Agenda item

To recommend that Cabinet set aside £1m to pay for a Project Delivery Unit for two years to increase the capacity of the Council to progress the significant number of project workstreams it has underway.

 

To update Cabinet on progress with one of the Council’s most significant new work-streams, the Levelling Up Partnership, and recommend that Cabinet approves the principle of the Council entering into the Partnership with Government. The current partnership approach is to deliver projects through the Council being the Accountable Body, working with partners to achieve place-based regeneration in Clacton and Jaywick.

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

 

(a)    notes the increased capacity requirements on the Council’s resources to deliver a number of projects and schemes highlighted in the report, in addition to responding to the Council’s existing functions and responsibilities.

 

(b)    subject to (a) above, and the allocation of £1.000m of funding set out within item A.9 elsewhere on the agenda,  a Project Delivery Unit is agreed to be established for an initial period of 24 months from the date of the first officer starting in role;

 

(c)    accepts:

 

(i)      £90,000, made available by the Government as capacity funding to support the Levelling Up Partnership Project

(ii)     a sum of £86,000 made available by the Government as capacity funding to support the Levelling Up Capital Project in Clacton;

 

(d)    subject to (a) to (c) above, transfers both the £90,000 and £86,000 above to the funding of the Project Delivery Unit, bringing the total initial funding to £1.176m;

 

(e)    notes the Chief Executive will undertake the activities required to recruit the necessary capacity within the Project Delivery Unit, as Head of Paid Service (being non-executive functions);

 

(f)     recognising the impact on the Council, supports the Council acting as the Accountable Body for the Partnership to the benefit of Clacton and Jaywick, delegates entering into any agreements with Partners to the Corporate Director (Place and Economy), in consultation with the Section 151 Officer, and where necessary by entering into funding agreements with partners to do so;

 

(g)    recommends to Full Council to approve that Tendring District Council act as the Accountable Body for the Partnership (or alternative relationship determined by Government in revised policy), which forms part of the Council’s Corporate Plan 24-28, ‘Our Vision’ and therefore, within the Policy Framework;

(h)    subject to (g) being approved by Full Council, the delegation by Cabinet in December 2023, can be exercised by the Corporate Director (Place and Economy) in consultation with the Section 151 Officer and the Monitoring Officer to enter into any agreements with MHCLG for this Partnership;

 

(i)     subject to (g) being approved by Full Council and Cabinet, and Government approving business cases for funding, the Portfolio Holder for Economic Growth, Regeneration and Tourism be required to report to Cabinet the scope and details of the individual Partnership Projects together with the relevant Portfolio Holders taking the lead on delivery prior to implementation;

 

(j)     notes that the Chief Executive has nominated the Corporate Director (Place and Economy) as the lead officer for the Partnership; and

 

(k)    notes the Levelling Fund and Capital Regeneration Projects Portfolio Working Party terms of reference will be extended to include this Partnership and Town Board matters.

 

Cabinet considered a report of the Economic Growth, Regeneration & Tourism Portfolio Holder (A.3), which:-

 

(a)    recommended that Cabinet set aside £1m to pay for a Project Delivery Unit for two years to increase the capacity of the Council to progress the significant number of project work-streams it had underway; and

 

(b)    updated Cabinet on progress with one of the Council’s most significant new work-streams, the Levelling Up Partnership, and recommended that Cabinet approved the principle of the Council entering into the Partnership with Government. The current partnership approach was to deliver projects through the Council being the Accountable Body, working with partners to achieve place-based regeneration in Clacton and Jaywick. 

 

Cabinet was aware that the Council was responsible for the delivery of tens of millions of pounds of capital projects funded by Government, partner and its own resources. Projects included:

 

·      £30.743M Levelling Up Fund: The Clacton Hub, Dovercourt Library and the Kingsway Improvements.

·      £9.036M Capital Regeneration Projects. The Council was the Accountable Body for three projects delivered by Essex County Council: In addition, the Council was directly delivering Carnarvon Terrace in Clacton and Milton Road and Victoria Street in Dovercourt.

 

This was in addition to two major Housing Revenue Account Schemes:

 

·      £2.40m Spendells House redevelopment. A former sheltered housing scheme being brought back into use as temporary accommodation.

·      £3.250m Honeycroft scheme. Redeveloping the site of a former sheltered housing scheme with 13 one and two-bedroom bungalows to provide accommodation for those in the area seeking to downsize from a larger property.

 

And there were further projects in the pipeline:

 

·      £20M Long Term Plan for Towns, with £5m to be delivered by March 2027.

·      £20M Levelling Up Partnership.

·      £500,000 Green Spaces fund for High Street Accelerator.

