· Latest position on Covid-19
o Tier 3 funding – how is it being spent?
o What help available for “elite” sporting clubs who cannot access training, ie, Ice Sheffield.
o How is the MCA Economy Recovery Plan tied into the 4 Local Authority Recovery Plans?
o What is available in terms of support packages for SMEs? How are the MCA actively engaging with “hard to reach” SMEs?
· Update on Flooding Prevention Schemes.
· Update on implementation Bus Review Report recommendations.
Minutes:
The Chair welcomed Mayor Jarvis to the meeting for a question and answer session.
Mayor Jarvis began by commenting on the sad passing of Cllr Peter Rippon who had been a much respected councillor and would be sadly missed. The Mayor expressed condolences to Peter’s family.
The Mayor commented that the MCA was now in a better position to respond to the challenges that would lay ahead in 2021 because £¼bn had been secured for transport, active travel, infrastructure and housing; this was in addition to the money that had been unlocked by the Devolution deal. In practical terms this meant that the MCA would have a budget of £344m for the financial year 2021/22.
Cllr Ross asked how the Tier 3 funding was being spent. Mayor Jarvis replied that the MCA in conjunction with the four constituent local authorities was doing all they could to assist the region’s businesses and residents.
The Tier 3 funding, which had been made available in October 2020, was aimed at the hospitality, accommodation and entertainment sectors and the MCA, working with local authorities, had provided additional top-ups to affected businesses. A target had been set of allocating the original £30m to businesses by the end of March 2021. Data showed that, through working with the local authorities, this target was both sensible and achievable.
Additionally, on 22 January 2021 a further allocation from government of £12.5m had been received which reflected the impact of the latest restrictions. This amount had to be spent by March 2022 and MCA officers were currently considering how to target and deploy the additional grant.
Cllr Ennis asked what help was available for “elite” sporting clubs who could not access training, eg, Ice Sheffield. Ice skating rinks in the area were classified as entertainment venues and therefore remained closed. This meant that aspiring elite skaters could not currently train and were being disadvantaged from skaters in other regions.
Mayor Jarvis replied that all businesses forced to close were in receipt of support from the government. Elite sport had been allowed to continue through Tier 3 and in the current national lockdown. Sports clubs and clubhouses experiencing a significant loss of trade were eligible for the Additional Restrictions Grant.
Cllr Ennis requested clarification as to whether the region’s elite skaters could now use the facility in Sheffield.
Action: Mayor Jarvis would check the precise arrangements for the skaters and report back to Cllr Ennis.
Cllr Steele asked whether the grant from government had to be spent on certain things or was there any leeway on this. Also, did the Mayor think that the current lockdown would be extended?
In response, the Mayor informed the Committee that there was very limited flexibility in terms of the funding received; he had been in correspondence with the Chancellor about more flexibility – devolution was all about greater local decision making.
In terms of the lockdown, there was still a great amount of uncertainty regarding the next few months. The reality was that everyone would be living with the impact of the virus for the foreseeable future and it was not envisaged that there would be a relaxation of the lockdown in the near future.
The Chair commented that the MCA had a stream of funding as did the four constituent councils; he asked how much co-operation there was to ensure that there was no overlap or gaps. Also, more generally, what was being done at a regional and district level to ensure that individuals and business were not falling through funding cracks.
The Mayor gave assurances that the MCA was working very closely with authority partners. The scheme for distributing the grant funding and the development of the Renewal Action Plan and Strategic Economic Plan had all been co-developed with local authority partners.
It was evident that a significant number of individual and businesses, such as the self-employed and new start-up business had been excluded from government support. The Mayor had been involved with M9 (a cross-party Metro Mayor group) and other parliamentarians to lobby the Chancellor to do much more to provide support for those who had been excluded.
Cllr Baker queried whether there was any regional support for the smaller SMEs and what was being done to identify those in need.
