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Lancashire Combined County Authority - Thursday, 24th April, 2025 4.00 pm

April 24, 2025 View on council website  Watch video of meeting  Watch video of meeting or read trancript
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Summary

The Lancashire Combined County Authority met on 24 April 2025, and agreed to allocate transport grant funding to constituent councils, approved a strategic skills plan, accepted Rural Prosperity Funding, agreed to admission to the Lancashire Pension Fund, agreed to appoint independent chairs, and approved the appointment of external auditors.

Transport Grant Funding

The Lancashire Combined County Authority approved a methodology for apportioning transport grants received to constituent councils. This includes the Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP), Integrated Transport Block (ITB), Local Transport Grant (LTG) and Consolidated Active Travel Funding (CATF). The authority also agreed to add these items to the 2025/26 Revenue Budget and Capital Programme.

The grants will be divided as follows:

  • Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council: £5,170,149 (BSIP), £565,134 (CATF)
  • Blackpool Council: £4,288,023 (BSIP), £286,214 (CATF)
  • Lancashire County Council: £27,140,451 (BSIP), £4,508,882 (CATF)

The authority also agreed to delegate authority to the Monitoring Officer, in consultation with the Section 73 Officer1, to agree grant funding agreements between the LCCA and constituent councils. They also agreed to delegate authority to the Section 73 Officer, in consultation with the Monitoring Officer, to receive any further Department of Transport grants, add to the respective LCCA budgets and transfer to the relevant constituent councils during the 2025/26 financial year.

Adult Skills Fund

The Lancashire Combined County Authority approved the Lancashire Strategic Skills Plan for submission to the Department for Education (DfE). The plan is required to enable the secondary legislation to be laid to devolve funds from 1 August 2026. The authority also agreed to authorise the Head of Paid Service, following consultation with the Chair and Deputy Chair of the combined county authority, to approve the required letter and submit the self-assessment checklist as required by the DfE.

The Adult Skills Fund (ASF), previously the Adult Education Budget, forms a significant part of the Lancashire devolution deal. The devolved funds are intended to better align adult skills funds with local labour market needs to the benefit of both residents and businesses. The DfE has provided an indicative figure of £41 million per annum, with an additional £3 million for Free Courses for Jobs (FCFJ), for Level 3 qualifications.

Councillor County Alan Vincent, Cabinet Member for Resources, HR and Property (Deputy Leader), noted comments from the Skills Advisory Board around the importance of fitting in a role for the Integrated Care Board (ICB), reducing duplication and overlap of schemes, and sense checking the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) money.

Michelle Lawty-Jones, Director, Lancashire Skills and Employment Hub, noted that other combined authorities had advised that the approach should be evolution, not revolution. She also noted that there was an opportunity to reduce the number of providers and focus provision into Lancashire.

Councillor County Phillippa Williamson ( Leader of the County Council) raised the issue of the speed of requirement of a decision, if the government give us two weeks' notice, for example, as they did in this case, to do something fairly involved. She suggested that officers should consider implementing an urgency framework, to provide a method for taking urgent decisions in the most open and transparent way possible, outside of the ordinary meeting process.

UK Rural Prosperity Funding and UK Shared Prosperity Funding

The Lancashire Combined County Authority agreed to accept the Rural Prosperity Funding (RPF) for 2025/26 of £653,065, and add the amount to the combined county authority's capital programme for 2025/26. The authority also agreed to passport the fund to district councils in the same allocations as the government announced, and that Blackpool Council report and monitor the Rural Prosperity Funding on behalf of the LCCA alongside the UK Shared Prosperity Funding.

The funding will be allocated as follows:

  • Chorley: £120,261
  • Lancaster: £149,994
  • Ribble Valley: £130,082
  • West Lancashire: £132,467
  • Wyre: £120,261

Admission to the Lancashire Pension Fund

The Lancashire Combined County Authority agreed to be an Admitted Body to the Lancashire County Pension Fund, on the terms set out in the Admission Agreement. The authority also noted the intention of the Monitoring Officer to sign (and apply the LCCA’s seal to) the Admission Agreement.

The report noted that the LCCA is a body corporate (a Local Authority like the Constituent Councils), and that whilst much of the work of the LCCA in its early years of operation may be done by Officers employed by the Constituent Councils (by agreement or secondment), the LCCA will also be required to directly employ Officers, and will, therefore, need to become an employing body.

One of the key requirements for the LCCA becoming an employing body is to be able to offer access to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).

Appointment of Independent Chairs

The Lancashire Combined County Authority approved the arrangements for the appointment of independent chairs of the Scrutiny Committee and the Audit and Governance Committee, and the proposed allowance of £2000 for each role.

The Combined Authorities (Overview and Scrutiny Committees, Access to Information and Audit Committees) Order 2017, as amended by the Combined Authorities (Overview and Scrutiny Committees, Access to Information and Audit Committees) (Amendment) Regulations 2024, sets out the rules in relation to the requirement for independent representatives, eligibility, and processes for recruitment.

Business Board Update

Mo Isap, Lancashire Business Board, gave a verbal update on the recent activities and work of the Lancashire Business Board.

It was reported that the work of the Business Board had been initially focussed on the Lancashire Growth Plan, which had been unveiled at the Convention of the North. Given the positive nature of responses it was agreed that the document be endorsed by the LCCA subject to minor amendments being incorporated into a final version which will be formally approved by the LCCA at its meeting in June.

It was proposed that the Lancashire Business Board would not form part of the national Business Board network and that the £25,000 set aside for membership of the network, along with an additional £25,000 should be made available to help the Business Board connect with the business community, including to assist the public relations and communication teams to set out a strategic, business-centric communications approach. This was approved.

Councillor Phil Riley, Leader, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, raised the issue of tariffs, and the need for an increasing development of the country's resilience and abilities in the world of defence and nuclear and, I guess, food production and such like.

Appointment of External Auditors

The Lancashire Combined County Authority considered a report on the appointment of the External Auditor for the Lancashire Combined County Authority. It was noted that the authority had previously agreed to opt-in to the national auditor appointments process operated by Public Sector Audit Appointments (PSAA), and the Public Sector Audit Appointments had proposed that KPMG LLP be appointed as the authority's External Auditor. This was approved.

It was also noted that the reason for urgency was that the Public Sector Audit Appointments had requested a response to their consultation on or before 13 May 2025. Therefore, the report was being taken under Urgent Business in accordance with the combined authorities Rules of Procedure (Part 4: Procedural Rules, 11.1 Items of Business).


  1. The Section 73 Officer is the Chief Finance Officer. 

Attendees

Profile image for CouncillorCounty Phillippa Williamson
Councillor County Phillippa Williamson  Leader of the County Council •  Conservative
Profile image for CouncillorCounty Alan Vincent
Councillor County Alan Vincent  Cabinet Member for Resources, HR and Property (Deputy Leader) •  Conservative
Councillor Phil Riley Leader, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council
Councillor Lynn Williams Leader, Blackpool Council
Councillor Alistair Bradley
Mo Isap Lancashire Business Board
Clive Grunshaw Police and Crime Commissioner
Councillor Michael Vincent
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