The Chairman invited Philip Clifford, Senior Adviser, to introduce the update.

Philip said that the Local Economic Recovery and Devolution White Paper had been delayed and he wasn’t expecting any further major developments on devolution and local government reorganisation until the new year. In the meantime, the LGA was exploring measures that could be introduced without legislation to boost recovery and renewal in the short to medium term and, also, the potential to align health devolution with devolution to local government. A joint Lead Member meeting with the People & Places, City Regions and Community Wellbeing Boards had been arranged for 26 November to discuss health devolution.

Philip sought feedback from members on the following issues:

·       The list of detailed devolution proposals set out in Appendix 1

·       The extent to which economic recovery and devolution should be linked.

·       Potential powers that could be devolved to councils without setting up Combined Authorities.

Following the introduction, members raised the following points:

·       The complexity of setting up Combined Authorities was raised and it was suggested that the timescales would be too long to be able to support economic recovery. Combined Authorities were also not considered to be so well suited to rural areas. Support was therefore expressed for a flexible approach, exploring powers that could be effectively devolved to individual councils.

·       Members considered that there was a tension between the Government seeking greater clarity and simplicity in local government and the desire for more localised service delivery. Any changes to local government should be informed by outcomes and what works for residents rather than ‘one size fits all’ system change.

·       Could more detail be provided on the items in the list at Appendix 1 so the sector can be clear about its asks. Police and Crime Commissioners taking over fire governance was cited as an example of taking away power from a local level. Philip said that there was a more detailed list behind the summary in Appendix 1 which would be circulated to members.

·       The debate around local government reorganisation has become very polarised and a role was suggested for the LGA in taking a broader overview. It was considered vital to keep local communities engaged whatever new system was introduced.

·       Concern was expressed about a loss of Spending Power resulting from the creation of unitary authorities such as Dorset. This would not help with economic recovery measures if further unitarisation were to take place.

·       It was considered important that councils weren’t seen by the public to be ‘navel gazing’ over devolution and reorganisation, when arguably more important issues needed to be addressed.

·       Financing of local government was flagged up as a major concern. It was argued that councils needed to be able to raise more of their own money locally. Business rate retention would be a big unknown for councils into the future as businesses reorganise on the back of Covid-19.

·       It was considered vital that adult social care services were retained under local authority control rather than being taken on nationally.

Decisions:

Members of the People and Places Board noted:

1.     Ongoing work to review the range of existing devolution asks summarised at Appendix 1 and agreed that the comments raised during the debate be incorporated as part of this research.

2.     that a joint meeting between Lead Members of the City Regions, People and Places and Community Well-Being Boards has been arranged for 26 November.