 

Members were also aware that the Council was committed to identifying £3m of on-going revenue savings, which would also require additional invest-to-save projects to be brought forward, like the installation of pool covers recently completed within the leisure centres. The level of resources required to not only develop the long term forecast but to deliver the required savings, was not to be underestimated, especially when set against other existing commitments such as those mentioned above and the Freeport East project. There therefore needed to be a clear focus on the timely development of associated plans whilst managing competing resources over the coming months.

 

In addition to the above, the Council currently delivered projects including major capital schemes within Services, which were primarily responsible for day-to-day service delivery. The Council recognised that increasing project management capacity would enable it to deliver projects more effectively, and as a result, had thepotential to reduce overspends and bring major capital schemes in on budget and on time.  

 

In order to increase its project delivery capacity, the Council proposed to set aside £1 million to support a new Project Delivery Unit for two years.  The proposed team, subject to approval of the funding and restructures being undertaken, would sit within the Economic Growth, Sport and Culture Directorate with expertise including:

 

·      project management;

·      capital delivery;

·      programme governance;

·      procurement;

·      finance; and

·      contract and property law.

 

Cabinet was informed that the team would be managed by a Head of Unit who would bring project management expertise to the team and the Council. The team would include corporate capabilities that enabled project delivery, including procurement, finance and legal expertise, and would work closely with those existing specialisms in the Council, and operate within the Council’s governance framework.

 

The proposed staffing structure would be agreed by the Head of Paid Service.  With the fixed-term nature of the posts, it was noted that recruitment might require secondments, fixed term recruitment, and interim appointments, depending on the market for specific skills. Essex County Council had agreed to support the recruitment process to give a wider candidate search, which was underway.

 

It was reported that the new team would support projects to come in on time and budget and protect continued successful implementation of business as usual. The team would also bring in project management expertise that would support the wider Council with systems and approaches in this vital area. The Council would determine the projects to be delivered by the Unit and those on which it would provide advice to others to deliver. This decision would be taken in the context of the Executive’s agreed priorities.

 

Where funding from Government could be used to back fill or augment this budget the Council would seek to allocate it accordingly, for example capacity funding associated with the Levelling Up Fund.

 

Members were made aware that the Project Delivery Unit was also expected to include some existing posts, for example the previously agreed consultant role that oversaw the Levelling Up Fund and Capital Regeneration Projects, and a permanent Project Manager position on the establishment.

 

It was also important to highlight that the Project Delivery unit would be scalable based on the demands on the Council that would undoubtedly change over the coming months in reaction to the scale and speed of the development of projects. It was also worth highlighting that some costs of the Unit would likely be ‘chargeable’ to capital projects such as the LUF and CRP schemes and therefore the Council would need to be alert and flexible to maximise value for money from the proposed £1m pound investment in capacity building. This issue would be a key reporting element within future reports to ensure a timely and up to date position could be considered as necessary.  

 

Levelling Up Partnership

 

Cabinet was informed that the Levelling Up Partnership was expected to be one of the additional work streams delivered by the new additional capacity.

 

Cabinet recalled that, at the Budget Speech on 15 March 2023, Government had announced the District of Tendring as one of 20 places that would be selected to form Levelling Up Partnerships (LUP) with the then Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), which the Leader of the Council orally reported to Cabinet on 17 March 2023. Partnerships could be allocated up to a maximum of £20m capital funding (CDEL) and up to £250k revenue (RDEL) dependant on projects decided by (now) MHCLG ministers and subject to business case approvals by HM Treasury. 

 

Cabinet had been informed in December 2023 of progress with the Levelling Up Partnership. As forecast in that report, Government officials had visited the District of Tendring between January and March 2024 to carry out a ‘Deep Dive’, reviewing data, documents, and meeting with key partners in the public and voluntary sector. At the request of Government the Council, along with partners, had shared strategic documents and a pipeline of projects that could benefit from funding within 12 months of March 2024.

 

Government had requested that funding was targeted at projects in the largest conurbation within the District, i.e. Clacton-on-Sea. Government was content that this could include Jaywick Sands, given its proximity to Clacton, the need for regeneration in the area, and the recently completed Place Plan, which included costs projects for delivery. 

 

Following the Deep Dive, Government ministers in DLUHC (now MHCLG) had chosen projects that they wanted local partners to deliver to a total value of £19.79M and had requested additional detail on those in order to enable civil servants to complete business cases, including assessing value for money, in support of Treasury approval for the projects.

 

The draft terms and conditions shared by the then DLUHC on 17 May 2024 stated that projects should complete in the two years, 2024/5 and 2025/6. It also stated that “Any unspent funding in a financial year must be returned to DLUHC”. This timeline was extremely tight for capital project delivery.