The Mayor replied that the Additional Restrictions Grant had been targeted at those not in receipt of national support, including non-rate paying businesses and others in the supply chain of closed sectors; home based businesses had also recently been targeted.
Officers were working with business support experts and the LEP was also involved as was the Covid-19 Business Group which drew from the expertise of the Chamber of Commerce, the Federation of Small Businesses and a range of other private sector business representative groups.
Cllr Jones reported that he had recently attended a meeting of the Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA) Consultative Committee. The Committee had written to the Mayor stressing the key part played by DSA in regeneration and sought local leaders’ support in presenting the airport’s case to government. The Consultative Committee expressed disappointment that they had not received a reply.
The Mayor stated that he took pride in responding to correspondence and didn’t recall seeing the letter; he would look into the matter.
He commented that a lot of work had been done to support DSA and it was recognised as a strategic asset by all of the local authorities.
D Smith gave an outline of recent work undertaken to support the airport through the pandemic and also the work in progress to encourage growth in the future.
Cllr Anderson commented on the recent flood warnings, advice to residents and the man hours taken to respond to any potential flooding. Luckily this time the floods had not happened, but the situation had caused immense stress and anxiety to residents. He stated that a robust and permanent solution was needed.
The Mayor agreed and commented he was pleased to be able to confirm that at Monday’s MCA meeting it had been announced that, after working closely with the Environment Agency, £80m funding from the government had been secured towards funding some of the identified flood prevention schemes in South Yorkshire.
This was a good start for the 27 schemes identified as part of the Flood Priority Programme but, in reality, a further £125m of investment was needed to deliver the programme in full and, as Mayor, he would continue to lobby for further investment.
In answer to a question from Cllr Lofts, Mayor Jarvis agreed that a balance between encouraging economic growth and meeting emissions and other environmental targets was needed and gave details of the work in progress to achieve this.
Cllr Hurst requested information on progress on implementation of the recommendations of the Bus Review and whether there were any plans to bring transport systems back under public control.
The Mayor commented that the Covid-19 pandemic had affected all areas of public transport including the ability to respond to the Bus Review’s recommendations. The focus had been on keeping services running to enable key workers to get to work where necessary.
It was noted that the Department for Transport (DfT) was currently providing support to bus services whilst patronage remained low. There would be a need for a period of stabilisation and recovery once social distancing measures were removed and the subsidies withdrawn.
The Mayor informed the Committee that:
Cllr Hurst asked if there was any possibility that, in the future, the South Yorkshire transport system could look more like Transport for London.
Mayor Jarvis replied that the focus in the short term was on the day-to-day survival of the network, but the ambition remained to put in place something that much more resembled the system in London. He also acknowledged that this would require very significant investment.
Cllr Baker commented that the opportunity should not be lost to provide a transport system that was better, safer and greener for the future and also stressed the importance of further public consultation before any final plans were implemented to ensure the system met the needs of the public.
Cllr Ennis commented that recently West Yorkshire Combined Authority had announced its intention to establish a mass transit public transport system across the whole of West Yorkshire and questioned whether South Yorkshire had any plans to extend the SuperTram into Barnsley and Doncaster.
Mayor Jarvis replied that it was a very difficult time to be envisaging such a significant development of the system at the moment given the challenges currently being faced.
Work was ongoing to look at how the SuperTram system could be renewed and improved in Sheffield which would require considerable investment. He agreed that the MCA should be ambitious with regard to connectivity across the region and there could be a case for the extension of tram/train but there would be a massive challenge in securing funding for such a project.
In response to a question from Cllr Lofts the Mayor stated that his priorities for 2021 included:
The Chair thanked Mayor Jarvis for his time in attending the meeting for what had been a very informative session. He requested that this be repeated on a six-monthly basis. He also requested that the Committee receive quarterly progress reports on MCA projects.
RESOLVED – That the Committee to be supplied with quarterly progress reports on MCA projects.