Issue - meetings

The Chairman invited the Interim Head of Paid Service to firstly give Members an overview of the Local Government Re-organisation (LGR) process to-date and going forward after which the Policy and Strategy Manager would present the report for consideration to Members.

In addressing the Chamber, the Head of Paid Service advised that LGR affected 21 areas of the country, the report before Members provided an update on LGR with Council having last considered the matter at a March meeting.  The report sought approval of the next steps, as detailed in the recommendations

Following the decision of Council, in March, an interim proposal in response to the

Government's statutory invitation was submitted. The Government had since provided feedback on all the proposals submitted in a single letter to the Greater Lincolnshire Council Leaders on 3 June this year (Appendix 2 of the report related). As well as providing feedback, the Government had committed to also providing capacity funding of just over £350,000 to Greater Lincolnshire authorities to support the development of the final proposals.

In wider context Members were advised the Devolution Bill was likely to be published in July and would likely receive Royal Assent next spring. The Bill would introduce a four-part kind of process, namely: -

·       structures /areas of new strategic authorities,

·       the powers and functions of those new strategic authorities including things like the development of spatial development strategies for areas.

·       wider reforms including abolishing the committee system. (although early indications were those districts subject to LGR would be exempt – clarification awaited

·       addressing local audit arrangements

The Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) expectation was for areas to try and collaborate and come together on a single proposal, however indications were that this was unlikely for most of the 21 two-tier areas. As a result, multiple proposals were expected, and this was being acknowledged by the officials at MHCLG.

The development of area Committees was a suggestion being keenly pursued by MHCLG but the challenge back had been the lack of blue-print for such proposals, whilst there was a Government desire to have some form of consistent approach to local engagement.

There was no sign that the Government were proposing shifting from their timetable on LGR, even though many areas were late in receiving their response to their initial proposals. There had been no deviation from the requirement to submit final proposals by 28th of November, nor to the programme for vesting days for areas not fast tracked, this being by the 1st of April 2028.

Acknowledging the wider strategic context, the Policy and Strategy Manager summarised the report to Members outlining in detail the contents of the letter of response received from the Government,  which had re-affirmed the final submission date and provided confirmation that final proposals would be evaluated against the criteria previously outlined in the statutory invitation.  The criteria had been included at Appendix 1 of the report and was summarised aloud to the Chamber.

The letter also made clear  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31