Agenda item

To consider the attached progress report.

The Joint Assembly RECOMMENDED that the Executive Board:

a)    Approve a net increase in the operational budget of £104k to be funded from drawing additional funding from the New Homes Bonus resource [Para. 3-5 of the report];

b)    Approve an increase of the budget for the independent economic assessment panel work by £30k from drawing additional funding from the New Homes Bonus resource [Appendix 4 to the report]; and

c)    Delegate authority to the Interim Chief Executive, in consultation with the Chairperson of the Executive Board and the Economy and Environment Portfolio Holder, to sign off the Locality Evaluation Framework and Outline Evaluation Plan [Appendix 4 to the report].

The Joint Assembly considered a report to be presented to the next Executive Board meeting on progress across the GCP programme since March 2017.  The report covered:

·         The 2016/17 end of year financial outturn report;

·         Financial monitoring to May 2017;

·         A six-monthly report on Smart Cambridge;

·         An update on the independent economic assessment panel;

·         An update on the implementation of the Mouchel report recommendations; and

·         The Executive Board forward plan of decisions.

The Joint Assembly was invited to consider and comment on the recommendations being presented to the Executive Board.  The main points of discussion are summarised below:

·         Councillor Tim Wotherspoon noted reference to plans to hold a Future of Transport conference in Cambridge and asked if dates had been set.  He also expressed interest in being involved in the Economic Assessment Panel’s discussions on measuring additionality of interventions in local economic growth.  In response, the Strategic Programme and Commissioning Manager reported that the dates for the conference had yet to be confirmed, although the 12^th November had been proposed.  Details would be sent to members in due course.  She undertook to discuss involvement in the Panel’s discussions with Councillor Wotherspoon outside the meeting. 

·         Councillor Bridget Smith asked about reference to apprenticeships and noted the report referred to an 18% increase against the preceding year.  She felt it was inappropriate to imply that this might be due to the GCP’s activity on skills given she had attended a meeting where it was made clear there was no way of measuring the impact of the GCP’s work.  Councillor Smith asked if there was any information on national trends in apprenticeships to enable members make some judgement about how much of that 18% was down to national trends and how much might be down to us; whether that be the work of the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) or the GCP.  In response, the Strategic Programme and Commissioning Manager undertook to make it clear that correlation did not equal cause and to include national comparisons in the next version of this report.

·         Councillor Bick referred to extending the interim appointments of GCP staff and asked how decisions on the cost associated with those appointments were made.  He suggested this had been done via delegated powers given neither the Joint Assembly or Executive Board had been involved in this.  In response, the Section 151 Officer stated that provision for an Interim Chief Executive was built into the budget for the year and that it was a decision of the Executive Board that this should be a finite resource.  Given the formation of the Combined Authority and other governance issues, he had consulted with the Executive Board, which was of the view that the time was not right to terminate the current interim arrangements.  Mr Malyon had therefore used his delegated powers to extend the appointments to the end of this financial year.  In response Councillor Bick expressed his hope that the Executive Board would soon be in a position to take a decision on making permanent appointments.

·         Councillor Tim Wotherspoon referred to the response to actions 24 and 26 in the Mouchel Report and drew attention to the grey boxes indicating where action had not yet been scheduled to start.  He indicated this highlighted the urgent need to clarify the respective roles of the Mayor, the Combined Authority, the LEP, the GCP and the constituent Councils.  Councillor Wotherspoon stressed the need to make sure that no one lost sight of the significance of the Strategic Economic Plan or the need to update the Transport Strategy and put in place a joint committee, or whatever mechanism was chosen to initiate the new Local Plan.  In response, the Interim Chief Executive agreed that this was important and informed the Joint Assembly that there was a report being presented to the Combined Authority next week seeking approval to set up an Economic Commission.  The GCP would be supporting and playing a role in this. 

·         In response to a question from Councillor Noel Kavanagh, the Strategic Programme and Commissioning Manager agreed to circulate information to the Joint Assembly and Executive Board on where new homes were planned.

The Joint Assembly considered the officer recommendations being presented to the Executive Board and agreed unanimously to RECOMMEND that the Executive Board:

a)    Approve a net increase in the operational budget of £104k to be funded from drawing additional funding from the New Homes Bonus resource [Para. 3-5 of the report];

b)    Approve an increase of the budget for the independent economic assessment panel work by £30k from drawing additional funding from the New Homes Bonus resource [Appendix 4 to the report]; and

c)    Delegate authority to the Interim Chief Executive, in consultation with the Chairperson of the Executive Board and the Economy and Environment Portfolio Holder, to sign off the Locality Evaluation Framework and Outline Evaluation Plan [Appendix 4 to the report].