 

At the time of calling the Parliamentary General Election on 22 May 2024, the Treasury had not approved individual business cases. On 24 May 2024 the Government had made the following announcement:

 

“Five areas in England and Scotland have agreed with the UK Government the details of their Levelling Up Partnership funding. […] Subject to local Cabinet approval, Tendring’s Levelling Up Partnership will likely include measures such as £3m to redevelop Clacton Leisure Centre to provide sports facilities and integrated health and wellbeing services, £2m to unlock the delivery of an urgent treatment centre and primary care facility at Clacton Hospital, and £2.5m to provide a new walking route across Tudor Fields, alongside other interventions to support regeneration. All the Levelling Up Partnerships will be subject to business case.”

 

Members were advised that since the Parliamentary General Election, the Council had been in correspondence with civil servants and at the date of writing, the new Government Ministers had not decided on the future of Levelling Up Partnership funding. So Cabinet was asked to take a view on the principle of the Council delivering regeneration projects through a Partnership with Government as the Accountable Body for funding to achieve place-based regeneration in Clacton and Jaywick. The detail of particular projects would follow should a decision be taken by Government to fund, and would be reported to a subsequent Cabinet meeting.

 

Given the scale of this additional funding this Partnership sat outside the existing Budget and Policy framework of the Council.

 

In the light of the fact that:-

 

(1)    the Council wished to strengthen and deepen its project management capacity. Creating a team of additional officers would enable the Council to progress its agreed major capital delivery schemes, provide advice and systems for project managers across the organisation, and protect existing business-as-usual operations from the impact of major new projects taken on by the authority. In short, without this additional capacity the Council would not be able to deliver the projects under the Long Term Plan for Towns and Levelling Up Partnership and the opportunity to invest tens of millions of pounds in the District would be lost.

 

(2)    the recommendations were made to capitalise on the Government’s funding opportunity to address key socio-economic challenges in Clacton and Jaywick, improve local infrastructure, enhance community services, and ultimately contribute to the long-term regeneration of the area. This was a once in a decade opportunity for Tendring to deploy investment on this scale, in addition to other levelling up funding, to be benefit of Clacton and Jaywick.

 

(3)    the recommendations were framed to meet the current situation, namely that the Government had announced support for the Levelling Up Partnership in May 2024, but business cases were yet to be approved by HM Treasury, and new Ministers had not yet decided on continuing with the Levelling Up Partnership policy and fund since the Parliamentary General Election on 4 July 2024.

 

It was moved by Councillor I J Henderson, seconded by Councillor M E Stephenson and:-

 

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

 

(a)    notes the increased capacity requirements on the Council’s resources to deliver a number of projects and schemes highlighted in the report, in addition to responding to the Council’s existing functions and responsibilities.

 

(b)    subject to (a) above, and the allocation of £1.000m of funding set out within item A.9 elsewhere on the agenda,  a Project Delivery Unit is agreed to be established for an initial period of 24 months from the date of the first officer starting in role;

 

(c)    accepts:

 

(i)      £90,000, made available by the Government as capacity funding to support the Levelling Up Partnership Project

(ii)     a sum of £86,000 made available by the Government as capacity funding to support the Levelling Up Capital Project in Clacton;

 

(d)    subject to (a) to (c) above, transfers both the £90,000 and £86,000 above to the funding of the Project Delivery Unit, bringing the total initial funding to £1.176m;

 

(e)    notes the Chief Executive will undertake the activities required to recruit the necessary capacity within the Project Delivery Unit, as Head of Paid Service (being non-executive functions);

 

(f)     recognising the impact on the Council, supports the Council acting as the Accountable Body for the Partnership to the benefit of Clacton and Jaywick, delegates entering into any agreements with Partners to the Corporate Director (Place and Economy), in consultation with the Section 151 Officer, and where necessary by entering into funding agreements with partners to do so;

 

(g)    recommends to Full Council to approve that Tendring District Council act as the Accountable Body for the Partnership (or alternative relationship determined by Government in revised policy), which forms part of the Council’s Corporate Plan 24-28, ‘Our Vision’ and therefore, within the Policy Framework;

(h)    subject to (g) being approved by Full Council, the delegation by Cabinet in December 2023, can be exercised by the Corporate Director (Place and Economy) in consultation with the Section 151 Officer and the Monitoring Officer to enter into any agreements with MHCLG for this Partnership;

 

(i)     subject to (g) being approved by Full Council and Cabinet, and Government approving business cases for funding, the Portfolio Holder for Economic Growth, Regeneration and Tourism be required to report to Cabinet the scope and details of the individual Partnership Projects together with the relevant Portfolio Holders taking the lead on delivery prior to implementation;

 

(j)     notes that the Chief Executive has nominated the Corporate Director (Place and Economy) as the lead officer for the Partnership; and

 

(k)    notes the Levelling Fund and Capital Regeneration Projects Portfolio Working Party terms of reference will be extended to include this Partnership and Town Board matters.