Considered -

A report by James Farrar, Chief Operating Officer, York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership regarding the Shortlisting of  Projects for the Net Zero Fund Programme.

Appendix A and B to the report are confidential.  The committee Chair, County Councillor Carl Les, previously indicated that the public would only be excluded should there be a need to discuss the Appendices themselves.

Zoe Metcalfe, North Yorkshire Police Fire and Crime Commissioner, left the room during the discussions on this agenda item having declared an interest on the basis that the Office of the Police Fire and Crime Commissioner is one of the bidders.

James Farrar introduced the report and gave an overview of the key points, as summarised below:

·         The Net Zero Fund was launched on 3 January 2023 and the deadline for submissions of Expressions of Interest was 6 February 2023

·         52 applications were received for the revenue fund and 61 applications were received for the capital fund

·         There is a total of £7m available for investment in green economic growth, of which £1m is revenue funding and £6m is capital funding

·         There is a significant level of over-subscription for the funding streams, following the assessment process.  This helps ensure that projects are ready should any of those submitted be withdrawn or not go ahead and so helps ensure that projects are ready to go should further funding become available

·         The Expressions of Interest were assessed by a panel and the assessment criteria set out on the prospectus

·         The approval of the shortlisted revenue and capital projects is requested.

There were no questions from the committee.

Resolved –

That:

1)    The initial prioritised list of revenue projects, which will form the basis of further discussions with applicants, be approved and a revised list of projects will be presented to a future Joint Committee meeting;

2)    The initial prioritised list of capital projects be approved and for these to progress to full business case stage; and

3)    The prioritised revenue and capital projects be approved to form the basis of the programme level business case that will be submitted to Government.

Zoe Metcalfe, North Yorkshire Police Fire and Crime Commissioner, re-joined the meeting at this point.