Notes of the Community Renewal Forum – 12th November 2021
Below are the notes from an additional session of the CEDOS Community Renewal Forum, held on the 12th November 2021.
- Most Authorities were looking to Economic Development/Regeneration services to lead on the management of their CRF programmes
- There were some concerns about whether a system of separation of function would still be required as some Economic Development services were both managing CRF and had their own projects to deliver
- Some Authorities were struggling to recruit staff and identify wider capacity to manage CRF – the short term nature of contracts was not helping
- There was a view that a large number of projects would look to renegotiate and change what they initially said they would deliver in the applications due to the delays and different timescales – there was a worry that this would further delay delivery. It was not clear what would be deemed a major change and therefore needed to be referred to DLUHC.
- Some projects had now started delivery in line with current available guidance – although in many ways at risk – and were operating pre-contracting
- Some Authorities had advised any projects that needed procurement to go out to market in advance of any decisions – so some projects had suppliers already lined up for delivery, evaluation and other aspects of project delivery
- Some Authorities were considering collaborating on CRF – either in the direct delivery of certain projects or in the management of CRF programmes
- There was uncertainty over timeframes – if all activity had to finish on CRF by the end of June 2021 then projects may need to end their delivery much earlier to wrap up any final payments and complete an evaluation. Further clarity on this issue would be welcomed
- Some form of centralised training on CRF would be welcomed to ensure the rules and regulations (and potential interpretation of them) was clear
- There was some uncertainty around Local Authorities management fees – both in terms of what evidence of defrayal would be needed (including potentially timesheets) and also if the management fee would reduce if projects in the area did not spend their full budgets
- It was not clear when interim and final progress reports would need to be submitted to DLUHC
- CEDOS to collate a series of questions from Authorities and centrally send them to DLUHC and share with other members