Agenda item

Dennis Skinner presented the revised Business Plan to the Board for information.

It was queried why the biodiversity emergency had not been given higher priority in the plan and whether specific resources could be sought from government departments to fund improvement work.

Cllr Liz Green, Chair of the Climate Change Working Group, said that this was being included in the LGA’s proposed MoU with MHCLG and would be the start of further work on biodiversity, as it was a priority outlined for the LGA Climate Change Sector Led Improvement Programme for 2021/22. For example, the LGA ran a webinar in December called Seeing the wood for the trees.  In relation to funding, the LGA policy team put together the Spending Review 2020: On-the-Day Briefing which included lobbying lines on the natural environment. Further details would be brought to the next meeting of the LGA’s Environment, Economy, Housing & Transport Board in February.

Decision:

·       Improvement & Innovation Board noted the 2020/21 update of the 3-year business plan as the basis for work programmes over the coming months.