NORTHWEST REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCY Subject Link to RES/ Strategic Context Author Objectives of Report 1
Environment Sub Committee BESC/18/06 Business Resource Efficiency and Waste (BREW) Programme Evaluation RES Action 23: Business Resource Efficiency and Waste Mark Hughes, Executive Director, Enterprise & Skills To provide information on the evaluation of the NW BREW Programme (2005-2008) and future SCP Programmes
CRITICAL ISSUES
Background The BREW Programme was established by Defra in April 2005 to support businesses in improving efficient use of resources, including sustainable consumption, waste minimisation and diversion of waste from landfill. Funding was provided through the return of additional landfill tax receipts from businesses.The RDAs role within the BREW Programme was specifically to better coordinate and communicate BREW activity in the region. In the Northwest, BREW funding to the NWDA was used to implement signposting services and to undertake regional delivery projects to support better uptake, monitoring and coordination of resource efficiency business support activity and to accelerate waste technology sector development in the region. A number of key projects were funded under the programme including: the NW Waste Centre of Excellence for Waste Technology; the ENWORKS resource efficiency coordination project; Sustainability Mentoring NW; Environment Connect; and the development of the ENWORKS online monitoring toolkit. BREW Evaluation NWDA appointed consultants to undertake an independent evaluation of the delivery and coordination of the BREW-NW programme in January 2009. The evaluation involved: a quantitative assessment of performance; a business survey; consultation with project managers; consultation with stakeholders; a review of other regional delivery models and a review of the projects delivered as part of the Programme. The evaluation identified that the BREW-NW programme was well managed and fostered a number of productive relationships between partners. Overall, the evaluation found that the BREW-NW programme excelled in terms of its delivery of outputs against targets. A breakdown of the cost savings, resource savings and other Tasking Framework outputs is provided in Annex 1. The majority of output targets were met and several were well exceeded. In total, the NWDA’s programme received £3,560,000 BREW funding from Page 1 of 5
2005/06 to 2007/08 and, over the three years, delivered £15 million of cost savings to Northwest businesses. In other words, every £1 invested in the BREW NW Programme has delivered a saving of £4.21 for the Northwest economy. The Northwest was regarded a leader in the delivery of the national BREW Programme. This was reflected by the success of the ENWORKS online monitoring toolkit, which was subsequently rolled out to other RDAs. Also Environment Connect, which was set up to provide one contact point for businesses wanting environmental support, was the first of its kind and has also been successfully embedded within the Business Link structure. Lessons Learned A number of lessons can be identified from delivery of this programme, many of which are transferable to other programmes: • Initial research carried out into the region’s needs was seen as effective in terms of identifying barriers to accessing support. It was noted that any strategic intervention of this nature requires upfront research and analysis in order to ensure that project delivery has a solid rationale for intervention. • Compared to other regions, the BREW-NW programme funded a smaller number of larger scale projects rather than a lot of supplementary projects, which gave it a wider strategic arc of influence. This strategic approach has been deemed to be more successful. • The partnership structure and delivery model was seen as well suited to this type of programme and this assisted the achievement of a successful range of outputs. • Many of the national delivery partners have come together to collaborate for the first time under this programme which may not have happened without regional coordination activities to bring them together. Going Forward In April 2008, Defra amalgamated the BREW programme into the single Defra budget. As a result, the RDAs no longer receive funding under this programme. The BREW programme has however set a firm foundation upon which the region can base its future resource efficiency business support activity. The ERDF Northwest Operational Programme contains a specific Action Area (1.3) on sustainable consumption and production, developed by the Agency in light of the experience gained from managing the BREW Northwest Programme. The Action Area has £27m of funding available over the next 6 years and identifies 5 strands of activity to be supported as a priority for the region: a) Innovative approached to changing culture b) Improving sustainable consumption and production in key sectors c) Support for sustainable procurement d) Developing and demonstrating low carbon technologies e) Encouraging the installation of low carbon/low waste technologies Page 2 of 5
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FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS AND EFFICIENCY
There are no financial implications of this report. 3
RISK ASSESSMENT
The evaluation identified that national delivery bodies would welcome a continuation of NWDA’s regional coordination role. This positive feedback will supports the Agency’s stance on Business Support Simplification Programme (BSSP) and reduce the risk of duplication of delivery in the region going forwards. 4 RECOMMENDATIONS It is recommended that the contents of this evaluation report be noted. Report approved by Executive Director, Infrastructure and Development
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Annex 1 Summary of Resource Savings: BREW NW Programme, 2005/08
The £15 million of cost savings reported by the projects in the Programme is substantial. It represents a significant value in financial savings to the Northwest economy. It represents 2 per cent of the potential savings identified for the Northwest in the Oak Dene Hollins national report (2007). Moreover, the cost savings data excludes the £89.8 million that has been achieved in cost savings to local authorities. Gross to Net Calculation Using English Partnerships’ Additionality Guide and the findings of the Mid Term Evaluation of Ten Single regeneration Budget Case Studies, the evaluation produced the following gross to net calculations for the project outputs that relate to NWDA’s Tasking Framework. a) BREW Resource Efficiency Coordination
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b) NW Waste Technology Virtual Centre of Excellence
The gross to net calculations are based on established ratios and supplemented with the consultants understanding of the way in which the programme had been developed. The evaluation concluded that the net outputs remain as an impressive set of results for the Programme.
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