Attendees
Melanie Sealey (Chair), Keir Duffin, Iain Masters, Mathew Chetwynd, Richard Marsh, Tim Child, Sarah Ogden, Jasmine Jones, Alison Hayward, David Lang, Linda Morgan, Patrick Rafferty, Paul Britton, Sarah Jane Mackenzie-Shapland, David Carter, Zoe Lentell, David Bowcock, David Bartrum, Leroy Venn, Neil Blaney, Ian Thompson, Helen Bone, Hannah Dixon (minutes)
Apologies
Mike Woodliff, Ian Collinson, Roger Clotworthy, Chris Watts
1. BLRF Bid Update – Paul Britton
The current BLRF projects seem to be going well, if there are any concerns or delays with your projects, please contact Paul Britton/ Keir Duffin.
The new round of BLRF is likely to open in April 2025 (awaiting confirmation of the date). If you had an unsuccessful bid in the previous round, please make those minor changes and contact Paul Britton/ Keir Duffin for support/ advice as soon as possible, if you do have a new bid that you want to put forward and think it’s ready, please let PB/ KD know.
If the launch does happen in April, then applications would need to be submitted by June/ July and successful projects will be notified around September project work would take place between September 2025 and March 2026.
2. Prisoners Building Homes Programme – Keir Duffin / Paul Britton
OPE Partnerships have been approached to see if there are projects ready that could be identified for funding (very similar to BLRF) this would require the partner to be in contract by 01/04/25 and have a modular build company developing housing currently. KD and PB have undertaken a review of all existing projects within the OPE partnership and only Mid Devon could apply.
OPE Approved – to put forward Mid Devon schemes for funding to Prisoners Building Homes Programme – agreed
ACTION: Richard Marsh to attend the next meeting regarding Mid-Devon’s positive work with modular builds.
3. OPE Co-location Fund update / Consultant – Keir Duffin
As part of the co-location project, the partnership tendered and successfully obtained Avison Young who will build business cases for projects. Ian, Keir and colleagues are meeting next week to discuss priorities.
ACTION: Keir to copy Ian into the Ilfracombe property opportunities emails.
Best practice visits are underway, if partners have further themes/ aspirations they would like to explore please let Keir know, and they can be matched up to undertake a best practice visit.
Partners visited Ilfracombe sites and Town Council for a potential OPE co-location review. Key opportunities and solutions have come out of this. Partners have expressed what they need, which has been collated and will be passed to Avison Young.
ACTION: Keir to send out list regarding projects.
4. Any Other Business
Agenda for next meeting –
- Mid-Devon Modular Builds – Richard Marsh
- Co-location fund update, including a reminder of the co-location fund sites – Ian Thompson
- Update on BLRF – Paul Britton/ Keir Duffin
ACTION: PB to investigate what works well for OPE with other two-tier combined Local Authorities, and send examples to KD for wider board
Agenda for next meeting –
- Mid-Devon Modular Builds – Richard Marsh
- Co-location fund update, including a reminder of the co-location fund sites – Ian Thompson
- Update on BLRF – Paul Britton/ Keir Duffin
ACTION: PB to investigate what works well for OPE with other two-tier combined Local Authorities, and send examples to KD for wider board
5. Future Meeting Dates
30th April 2025
16th July 2025
22nd October 2025