Grangemouth Future Industry Board minutes: February 2022

Attendees and apologies

• Falkirk Council
• Fuel Change
• Green Action Trust
• Scottish Enterprise
• Scottish Environment Protection Agency
• Scottish Government
• Skills Development Scotland
• Transport Scotland

Items and actions

Purpose

The meeting covered two substantive items:

• a review of the board’s progress throughout 2021
• updates from the Workstream leads outlining the ambition for GFIB for the upcoming 12 months

Key Board decisions/points raised at GFIB meeting 7

There are a few substantive changes to the structure of the GFIB that we propose:

• the introduction of a Just Transition and Net Zero workstream led by Scottish Government
• resilience colleagues assume an advisory role for specific issues as required
• to merge Strategic Investment and Project Development workstreams
• the introduction of a Skills workstream
• the introduction of a management board to sit above the GFIB delivery group and take responsibility for resourcing decisions

Infrastructure

• on conventional infrastructure; the roads, utilities infrastructure and the improvements that are going to happen around Grangemouth in the next number of years, there have been two key achievements: Grangemouth featured  in both National Planning Framework consultation  and the Strategic Transport Project Review 
• over the past year the importance of the Grangemouth Flood Protection Scheme has been raised across the public sector - the Council emphasised that, given the scale and complexity of the Scheme, a collaborative approach (with SG and other agencies) would be necessary to ensure effective management and delivery
• increased focus is required on how we decarbonise Grangemouth and what that means in terms of projects, linkages with the Growth Deal, logistics sector, and  just transition plan

Just Transition and Net Zero

• at GFIB 6 in December, board members committed to the delivery of  Just Transition Plan for the Grangemouth Industrial Cluster
• the primary deliverable is the development of a vision for the Grangemouth Industrial cluster which we plan to co-produce with Industry and publish in the Summer of 2022

Regulatory Hub

• last year, SEPA was successful in their bid to Regulator’s Pioneer Fund, run by BEIS, it sponsors projects led by regulators and local authorities and aims to develop a regulatory environment that encourages investment innovation
• the report will cover four main areas: regulatory mapping, stakeholder engagement, case studies and pilots, future vision for Grangemouth – establishing what work has already been done

Skills

• the Skills work stream is about people, education, organisation and education
• need to explore where Grangemouth is now and where it needs to go in the future, we need to map out where the skills landscape is currently and what the demands of the future are
• there are some complex high value jobs at GM, our aspiration is that this supply continues and grows

Strategic Investment and Project Development

• This work stream will continue to foster relationships with key companies within the Grangemouth Industrial cluster. There have been challenges accessing the data for strategic indicators, this will be an immediate focus for the upcoming year to get an accurate baseline for the cluster.
• Notable progress with the Falkirk Growth and Investment Zone (FGIZ). All Strategic Outline Cases) in the Innovative Industries theme have been approved and now moving to development of Outline Business Cases. This has contributed to the Heads of Terms being signed £44M of which is allocated to this theme.

Actions summary

• secretariat to advance work on economic baseline project
• secretariat to circulate Just Transition Workstream Lead’s contact information
• secretariat to consider what the role of GFIB might be around Green Freeports
• secretariat to schedule workstream leads meetings
• secretariat to seek input on what existing relationships are in place as a starter for considering how best we co-ordinate our industry engagement
• skills workstream to connect with the Employability Partnership
• secretariat to include externally facing engagement and UK Government, engagement on the Board Structure and Governance
• secretariat to consider how Finance Colleagues are engaged with GFIB