Content

8.1

The Council has, in principle, access to
devolved Government funding, known as Gainshare, via the South
Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) to deliver inclusive
and sustainable economic development in the City. Government has,
in total, made £900m available to South Yorkshire over 30
years starting in 20/21.
 
Gainshare is being made available to the
Council to bring forward projects that benefit the City and align with the South Yorkshire Strategic
Economic Plan. SYMCA have agreed that in-principle funding will be available on an annual
basis in the form of £6m capital and £4m revenue.
 
A number of
strategic projects have been identified that require access to
Gainshare that have either started and are facing significant cost
inflation or are ready to progress subject to funding being
available.
 
The number of projects and amount of funding
required to take them forward means an approach based on annual
allocations will significantly delay delivery and/or result in the
opportunity to deliver some projects being lost altogether.
In order to address this issue an
approach has been developed so that projects are progressed in the
form of a programme where beneficial schemes are identified and
Gainshare funding brought forward with the agreement of SYMCA to
enable earlier delivery.

 

 

8.2

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That
Strategy and Resources Policy Committee:-
 

 

(a) approves the strategy to explore
accelerated Gainshare funding options with SYMCA enabling activity
and benefits to be realised as soon as possible, as set out in this
report;
 
(b) approves the strategy to progress the
existing pipeline of projects and develop
additional projects using year 24/25 Gainshare
funding, as set out in this report and subject to Council approval
of any future commissioning decisions.

 

 

8.3

Reasons for
Decision

 

 

8.3.1

The underlying benefits of this proposal
are:

 

 

8.3.2

The creation of a Programme approach to
Gainshare that enables the Council to significantly contribute to
the outcomes of the South Yorkshire Strategic Economic Plan and
deliver critical benefits for the residents and businesses of the
City.

 

 

8.3.3

It enables the Council to accelerate a
strategic capital programme and ensure the delivery of projects
that are at risk of not progressing or progressing in a reduced
form and/or at a slower rate.
 

8.3.4

It secures the delivery of the final year of
UKSPF in 24/25 and establishes a secure funding stream for economic
focussed revenue funding for the future.
 

8.3.5

The proposal also sets out a governance regime
for Gainshare so that Economic Development and Skills Committee
maintains oversight of programme performance and future
activity

 

 

8.4

Alternatives
Considered and Rejected

 

 

8.4.1

A do-nothing option would see the current
Programme of projects progress at a slower rate being reliant on
annual Gainshare allocations. This approach could potentially see
a number of projects not progress
because they can no longer access match funding or meet other
funders requirements, or the projects could be reduced in scale as
cost pressures mean some elements are no longer affordable. The
consequence is that a number of the
benefits outline in section 2 will either be reduced or not
realised at all.

 

 

8.4.2

These benefits are seen as critical to improve
the economic situation for many residents and businesses located in
the City and failure to deliver may have
reputational damage with other local, regional and national
partners.