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SUMMARY BOARD MINUTES OF THE FIFTEENTH MEETING SOUTH EAST ENGLAND
DEVELOPMENT AGENCY
HELD ON TUESDAY 18 APRIL 2000 AT SEEDA HEADQUARTERS
Members Present
Allan Willett
CMG (Chairman), Professor Clive Booth, Cllr. Ken Bodfish OBE,
Bryan Davies, Caroline Williams, Sarah Ward OBE, Cllr. David Rogers,
Cllr. Kevin Wilson, Janis Kong, Russ Nathan CBE, Jim Baker, Barry
Camfield, Cllr. Kit Oliver
Apologies
for absence
None
Others in
Attendance (for all or part of meeting)
David Saunders
(Regional Director, GO-SE), Paul Bevan (Regional Director, Regional
Assembly), Anthony Dunnett (Chief Executive, SEEDA), Jeff Alexander
(Agency Secretary, SEEDA), Phil Bailey (SEEDA)
Summary
of Meeting
The Board :-
- Reviewed the
latest budgets for 2000/01, noting the additional money being
provided to RDAs for Cluster Development and the Redundant Building
Grants scheme.
- Agreed the
process for responding to the Government's draft Regional Planning
Guidance and considered the key issues that required a response.
- Noted, with
concern, the removal of the Thames Gateway area from the latest
version of the Assisted Area map.
- Held discussions
with representatives of the Government Office for the South
East and the Regional Assembly on a range of issues.
- Agreed that
SEEDA's Annual Open meeting should be separate to, but on the
same day, as a Regional Assembly meeting.
- Reviewed progress
on establishing a Regional Venture Capital Fund.
- Endorsed the
four key criteria that should be met by Enterprise Hub bids.
- Reviewed
and noted SEEDA regeneration investment.
SEEDA
Provisional Budget 2000/01
Details of
a revised budget for 2000/01 were provided. The Board noted the
additional funding of £1.6m for cluster development and that £500,000
will be provided to SEEDA, from a national budget of £2m., for
Redundant Building Grants.
Chairman's
Visits
The Chairman
detailed some of the visits and engagements he had undertaken
recently so as to give a flavour of the range of his current activities
on behalf of SEEDA. He had attended a summit meeting with the
Deputy Prime Minister and held other Ministerial meetings (Lord
Falconer and Michael Meacher); he had met major international
companies; visits and meetings had been undertaken to organisations
such as Oxford Brookes University, the Milton Keynes Economic
Partnerships and the South East Vice-Chancellors group.
Members welcomed
the Chairman's continuing programme and involvement through his
visits which were immensely important both to the local area and
SEEDA.
Regional
Planning Guidance
The Board reviewed
the draft Regional Planning Guidance (RPG) issued by the Government
Office for the South East (GO-SE).
SEEDA now
had an opportunity to comment on the report issued by GO-SE and
it was agreed that the purpose of the current preliminary discussion
was to seek Member's views, after which the Executive would produce
a paper reflecting their comments which would be discussed at
the next Board meeting on 18 May.
Members agreed
that SEEDA should response from the perspective of how the draft
RPG fits with SEEDA's Regional Enterprise Strategy and would,
or would not, support its implementation.
GO-SE
/Regional Assembly Liaison
The meeting
was joined by David Saunders and Paul Bevan
Review of
Assisted Area Map
Members noted
that the Government have withdrawn an earlier proposed map submitted
to the Commission in July 1999 and now published, following discussions
with the Commission, its latest proposal for a new map covering
Great Britain. The main reasons for a change in coverage was the
need to reduce population coverage of the map and meet the Commission's
concerns on the tightly defined way the original map had been
drawn up. This meant that Thames Gateway area had been removed
from coverage and there were minor changes elsewhere.
Members expressed
concern that Thames Gateway, a major regional and national priority,
had been removed and pressed for the potential investment to be
made good by other means.
National
Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal
It was reported
that the Government had very recently issued its proposals for
Neighbourhood Renewal. This would set the future framework for
tackling deprived areas. Proposals included Government Offices,
working with RDAs, to set up local strategic partnerships. Members
recognised that the proposals merited a more detailed discussion
and asked the Executive to prepare a paper for discussion at the
June Board meeting.
Regional
Assembly Plans for a Select Committee on Social Inclusion
Members noted
that the Assembly had decided to establish a Select Committee
approach in looking at the issue of Social Inclusion. The Committee
planned to take evidence from all partners, as appropriate, over
the Summer period. Members welcomed this different approach and
expressed interest in learning, in due course, how this process
fared.
Annual
Open Meeting
Members discussed
the options on the appropriate arrangements for holding the SEEDA
Annual Open meeting and decided that on this occasion the meeting
should be separate to, but on the same day, as an Assembly meeting.
The date should co-incide with the September Board meeting.
Regional
Investment Fund
Members noted
that the formal application and business plan had been submitted
to DTI to meet the deadline of 31 March 2000.
Enterprise
Hubs
Members noted
that each Local Economic Partnerships is currently working up
a bid for a proposed enterprise hub in their respective areas.
Partnerships have been asked to ensure that there are four essential
elements to their bids. These are:
- Each hub
will be business led and will have a high profile business champion
- A hub director
will be appointed to facilitate the activity of the hub
- Each will
have strong links with at least one innovation centre
- Genuine
research and development links with universities and other research
organisations, (either private or public) are essential
Date
of Next Meeting
Thursday 18
May 2000 at the Heathrow Visitor Centre, Heathrow Airport.
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