South East England Development Agency (SEEDA)

MINUTES OF THE 84 th MEETING OF THE
SOUTH EAST ENGLAND DEVELOPMENT AGENCY
HELD ON 21 FEBRUARY 2007
HORSLEY TOWERS

Present:

Item 1 Welcome and apologies for absence

The Chairman convened a special Board meeting, on the fringes of the Board away day, to discuss the Alphasat project.

Apologies were received from Poul Christensen and Keith House.

Item 2 Declarations of interest

None.

Item 3 Alphasat

John Peel summarised for the Board the discussion that took place at Major Projects Committee (MPC) for this proposal to agree capital funding of £12 million over 3 years for the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Alphasat Programme, which the MPC recommended.

The Board were informed that SEEDA, LDA and EEDA have developed a joint business case to support this high profile European space satellite project (known as Alphasat) to secure significant advantages for the Greater South East (GSE) region. Collectively, the three GSE RDAs are being asked to fund €50 million (approximately £35 million) of UK public money to ensure that Inmarsat, the world’s leading global mobile satellite communications operator, are able to submit their formal bid for the development of a new state-of-the-art communications satellite. The launch platform will be provided, through the ESA, free of charge to the satellite operator.ESA will fund 50% of the development costs of the payload and contribute towards the launch costs, with the successful satellite operator funding the remaining 50% costs of the payload development and the remaining launch costs. The Inmarsat bid (known as the Inmarsat XL) is very attractive to ESA, due to the novel technology that will be employed.

Jeff Alexander explained that in normal circumstances the Department of Trade and Industry would provide funding but in the light of cuts to the UK Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) programme this has not been possible. It was highlighted that as public funding is an essential requirement under ESA rules the Inmarsat proposal would be rejected unless the GSE RDAs stepped in.

GSE RDA funding would leverage in a further €522 million of funding; a return of around €10.4 million from other sources for every €1 million invested by the UK public sector. If the bid is successful work would commence during the summer of 2007 and it would take 52 months to develop, manufacture and then launch the satellite.

Ian Boyd informed the Board that SEEDA’s £12 million funding will help secure at least 315 high skilled jobs at EADS Astrium in Portsmouth (who will manufacture the satellite) and secure capture of additional spectrum bandwidth, resulting in potential revenues estimated in excess of £1.1 billion for Inmarsat through subscriptions to satellite services. It will also allow the UK to increase its share of the global space market (predicted to be worth more than £500 billion by 2020) which is estimated to generate £1.6 billion a year in the UK due to spill-over effects of its R&D.

The Chairman reiterated that a successful bid by Inmarsat, resulting in additional bandwidth, will be crucial to the ongoing success of the financial institutions in the City of London.

The Board APPROVED the investment of £12 million over 3 years, noting that the Chairman and Executive team would make further efforts to secure funding from other public sector sources, specifically the Technology Strategy Board, to reduce the GSE RDAs overall contribution.

SEEDA BOARD

SUMMARY OF ACTIONS  

30 JANUARY 2007 MEETING

Action : Item 2, Matters arising

• Paul Lovejoy to pursue a meeting with Dirk Ahner, Director-General in DG REGIO, European Commission.
• Donal Galligan to circulate list of relevant acronyms to Board members.
• Circulated by email.

Action : Item 6, 2007/08 Draft Budget

• Duncan Straughen to provide a list of projects and programmes that the Agency has taken on from external partners, including any corresponding headcount and funding.

Action : Item 9, Review of Sub-regional Partnership Arrangements

Paul Lovejoy to bring a paper on Sub-regional Partnership Arrangements to the Board in July 2007.

Action : Item 10, Major Projects Committee

Finance SE to report to the SEEDA Board annually on the progress and outcomes of the SE Funding Escalator

To be taken at a Board meeting in the Autumn.

7 DECEMBER 2006 MEETING

Action : Item 4, SEEDA in Europe

• Paul Lovejoy to ensure the development of a Business Plan for the new SE England House

Action : Item 9, Major Projects and Programmes

Shoreham Enterprise Gateway, Ropetackle

• Duncan Straughen to take a paper to MPC in March 2007 on lessons learnt and proposals to avoid overspends in the future.
• East Brighton Project
• Lee Amor to decouple infrastructure element from Community Stadium and bring back to the Board in May 2007.  

Action : Item 11, Financial & Operational Review

• Duncan Straughen to simplify traffic light reporting structure for Agency targets. 

Action : Item 14, Agency Report

• Paul Lovejoy to facilitate a discussion on Green Belt building restrictions in 2007.
• To be taken at the September 2007 Board meeting.

Action : Item 15, AOB

• Paul Lovejoy to arrange for GSE Board members to meet to discuss cross cutting issues
• Paul Lovejoy to produce tailor made summaries of the RES drawing out appropriate RES targets for individual Government Departments, local Government partners and businesses in the region.

31 OCTOBER 2006 MEETING  

Action : Item 2, Matters arising

• Rummage on carbon reduction/climate change to take place in early 2007.
• To take place at the May 2007 Board meeting.

Action : Item 5, Tourism South East

• Jeff Alexander to arrange programme for HRH Prince of Wales’ potential visit to the region.
• This visit is scheduled tentatively for early May.  

Action : Item 6, Area Update: Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire (MKOBB)

Jeff Alexander to take the O2C Arc proposals to SESETAC for feedback.

To be taken to SESETAC in April 2007.