Agenda item

Report of the Leader, Councillor Rowena Hay

The Leader introduced her report, highlighting the following:

-       the Gloucestershire City Region Board will bring together the Severn Vale, Rural Ambitions and Central Gloucestershire City Region Boards and the Gloucestershire Economic Growth Joint Committee (GEGJC) as the Gloucestershire City Region Board (GCRB), serving the whole county;

-       the Gloucestershire local authorities’ Business Rates Pool created the Strategic Economic Development Fund (SEDF), administered by GEGJC;

-       with the growth of the Business Rates Pool and fund, GEGJC members asked whether a more strategic approach could be taken when considering and allocating SEDF, noting that projects are not always strategic in nature, risking funds being allocated to projects that may not maximise economic benefit and growth for the county;

-       the proposal is for the GCRB to administer and allocate the SEDF, developing a longer vision, and applying more rigorous and strategic selection of projects which deliver and add value to the growth of the local economy;

-       the county council’s GEGJC Scrutiny Committee will be reconstituted to focus on oversight of GCRB activities, including monitoring delivery of projects funded by SEDF and suggesting potential areas for future investment;

-       retaining both GCRB and GEGJC was deemed to create duplication and be ineffective.

She thanked the Chief Executive for a detailed report, confirming that the GCRB won’t come into being until each authority has voted on it.

The Cabinet Member for Economic Development, Culture, Tourism and Well-being made the following comments:

-       this is a broadly useful evolution of what already exists, but we need to be aware of the pitfalls of these processes – when working across district borders and with county, there are always things that could go wrong, and negotiations to get the best outcomes for Cheltenham and the whole county will be really important;

-       there is much that is positive in the paper: Liberals welcome devolution from Westminster to Gloucestershire, and it is to be hoped that this will be followed with resources to carry out the work.  In the past, devolution deals and  new bodies in our county have been used as a veil for cuts elsewhere, as with the Local Enterprise Partnerships when austerity was at its deepest .  We need to be aware of accountability and scrutiny;

-       we also need to be mindful of the risk that while powers are  being drawn down from Westminster they are also being drawn up from Cheltenham to Gloucestershire.  We already share sovereignty with other councils, such as with the Strategic and Local Plan where we are working positively with Tewkesbury and Gloucester, but with three more partners at district level and one at county level, we need to be aware of the potential for difficulties to arise and to think how Cheltenham voters will hold to account decision makers in this new county body. The Leader will speak for the people of Cheltenham, but we must always be aware that it is local residents who we listen to first.  In broad terms, if a Cheltenham resident doesn’t like a decision of the new county body, do they go to their local borough councillor, county councillor, to senior officers or the leader of the council.  We need to be aware of all the issues around scrutiny and accountability      

-       the appendix says the board will work on a Gloucestershire City Region Vision – a positive thing – but the Gloucestershire 2050 vision a few years ago included ambitious big picture thinking, some positive vision around houses in right areas and attempts to talk about how to make better progress on environmental matters – but it wasn’t communicated in the most sensitive way, and will hopefully be not quite so divisive and better managed this time;

-       other combined authority schemes around the country have made some unwise and unpopular choices and wasted several years – hopefully Gloucestershire, with Cheltenham’s voice as part of it, won’t make similar mistakes;

-       we must be wary of a drive towards dangerous deregulation – the recent attempt to introduce investment zones would have been a threat to Cheltenham’s key project at Golden Valley, and we need to be aware that the new group is not used as a Trojan horse for that kind of agenda, which would not go down well with people in Gloucestershire;

-       hopefully lessons have been learnt from the past, and we won’t go down these paths again. This is a positive thing, and working with the county across districts for economic and environmental benefits is clearly the right thing to do.

The Cabinet Member for Customer and Regulatory Services thanked the Leader and Chief Executive for their work, saying that although the title may frighten some people, we must work to adapt the language of government in city regions to a more streamlined and efficient approach to joint working across the county.  Particularly welcome is the work done to include clear safeguards and accountability, with the important principle of no decision about us taken without us set out very clearly in black and white. It appears a lot more transparent than the previous set-up, with meetings in public, minuted and reported back to local councils, and despite the scary title, is a very positive step.

RESOLVED THAT: 

1.    the establishment of the Gloucestershire City Region Board (GCRB, the Board) is agreed;

2.  authority is delegated to the Chief Executive and Corporate Director in consultation with the Leader, to finalise and complete the Inter-Authority Agreement and other key documentation and to take all necessary steps to create the GCRB, including finalising the terms of reference for the GCRB.

3. the above recommendations will not be effective until all Gloucestershire Councils pass equivalent resolutions.

4. Upon the establishment of the GCRB:

4.1     this Council’s functions are delegated to the GCRB as are necessary for the delivery of the functions identified in the Terms of Reference at Appendix 2 to this report;

4.2     the appointment of the Gloucestershire County Council as the Administering Authority is confirmed;

4.3     the appointment of the Leader of the Council to the GCRB as the nominated member of the Board is agreed. If the Leader is unable to attend a meeting of the GCRB the Leader will nominate an alternative member of the Cabinet to attend the Board as a substitute.