Decision details

For the Council to provide £2.25m over three years (2013 – 2016) to fund a new proactive inward investment service for Leeds City Region capable of delivering significant new business investment and employment growth. This will require the Council to provide ‘up front’ investment of £750K per year over three years to be repaid to the Council via future receipts from the Aire Valley Leeds Enterprise Zone. The new service is to be delivered by Leeds and Partners in close conjunction with LCR’s Local Authorities. This has previously been agreed by the LCR Local Enterprise Partnership (of which the Council Leader is a member) and by the Chief Executives of LCR Local Authorities. The decision to waive procurement rules and directly commission Leeds and Partners will be considered as a separate key decision by the Director of Strategy and Resources in September 2013. This will follow the outcome of a Voluntary Transparency Notice to be published on the European Union’s OJEU system in late August 2013.

The Deputy Chief Executive submitted a report providing an update on the development of a new, proactive inward investment service for Leeds City Region (LCR), capable of significantly increasing the City Region’s share of new direct business investment from elsewhere in the UK (particularly London and the South East) and overseas.  In addition, the report sought approval to provide advanced funding of up to £1,720,000 for the new service over a three-year period (2013/14 to 2015/16) to be funded through the Council’s general fund reserves . The requested advance funding would be reimbursed to the Council’s general fund reserves via future business rates receipts to be generated as more businesses located or expanded onto the Aire Valley Leeds Enterprise Zone (AVL EZ).

Following consideration of Appendix 1 to the submitted report, designated as exempt under the provisions of Access to Information Procedure Rule 10.4(3), which was considered in private at the conclusion of the meeting, it was

RESOLVED –

(a)  That the advance funding of up to £1,720,000 over three

years (2013/14 to 2015/16) to be provided from the Council’s general fund reserves in order to support delivery of a new, proactive inward investment service for Leeds City Region be approved. (The requested funding will be reimbursed to the Council’s general fund reserves via future business rates receipts as more business investment is made in AVL EZ. It is expected that the full £1,720,000 will be repaid to the Council by mid-2018/19).

(b)  That the following be noted:-

·  the options appraisal for the requested funding model, as set out within paragraphs 3.7 and 3.8 of the submitted report;

·  that the new service will be delivered by Leeds and Partners from October 2013 (subject to the outcome of ongoing negotiations and commissioning) and that it is expected to secure a minimum of 60 new direct business investments and up to 1,500 new jobs (subject to ongoing negotiations);

·  that the responsible officer for implementing the decision is the Project Manager within the Leeds City Region Secretariat.

There has been ongoing consultation with all Chief Executives in LCR for a number of months, who now support the decision to commission Leeds and Partners. The LCR Local Enterprise Partnership Board has also been consulted. Several council leaders sit on the board, including the Council’s Leader.

Other key partners across LCR have also been consulted e.g. University of Leeds, UK Trade and Investment, Leeds, York & NY Chamber of Commerce. 

Local Authorities across LCR (Leaders and Chief Executives), LCR Local Enterprise Partnership Board, University of Leeds, Chamber of Commerce, UKTI.