Agenda item - Chair's Communications

4.1         The Chair provided the following Communications:

“On behalf of The Board I would like to welcome Councillor Yates, the newly elected Leader of Brighton & Hove City Council, following Councillor Morgan standing down as Leader in May.   The Board look forward to working with Councillor Yates, as this growing partnership moves towards an exciting new phase.

On the 2^nd July Homes England announced that it had acquired the 176 hectare Northern Arc site in Burgess Hill, the agency’s most significant intervention to date.  As land owner for the whole site, Homes England will submit an outline planning application later this year and bring forward early release of the first phases of new homes alongside investing in strategic infrastructure to unlock the site for development.  This intervention will accelerate the delivery of around 3,000 new homes, and represents a clear vote of confidence in the City Region.

On behalf of the Board, I would like thank Coast to Capital for its continued efforts in preparing a new Strategic Economic Plan.  That work is almost at an end with the new Plan to be launched at the Coast to Capital AGM later this week.  The Board very much looks forward to seeing the final version and working closely with Coast to Capital to support delivery of the Plan at a City Region level.

On Thursday 12 July, local dignitaries were joined by business owners, partners and stakeholders to celebrate the Newhaven Enterprise Zone’s first year of success, and the launch of the Enterprise Zone’s Strategic Framework.  The focus of the framework is to act as the catalyst for positive growth in Newhaven, which would not happen so readily without the practical incentives for business, and shared ambition for the economic success of the town. 

Brighton & Hove has been shortlisted as a potential location for one of Channel 4’s Regional Creative Hubs, and on 21 June a delegation from Channel 4 was received for a visit.  Attracting investment from such a high-profile business would be a major coup for the already-successful Creative Digital sector, and the benefits would cascade across the region.  Channel 4 is due to announce their final decision on 1^st October”.

4.2         The Chair stated that good progress had been made by the Board since its inception however; in his view, it now needed to consider its purpose going forward. Therefore, the priority of his stewardship of the Board for the 2018/19 would be establishing the focus, role and priorities of the Board for the next five years. To facilitate that, he had requested officers bring a report to the October 2018 meeting of the Board outlining its strategic position, its role within the LEP geography, the opportunity to widen membership of the Board and create new partnerships and to consider a manifesto for the South East region. The Chair stated that comments and contributions from Board members into the report would be welcome and they could be made to himself or the Officer Programme Board.

4.3         Andrew Swayne agreed that huge progress had been made by the Board since its inception and the timing was right to reposition and rethink its role going forward.

4.4         Nick Juba agreed that the partnership of the Board was strong adding that careful planning was required on scale and boundaries and how the Board would continue to access funding after discontinuation of the Local Growth Fund. Nick Juba added that the Board needed to be clear about its role and relationship with Coastal West Sussex and in his view, there was more to be gained in working with educational partners.

4.5         The Chair concurred with the comments made adding that the Board needed to ensure its message was clear and consistent, needed to expand its message and ensure a position of implicit trust with central government.