Agenda item

In May 2021, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) published the £200m Community Renewal Fund, inviting applications from authorities across the UK.  

The £220 million UK Community Renewal Fund provides funding to help places across the UK prepare for the introduction of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. Contributing to the levelling up agenda by investing in people, places, businesses and communities improving everyday life across the UK.

Hertfordshire districts agreed to submit a joint bid, and a broad project approach was agreed, consistent with the Hertfordshire Growth Board objectives. Stevenage Borough Council agreed to undertake the role of lead and took responsibility for writing and submitting the bid, which was awarded at the end of 2021.

The Community Wealth Building Project is funded through the UK Community Renewal Fund. The total project funding received is £715,672 with £500,000 available as community or business grants.

Through the funding obtained Stevenage Borough Council has employed a Project Manager who oversees activities and two Full-Time Employees (FTEs) who will be Project coordinators.

The project manager will be responsible for coordinating all activities and facilitating the project steering group comprising representatives from each council. The Project Steering Group sits under Hertfordshire Growth Board as a sub group leading on Community Wealth building. The Local Enterprise Partnership is financially accountable for the project and regular reports are given to both boards.

The Head of Community Partnerships is the representative for Three Rivers District Council on this group. This group meets monthly and provides links to wider stakeholder groups to share learning, e.g. with the County Council, both NHS Trusts and the University.

The Head of Community Partnerships reported that this was a joint bid which was submitted to the Community Renewal Fund last year led by the Herts GrowthBoard andStevenage BoroughCouncil withall 10Districts signedup to be part of the project.The total project funding was over £700k and a Project Steering Group had been set up led by Stevenage Borough Council with a Project Manager employed and the costs being met through the project costs and grant funding.The Project Steering Group reported to the Herts Growth Board.The grant funding was received towards the end of last year with the Local Enterprise Partnership financially accountable for the project but with regular reports given to both Boards.

The project would look to work with micro businesses, the voluntary sector, community groups as well as social enterprises to look to strengthen the local economy and increase social value by creating job opportunities and access to training.There are five main activities as part of the project which had been outlined in the report but the main focus was on Activity 3 which was around establishing schemes and projects in the voluntary sector, social enterprisesand smallbusinesses toincrease jobprospects andtraining. Theaim ofActivity 3 was to achieve some of this through the delegated grant scheme for each District and referred Members to Paragraph 2.8 onwards in the report which outlined what the proposals were for using the funding.The proposal was for us to work with Watford and Three Rivers Trust (W3RT) to deliver the grant schemeand tohelp usto administerit. Wehave £50kavailable with£10k tobe given to two voluntary sector organisations, £10k to one micro business and £10kto W3RT.The final£10k wouldbe usedas partof theCountywide project and grant scheme which would allow 3 organisations which work across the County to support some organisations and businesses to become more carbon neutral and help with their sustainability.Applications would be submitted to W3RT and the Council will work with them to identify the micro organisations which would be eligible to apply for a grant.Details had been included in the report on outputs and outcomes that we were expecting to see and W3RT would be expected to report back to us and work with the voluntary organisations/businesses to deliver these outputs and outcomes.WBC were also looking at this option and are we are working together to do this through W3RTby runningtwo schemesone inWatford andone inThree Rivers.The Memorandum of Understanding from Stevenage Borough Council had been reviewed by the Solicitor to the Council and was acceptable.

Therecommendation wasthat thegrants beadministered throughW3RT who had a wealth of knowledge in the local community and had run a number of different grant schemes and were very much able to deliver the project.

CouncillorChris Lloydthanked theofficers forall theirwork onthe projectand for the comprehensive report and moved the recommendation so that the scheme can be operated.

Councillor Alex Hayward was happy to second the motion but sought clarification on identifying organisations and the applications process. The reporttalked aboutdealing withthe grantsefficiently butwanted toensure it was delivered fairly across the District and that all Wards would benefit.

The Head of Community Partnerships advised that there would be an application process which would be open to all to apply and we would be communicating that through all media channels and through W3RT who had a large database of organisations.We would also approach other organisations in the District to apply so that we got a good range of organisations from across theDistrict. Therewould becertain criteriawhich wouldneed tobe metto show that theycan deliver the outputs and outcomes but we would be includingin our agreement with W3RT that we target the whole District and that the organisations were working across the whole area.A report would be provided to the Council on where the organisations are based and what they would be delivering.

Onbeing putto theCommittee theChair declaredthe motionCARRIED the voting being by general assent.

RESOLVED:

Agreedto theproposed processfor allocatingand administeringthe grantmoney locally through Watford and Three Rivers Trust for Activity 3 of the Community Wealth Building Project.