Agenda item

Council considered a report which provided Members with a briefing and the opportunity to debate the Devolution proposals agreed by Lincolnshire County Council, North Lincolnshire Council and the North East Lincolnshire Council, in order that a formal consultation response could be submitted on behalf of West Lindsey District Council.  The four main areas it was suggested the consultation response should focus on were highlighted to the Members, as detailed in Section 3.5 of the report, and the purpose and intent of the proposed Joint Committee was briefly summarised, with Members noting this would be the subject of a future report, subject to approval.

The Chief Executive provided Members with a brief presentation in support of the report which provided an overview of the Devolution arrangement, the policy landscape in which devolution sat.  Three levels of devolution could be sought, Lincolnshire had sought the maximum level three, which gave a commitment for power and funding to come to Greater Lincolnshire, more powers, meant more responsibility, having more of a say which would increase flexibility, more flexibility would allow for better results.

To receive the powers granted by Devolution, a new body called a Combined County Authority (CCA), usually chaired by a Mayor, would need to be established.

It was stressed Devolution was not local government reorganization, whilst some transport and LEP functions would move to the CCA, the city, district and borough councils would continue to keep doing what they currently did.

The aims of the CCA and devolution were shared, these being: -

·       Investing in infrastructure

·       Boost growth and innovation

·       More high skill high wage jobs in key sectors

·       Provide training for new jobs

·       Housing in the right place

·       Improve transport links

Further details under each of those headings was provided to Members.  Finally, the stages and steps in reaching devolution were shared with Council.

Debate ensued and the former Leader expressed gratitude to colleagues in the upper tier authorities for their work in getting this far, referencing a similar exercise in 2016, when a deal could not be achieved.  

Members were encouraged by the fact that the proposed funds to be devolved into Greater Lincolnshire, and the draft agreement compared favourably in comparison with similar agreements elsewhere, both in terms of the level of funding available and the increased representation envisaged for district councils compared to other areas.

The need for fairer funding was something the District Council had always championed for.  It was suggested that having a link to the Vision 2050 document would be useful for newer Members. 

It was confirmed the village referred to at paragraph 2.2 was Kirkby on Bain, with Members noting this sat outside of West Lindsey.

Giving different comments around whether devolution was in fact re-organisation, Members sought clarity and were concerned that if this was the case this was not clear in the consultation, and in their view should be, questioning whether the consultation was valid.

In responding the Chief Executive was clear that devolution did not automatically carry any implication for local government reorganisation, so the consultation was purely about seeking to devolve powers from central government and the funding that came with that. 

Alongside that the South East Lincolnshire Partnership had written to the Department for Levelling Up back in February 2023, asking for a unitary proposal to be considered.

The Chief Executive stressed this had not been supported by any of the other districts at the time, and once the devolution deal was announced, the Department wrote back to the South East partnership and asked for their suggestions and that there may be conversations about reorganisation if there was general support for it within the area. 

These were two distinctly separate conversations, but happening at a similar time due to the approach made by the South East Partnership and the timing of that.

The Leader disputed to some degree the Chief Executive’s re-collection and was of the view re-organisation had been a discussion point, that there would be a creeping effect stemming from devolution, and re-organisations conversations would continue.  In his view Members had been told at the outset devolution would not affect the role of the District and Borough Councils, and as such was therefore disappointed that these conversations had started before devolution had been achieved.  As such he suggested the Council’s response should be clear that the District was against re-organisation.

Arising from questions it was confirmed any Mayor of CCA could levy a charge on the Council Tax bill for the services of the CCA, arising in a suggestion that this could and should have been made clearer in the consultation.

Members were reminded that they could make individual responses to the consultation and should encourage others to do so.

Members were outspoken in their support of no re-organisation, but many acknowledged this was a different debate.  In terms of the CCA proposal many could see the potential benefit of a single voice, the areas the CCA would be responsible for, were areas where the District had aspirations for improvement and would need to work in partnership.  As such the general consensus was the proposal was to supported and exploration be continued. 

RESOLVED that:

(a)    the progress on the proposed Greater Lincolnshire Devolution Deal be noted;

(b)    the Council Continues to engage with the implementation of devolution arrangements;

(c)    the submission of a Council response to the consultation be delegated to the Chief Executive following consultation with the Leader, in line with paragraph 3.5 and comments expressed during the debate and detailed above;

(d)    a further report be received by Council on completion of the consultation process; and

(e)    a report and recommendations, on the establishment of a Joint Committee for District Councils, be prepared by Officers for presentation to Corporate Policy and Resources Committee in March 2024, with a final report to an appropriate Full Council Meeting.