COVENTRY council has approved a £223,000 Brexit grant to the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership – despite the funding being previously allocated to meet the previous Brexit deal deadline on October 31.
It has emerged the council had paid £223,000 to the CWLEP Growth Hub, a share of a £10million Whitehall fund to help local businesses to prepare for the UK leaving the European Union.
But the allocation came BEFORE democratically elected councillors who run the council had chance to make a decision on the allocation.
Retrospective approval from a councillor was sought at a meeting on Wednesday (December 11) when Coun Jim O’Boyle – as cabinet member for regeneration – was being recommended by Deputy Chief Executive Martin Yardley to ‘retrospectively approve a decision taken by Coventry City Council to act as accountable body and release the grant of £223k to Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership Growth Hub to deliver the EU exit business readiness engagement project.”
Mr Yardley is also the chief executive of the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership.
In an agenda report to Coun Jim O’Boyle, Clare Ireland, programme manager for place. said: “The council has committed to the full ask of £223k for the funding period. Additional funding will play an important role in helping Coventry and Warwickshire businesses to address the challenges and opportunities associated with Brexit.
“The decision on granting the funding has been affected.”
A spokesperson for Coventry City Council said: “No payments have been made yet – but we have entered into the funding agreements with Growth Hub. They will then submit claims to us and draw down the money.
“We’ve had to seek approval to do this retrospectively because when the money was made available in early October the UK was due to leave the EU on October 31st, so at that point it was necessary to make funding available for Brexit preparations immediately.
“We’re now taking the report through the formal approval process at the earliest possible opportunity.”
Over 100 trade organisations and regional business groups have received part of the £10 million pledged by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to help companies navigate the Brexit process.
Mr Yardley has also requested the committee authorise his trip to Madrid tomorrow (December 18), where he is set to meet ‘a Spanish company, related to developments in Coventry.’ The overnight trip will cost £290.
