LGA Governance


Agenda item

Agenda item

The Independent Commission on Growth and Public Service Reform in Non-Metropolitan Areas

·         The remit of the Independent Commission (paper: Terms of Reference for the Commission) and how it will work with the Board

 

·         Reaction and concluding remarks by the Minister

Minutes:

 

Cllr Hodge welcomed Greg Clark MP and Sir John Peace, Chairman of the Independent Commission. He invited Sir John to outline what he saw as the remit of the Commission in relation to the Board.

 

Sir John emphasised the need for a joined-up strategy between the public and private sector and asserted that business leaders were keen to engage with local authorities on growth. The work of the Commission would provide a platform for challenge and debate to take place on key growth issues such as a need to raise education standards in cities and non-urban areas.

 

Sir John reported that 5 Commissioners had been selected to date of the 7 envisaged in total. He said that the Commission would look to consult with experts and economists in different fields. However, he asserted that a “one-size-fits-all” approach would be inappropriate and stressed that the final report would review the key social and demographic trends in non-met areas rather than attempt to provide a comprehensive picture.

 

Members emphasised that Central Government tended to approach growth in broad terms rather than looking to maximise it on an area-by-area basis. Some members questioned the relevance of the current role of the DWP in the service they delivered to individual communities.

 

Cllr Hodge said that there was a need to get support across government to ensure transformation across local government was possible in providing quality services at lower cost. Members added that new partnership arrangements such as Health and Wellbeing Boards showed that the speed at which change was possible differed across different parts of the public sector. How to implement change across these partnerships at the speed demanded for economic growth was highlighted as an increasingly prevalent issue.

 

Members saw the Commission as an evidence-led opportunity to present a vision of what UK public services could look like in the medium term. However, they cautioned that the approach would need to incorporate sufficient flexibility to allow for experimentation with new ideas rather than rely only on what had worked in the past. Sir John agreed that innovation was as important as looking at the evidence for what economic potential currently existed.

 

Cllr Hodge asked Mr Clark to conclude this item by offering his view on the role of the Commission.

 

 

 

Mr Clark made the following points:

 

·         While ostensibly given the title “Minister for Cities”, he did not see his role as confined to a specific brief. The idea that growth stopped at the city limits was absurd.

 

·         There is a big contribution each local place can make to ensuring the nation prospers as a whole and the country is only as strong as the sum of its parts.

 

·         The Government has moved from offering City deals to local growth deals to extend the initiative to every place.

 

However:

 

·         There is a paradox in bringing together a Commission to look at collective opportunities for non-metropolitan areas as every place is different and inherent risks are posed for local self-determination by a unified approach

 

·         It will take significant time to marshall arguments for changing national policy on a wholesale basis (ie constitutional change).

 

·         While an evidence base may be built that local authorities are capable of delivering at local level, Whitehall may deploy scrutiny measures, such as the public accounts committee to seek broader assurances that it is capable of doing so reliably. This is likely to lead to a much more diluted version of the original proposals put forward.

 

·         Mr Clarke encouraged the Commission to recognise and apply difference rather than suppressing it, with flexibility built in to allow authorities to do things in different ways. The role of place in stimulating growth should be made clear.

 

·         Mr Clark cited the example of Lord Bruce-Lockhart’s approach to government in 2008 regarding a local initiative to reduce welfare in Kent, which expressed his confidence in the proposal by offering to share the council’s risks of failure as well as the benefits of success. While this proposal was not taken forward at the time, Mr Clark indicated that the current climate could be more favourable to such a direct approach with central departments such as the Cabinet Office and the Treasury. He emphasised that doing things in one place presented less risk than across a large number of authorities.

 

Cllr Hodge thanked Mr Clark for his contribution. He commented that differential devolution and how to develop a framework which made sense to all stakeholders would be key issues for the Committee, particularly in the context of delivering services in an increasingly complex stakeholder landscape.

 

 

 

Decisions

 

Members agreed the remit of the Independent Commission and the timescale for publishing its recommendations.

 

Action

 

Update on the Commission’s interim report to be included as an item on the June Board agenda.

 

 

Actions

 

 

 

 

 

 

Liz Spratt / Rebecca Cox

 

 

Supporting documents: