to items on the agenda. Questions will be dealt with in a 10 minute period.

Decision:

None.

Minutes:

There were no public questions.

69.

Audit Wales Report on Swansea Bay City Region Joint Committee Statement of Accounts 2020/2021. pdf icon PDF 180 KB

Additional documents:

Decision:

Approved.

Minutes:

The Auditor General is responsible for providing an opinion on whether the Statement of Accounts demonstrate a true and fair view of the position of the Swansea Bay City Deal Joint Committee as at 31st March 2021. The report summarised the findings from the undertaken audit.

 

This was the first year the Swansea Bay City Deal Joint Committee had to compile a Statement of Accounts in line with the Accounts and Audit (Wales) Regulations 2014, as amended in 2018. The Statement of Accounts was audited by Audit Wales, with the audit letter including the audit opinion and findings presented in Appendix A.

 

Jason Garcia, Audit Wales was pleased to present an unqualified audit opinion of the financial statements and highlighted the following:

 

·                    As the first payments totalling over £11m had been allocated to individual Local Authorities from the City Deal account, the materiality was based on gross expenditure and paragraph 4 outlined the materiality of £118,785 for this year’s audit;

·                    A lower materiality level had been set for:

-           Senior Staff Remuneration - £1,000

-        Related Party disclosures for officers and members - £1,000;

·                    No correspondence in relation to the call of audit in respect of the accounts had been received from local government electors by the deadline of 28 July 2021;

·                    The impact of Covid-19 was detailed in Exhibit 1;

·                     One significant issue arising from the audit was outlined in Exhibit 2;

·                     Appendix 1 – the letter of representation template;

·                     Appendix 2 – wording of the audit opinion;

·                     Appendix 3 – summary of amendments – however none of the errors had an impact on the year-end total comprehensive income figures.

 

Following formal approval the signing of the Accounts and letter of representation, Mr Garcia would meet with the Auditor General the following day in order that the audit opinion be signed within the statutory deadline of 31 July 2021.

 

The Chair thanked the Audit Wales representative for presenting their very pleasing report.

 

The S.151 Officer also thanked the Audit Wales representative and his team for the work undertaken and confirmed that the entries in Appendix 3 did not impact on the bottom line and were reclassification and presentation issues. 

 

Resolved that the Swansea Bay City Region Joint Committee receive the Audit Wales audit of the 2020/2021 Statement of Accounts report for the Swansea Bay City Region Joint Committee.

 

70.

Swansea Bay City Region Joint Committee Statement of Accounts 2020-2021 pdf icon PDF 283 KB

Additional documents:

Decision:

Approved.

Minutes:

The Section 151 Officer presented a report to seek Joint Committee’s approval for the Swansea Bay City Deal’s Programme’s Annual Statement of Accounts for the 2020/2021 financial year.

 

The S.151 Officer also thanked Richard Arnold for undertaking most of the work on a very compliant document.

 

Resolved that the Swansea Bay city Region Joint Committee approves the 2020/2021 post-audited Swansea Bay City Deal Statement of Accounts.

71.

Letter of Representation to Audit Wales. pdf icon PDF 274 KB

Additional documents:

Decision:

Approved subject to amendment.

Minutes:

The Swansea Bay City Deal Section 151 Officer presented a report to receive the Swansea Bay City Region Joint Committee’s formal acknowledgement of the Letter of Representation to Audit Wales.

 

Resolved that the Swansea Bay City Region Joint Committee acknowledge the Letter of Representation from the Swansea Bay City Deal Section 151 Officer and the Chair of the Swansea Bay City Region Joint Committee to Audit Wales subject to the date of approval in the last page of the letter being amended from 10 September 2021 to 29 July 2021.

72.

Swansea Bay City Deal Skills & Talent Business Case. pdf icon PDF 349 KB

Additional documents:

Decision:

Approved.

Minutes:

Barry Liles, SRO & Chair of the Skills Solutions Group and Jane Lewis, Programme Lead presented a report and presentation in order that the Swansea Bay City Region Joint Committee approve the Skills and Talent Programme Business Case, as one of the programmes within the Swansea Bay City Deal Portfolio, with a view to drawing down £10m of revenue investment.

 

Resolved that:

 

1)        The Joint Committee approves the formal submission of the Skills & Talent Business Case to the UK and Welsh Government for approval;

2)        The Joint Committee grants the Programme’s Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) in consultation with the relevant Directors and Cabinet Members in constituent Authorities delegated powers to make any minor amendments to the Business Case as necessary to obtain that approval.

73.

Swansea City & Waterfront Digital District - Innovation Matrix Change Request. pdf icon PDF 204 KB

Additional documents:

Decision:

Approved.

Minutes:

Medwin Hughes and Geraint Flowers, University of Wales Trinity Saint David presented a report to inform the Swansea Bay City Region Joint Committee of the change request relating to Swansea City & Waterfront Digital District - Innovation Matrix.

 

Box Village had now become the new Innovation Matrix, a higher quality, slightly larger space that would allow for greater flexibility and use from tenants.

 

Private Sector funding was contractually secured and would have delivered sufficient private sector investment to satisfy the requirements of the scheme. However, the private sector partner had not been forthcoming and as a result, the University would be forced to deliver the project without a private sector partner. This would effectively pass the £1.9m of private sector investment on to Innovation Precinct, which would not be delivered for c. 3 years.

 

As a result of these two points and with VAT implications as the University would be delivering the project directly, Innovation Matrix would have an anticipated funding gap of £5.716m. To rectify this, the University proposed to reallocate £5.716m of existing City Deal Funding from the Innovation Precinct project enable the commencement of the Innovation Matrix.

 

It was to be noted that this change request was not a request for additional funding and it would be forwarded to both UK and Welsh Governments for approval.

 

Resolved that Swansea Bay City Region Joint Committee approve the change request to re-profile City Deal funding in order to deliver the Swansea City & Waterfront Digital District - Innovation Matrix Project, subject to UKG/WG approving the request and the amended project.

74.

Swansea Bay City Deal Highlight Report. pdf icon PDF 203 KB

Additional documents:

Decision:

For Information.

Minutes:

Phil Ryder presented a “for information” report which updated the Joint Committee on the progress of the various programmes and projects that form part of the Swansea Bay City Deal Portfolio.

 

He outlined and updated the Joint Committee on the current situation relating to the following areas:

 

·                    Yr Egin

·                    Pembroke Dock Marine

·                    Swansea City & Waterfront Digital District5

·                    Pentre Awel

·                    Digital Infrastructure

·                    Homes as Power Stations

·                    Supporting Innovation and Low Carbon Growth

·                    Life Science & Well-being Campuses

·                    Skills & Talent

 

The Chair commented on the good news regarding the significant funding for Homes as Power Stations.

 

Chris Foxall stated that a gateway review was set for 12 August and he would be arranging a site visit prior to that date.