This report provides Members with a progress report and set out the Heart of the Southwest Local Industrial Strategy, budget statement for 2018/19 in addition to the budget and cost sharing agreement set out in Appendix B.
Minutes:
The purpose of the report was to summarize the progress made by the Committee over recent months in key areas of activity and sets out actions proposed in the coming months.
The Leader introduced the item and the now Head of Localities presented the report in further detail, drawing attention to the salient points contained within.
In January 2018, the HotSW Joint Committee was formally established by the councils and organisations involved since 2015 in the devolution partnership. The Committee was tasked with improving productivity across the HotSW area in collaboration with the HotSW LEP and other organisations as necessary.
The Committee had met formally three times in 2018, in March, June and October. In addition to this the management structure that sat behind the Committee and involved Chief Executives and senior officers from across the partnership had met regularly to drive the business of the Committee. The Committee was chaired by Cllr David Fothergill, Leader of Somerset County Council and the Vice-Chair was Cllr John Tucker, Leader of South Hams District Council.
During the discussion of this item Members made comments and statements and asked questions, and the following main points were raised:
· Members queried that the Head of Localities though in a new post now was still the Council’s Officer Representative on the Local Enterprise Partnership?
· It was confirmed that they were for the time being, but that this may change depending upon the Strategic Direction given by the new Chief Executive.
· It was raised that the LEP had a heavy emphasis on driving innovation and skills, and that their agenda had a lot of overlap with the recent Task and Finish Report’s into Employment Land and an Innovation Centre.
· Report Author would be happy to meet to discuss this further but the alignment of Council objectives with the LEP’s was strong. A Prosperity Strategy would be prepared in due course which would tie all this work together.
· Engagement with the LEP to tackle productivity was considered important. Members had attended Productivity Workshops which had brought focus, and this momentum needed to be carried forward into the practicalities and how this work could be achieved.
RESOLVED (1) that the Shadow Executive notedthe progress report setting out the work of the Heart of the South West (HotSW) Joint Committee since its establishment in March 2018;
RESOLVED (2) that the Shadow Executive recommended Taunton Deane Borough Council and West Somerset Council to agree to delegate the development and endorsement of the HotSW Local Industrial Strategy (LIS) to the HotSW Joint Committee (noting that final approval of the HotSWLIS rests with the HotSW Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and the Government).
RESOLVED (3) that the Shadow Executive noted the Budget statement for 2018/19 set out in Appendix B and that in accordance with the decisions taken at the time the Committee was established the two extant Councils will be asked to make an annual budgetary provision to meet the support costs of the Joint Committee in line with the Taunton Deane and West Somerset Councils’ 2018/19 contribution. Final clarification on any additional 2019/20 budget requirement will be provided following the completion of the review of the Joint Committee’s role, function and management support arrangements and development of its work programme for 2019/20.
RESOLVED (4) that the Shadow Executive recommended that Taunton Deane Borough Council and West Somerset Council agree to the Budget and Cost-sharing Agreement set out in Appendix B to the report.