Agenda item

Lord Teverson will be attending the meeting as a representative of the Peace Commission.

A copy of the Interim report is available at

http://www.local.gov.uk/documents/10180/6193395/How+the+Other+Half+Grows+%28lo+res%29.pdf/b1556a61-b8c5-4676-8df7-e3ee3090eaef

The Board discussed the Interim report for the “Peace Commission” and welcomed Lord Teverson to the meeting in his capacity as one of the Commissioners. He briefly introduced the report before the discussion.

Lord Teverson, in introducing the report, stated that the Commission considered that something needed to be done about English devolution, particularly in light of the recent Scottish referendum and that fundamental change was needed in England without being bogged down in structures.

Board members raised the following points in the discussion that followed:

·         Councils would be keen to undertake greater powers on economic development and skills. Non-metropolitan areas needed to be empowered.

·         Local authorities have done a great deal of valuable work in public service integration and multi-agency working. This was particularly the case in areas such as LEP, social care and health.

·         Democratically elected authorities should ‘hold the ring’ and a rebalancing of powers between central and local government was needed. There should not be an emphasis on structures and governance alone.

·         Local authorities cannot raise monies as they see fit and a financial model needed to be acceptable and accountable to local electorates. What were the areas that we would like to see devolved from central government?

·         There was potential for devolving to non-metropolitan areas, e.g. LEP boundaries should be redefined. The LGA should have been consulted on this.

·         Local Government needed to offer central government ways to demonstrate clearly how it had been cost-effective and had borne cuts of 40% but increased efficiency. Local Government had been successful in making savings and can demonstrate to central government that it could be trusted to undertake more devolved tasks.

Thanks were accorded to Lord Teverson for attending to the meeting and representing the Commission.

Decision

The Board noted the interim report and submitted their views to Lord Teverson as one of the Commissioners.

Action

Any further comments should be sent to John Wright via e-mail in the next seven days, for the Peace Commission to consider.