Agenda item

Report from the Strategic Director of Regeneration and Environment.

Recommendations:

1.    That Cabinet note the successful outcome of Rotherham’s Towns Fund and Levelling Up Fund Round 1 bids and the positive progress made to date.

2.    That Cabinet note the submission of a further Levelling Up Fund bid, by 6 July 2022, following the announcement of a Round 2 on 23 March 2022.

3.    That Cabinet agree to the implementation of all projects within the Town Deal and Levelling Up Fund programmes as summarised in Appendix 1, to be detailed in forthcoming project specific Full Business Cases.

4.    That Cabinet note the implementation of projects will be subject to the Council’s assurance framework and with Full Business Cases approved by the Strategic Director of Regeneration & Environment in consultation with the Council’s S151 Officer and Cabinet Member for Jobs and the Local Economy.

Consideration was given to the report which provided an update on progress and sought approval to implement the Regeneration Programme projects which had been awarded funding via the Levelling Up Fund and Towns Fund.

The Town Deal has a £3.6bn programme which sought to “unleash the economic potential of 100 places across the country.” In January 2021, Rotherham had submitted a Town Investment Plan seeking £35m for projects across Templeborough, Eastwood and the Town Centre. In June 2021, Heads of Terms were received offering £31.6m. Stage 2 of the Town Deal process required a local assurance process for each project culminating in the submission of ‘Project Summary’ documentation to the Department for Levelling-Up, Housing and Communities by 27th June, 2022.

In June 2021, the Council submitted 3 bids in Round 1 of the Levelling Up Fund. The bids sought investment to support projects in the leisure economy, principal areas for growth and Rotherham Town Centre. It was announced in October 2021 that Rotherham had successfully secured funding for 2 of the 3 bids, namely £19.5m for the leisure economy and £20m for Rotherham Town Centre, totalling £39.5m.

A second round of funding from the Levelling Up Fund was announced in March 2022. The Council intended to re-submit a bid proposal for Wath and Dinnington Town Centres with a deadline of 6th July, 2022.

Details for each of the projects were summarised in Appendix 1 to the report. In terms of governance, the Town Deal Board would retain oversight of Town Deal project delivery and of the Town Centre Levelling Up Fund projects. A specific programme board was being established to oversee the Towns Fund Leisure Economy project implementation and any further projects successfully funded by the Levelling Up fund would be subject to their own board requirements. The Regeneration Strategic Programme Board would be used to provide project updates within the Council. All funds would be incorporated into the Council’s financial monitoring arrangements.

It was proposed that the approval of the Full Business Cases be delegated to the Strategic Director of Regeneration and Environment, in consultation with the S151 Officer and the Cabinet Member for Jobs and the Local Economy. This was considered the best way forward as it was deemed that there would be insufficient time to take each Business Case through the Cabinet process due to the level of work required to develop each project in sufficient detail.

This report was considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board as part of the pre-decision scrutiny process. The Board fully supported the recommendations and asked that the progress of the Town Deal and Levelling Up fund projects be added to the Risk Register.

Resolved:-

That Cabinet:

1.    Note the successful outcomes of Rotherham’s Towns Fund and Levelling Up Fund Round 1 bids and the positive progress made to date.

2.    Note the submission of a further Levelling Up Fund bid, by 6th July, 2022, following the announcement of a Round 2 on 23rd March, 2022.

3.    Agree to the implementation of all projects within the Town Deal and Levelling Up Fund programmes as summarised in Appendix 1, to be detailed in forthcoming project specific Full Business Cases.

4.    Note the implementation of projects will be subject to the Council’s assurance framework and with Full Business Cases approved by the Strategic Director of Regeneration and Environment in consultation with the Council’s S151 Officer and the Cabinet Member for Jobs and the Local Economy.

5.    That progress of the Town Deal and Levelling Up Fund projects be added to the Risk Register.