The Panel is to receive a verbal update on Devolution from the Executive Leader of the Council.
Minutes:
The Panel received a presentation from the Executive Leader of the Council on the latest developments on Devolution. The Panel were reminded that Devolution involves the passing over to a Combined Authority, under the control of an elected Mayor a number of infrastructure budgets worth £1.2bn. There will be a Cabinet to oversee the work of the Mayor and that will comprise of the Leaders of all the Councils within the Combined Authority as well as a representative from the LEP.
Members were told that of the £1.2bn there will be £100m available for the building of affordable housing throughout Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and a further £70m for the building of affordable housing in Cambridge City.
Members were informed that Full Council will vote on 16th November 2016 to either accept or reject the Devolution deal. If all the authorities accept the deal then a Government Order will be brought forward in December 2016 to devolve powers to a Combined Authority in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
In order to prepare for the Combined Authority, Members were informed that a Shadow Cabinet has been formed with County Councillor S Count appointed at its leader. The Shadow Cabinet are responsible for delivering several work streams in order to deliver Devolution. Teams of people are working on how to account for the funding and how to distribute it. A separate investment board will be created to ensure that the funding is spent fairly.
It was confirmed that some of the infrastructure funds in the Devolution deal could be used to bring forward some infrastructure projects from the next ten to fifteen years into the next five years.
Following a question regarding the likelihood of Cambridgeshire County Council voting for the Devolution deal, the Panel was informed that the Executive Leader does not know the likelihood of the County Council voting for Devolution however the Leader of the County Council has stated he is confident that the County Council will vote for the deal.
In response to a question on the difficulty of building affordable housing across the Combined Authority, as all the different councils have their own policies, the Panel was informed that there will be an overarching plan with common standards to facilitate the building of affordable homes across the Combined Authority.
A Member asked if the Mayor and Cabinet will have enough expertise to manage the powers and the £1.2bn infrastructure budget, in response the Executive Leader stated that an independent panel of experts will be appointed to oversee and assess the work of the Mayor and Cabinet. The experts are not expected to be a significant cost upon the budget. In addition, the Mayor will need to have to right balance in terms of political network, management skills and commercial negotiating skills.
The Panel asked about the scrutiny arrangements for the Combined Authority and were informed that a scrutiny panel will be formed and headed by an independent Chairman, who will not be employed by the Combined Authority, to scrutinise the work of the Cabinet and the Mayor. Members were reminded that the Governance of the Combined Authority is currently being accessed.
Following a question in regards to the opportunities for local scrutiny panels to scrutinise the work of the Combined Authority, Members were informed that the scrutiny panels scrutinises the Leader of their respective authorities who in turn sits on the Cabinet of the Combined Authority.
Members were informed that the cost for Mayoral Election in May 2017 will be £300k and the office of Mayor will cost is £700k for the term of the Mayor. This represents 2% of the of the overall Combined Authority budget.
(At 8.30pm, during the consideration of the item, Councillor G J Bull left the meeting and did not return.)