Agenda item

This report sets out activities and progress on work areas within the Portfolio of the Leader of the Council and is provided in relation to the Leader of the Council being held to account.

Members received an overview of progress on the areas within the terms of

reference of this Committee covered by Councillor Alan Jarrett, Leader of the Council, i.e.

·         Strategic leadership of the Council

·         Communications and marketing

·         Finance

Councillor Jarret responded to Members’ questions and comments as follows:

·         Audit and Counter Fraud Shared Service -In response to a question about how the Leader felt the new shared service was operating and whether this would be a model for the future, the Leader replied that he considered the shared service was working well. However, in view of the significant financial pressures facing local government he did not feel simply sharing services across two councils would be enough and he was involved in exploring options for clusters of authorities in Kent to operate more closely together by integrating services.  Following on from that answer a Member asked about the Leader’s views on the balance between the advantages of additional savings due to joint working arrangements and the disadvantages of the consequent diminution in sovereignty for the Council. The Leader replied that the Council’s sovereignty was fundamental. He felt the Government’s preoccupation with elected mayors was a distraction and one that should not be imposed on Kent. There were merits in combined authorities provided the right deal was struck in terms of what additional powers were devolved.

·         Medway Norse - Responding to a question about progress to date with Medway Norse and the potential for further savings and income generation, the Leader commented that he felt Medway Norse had been a significant success since its inception in spite of some inevitable glitches. Whilst fully accepting people had a right to be paid at a fair rate he had some reservations about the impact of the living wage on the business and thought this policy had not been fully thought through by the Government. Medway Norse had been successful in generating revenues but there were challenges in terms of controlling costs and maintaining standards of service in the context of such significant labour pressures.

·         Business Rates - A Member asked if the Council had made any representations to the Government about how the changes in business rates would affect Medway. The Leader commented that this appeared to be a mechanism for the Government to be able to shift funding from central government to local government. He had asked the Secretary of State if transitional arrangements would be put in place but had not received a definite answer, possibly because this detail had not been considered yet by Government. Business rates were likely to be top sliced with extra responsibilities, as yet unknown, given to councils. The Leader was not in favour of responsibilities which were unaffordable being devolved, such as health services.

·         Thames Estuary Growth Commission -In response to whether the Chairman of the Commission, Lord Heseltine, would be visiting Medway, the Leader commented that Lord Heseltine would no doubt be visiting Kent. He was concerned at the naming of the new Commission and what this might mean for ensuing projects. There had been discussions around setting up one or more urban development corporations and the Leader cautioned against one being imposed on Kent and commented on the differences between Kent compared to the Docklands.

·         Local Plan - The Leader agreed with a comment about the good start made in developing the new Local Plan and noted that many difficult decisions would face Members.

·         Academies - A Member referred to what he considered to be reservations on the part of the Leader about schools being required to convert to academies and asked what representations he had made to Government on this point. The Leader noted that, overall, academies in Medway had performed 9% worse than local authority schools. His concern with current Government policy on academies was that he did not accept that a change in status to an academy would in itself improve standards and he had made that point to the Secretary of State. His biggest concern was what this policy meant for local education authorities and he did not feel sufficient thought had been given to the issue of how school improvement worked in respect of academies.

·         EU referendum - In response to whether the Council was planning to mitigate the impacts on Medway of the outcome of the referendum, the Leader confirmed that no scenario planning on this was taking place.

·         Rochester airport - The Leader commented, following a request for an update, that progress was on hold following a judicial review but he hoped work would continue soon with improvements to the airport and the creation of the technology park and new jobs. In terms of whether there was a strategy in place to create 1,000 jobs, the Leader stated that it was more a case of emerging ideas being examined. The figure of 1,000 jobs was the Council’s best estimate. He was confident the park would be a significant success and hoped it would create high quality technology jobs. He also wanted to see units capable of catering for small businesses who had outgrown their accommodation so that they did not move out of Medway.

·        Quarterly budget monitoring – children in care - A Member asked why here had been such significant pressures on the revenue budget resulting from the numbers of children in the care system. The Leader replied that the Council was well aware of these issues. The new Assistant Director Children’s Social Care had some very interesting ideas on how to tackle these pressures but results would not be immediate and the situation would continue to be monitored. It was not sustainable for the budget to be regularly augmented.

·        Supporting older people -  A comment was made that supporting older people to live more independently involved providing personal, professional care as well as the greater use of technology, and the Leader agreed with this sentiment. The council was looking at a range of solutions, not all of which were technology based. Whilst he was committed to driving out savings through commissioning the top priority was to ensure good standards of service.

·        Adult Social Care levy -  Regarding a question about the levy and the threshold for when people had to pay a contribution for adult social care, the Leader stated that the new levy would help and the threshold for contributions was set by the Government. The Council needed to use all available mechanisms to fund adult social care but legal charges on a person’s’ property were rare.

·        Charities/voluntary sector funding -  A Member referred to decisions by the Council to reduce grants to charities and voluntary sector organisations and asked if any thought had been given to the possible effects of these in causing increased levels of social isolation and  whether organisations were given sufficient time to find alternative sources of funding. The Leader felt this was a very valid point and the Council needed to work with the sector to deliver the best possible services and was prepared to revisit decisions where necessary. 

·        Sure Start Centres -  In response to a question about the ownership of sure start centre properties that had been extended, the Leader undertook to look into this issue. He added that the 19 sure start centres would remain open but not in their current configuration.

·        Former Civic Centre Site, Strood -  In terms of progress with this site, the Leader acknowledged that not a great deal of progress had been made but said the site would be brought forward for sale once funding was in place to deal with the flood defence works needed at the site and when the market was ready for its disposal.

Decision:

The Committee agreed to:

a)        note the report and;

b)        note the commitment from the Leader to look into the issue about the ownership of sure start centre properties.