1. A-Z of Services
  2. A
  3. B
  4. C
  5. D
  6. E
  7. F
  8. G
  9. H
  10. I
  11. J
  12. K
  13. L
  14. M
  15. N
  16. O
  17. P
  18. Q
  19. R
  20. S
  21. T
  22. U
  23. V
  24. W
  25. X
  26. Y
  27. Z

Agenda, decisions and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 1 - Civic Centre. View directions

Contact: Tracy Richards , Cabinet Office Manager  Email: Cabinet@newport.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Councillor Giles

2.

Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

None received

3.

Minutes of the Last Meeting pdf icon PDF 152 KB

Minutes:

Minutes of 8 January were confirmed as a true record

4.

Capital Strategy and Treasury Management Strategy pdf icon PDF 3 MB

Minutes:

The Leader presented the report to Cabinet on the Capital and Treasury Management Strategies. These had already been reviewed by the Council’s Audit Committee and their comments and responses were included in the report.

 

The report included both the Capital and Treasury Management Strategies which, at their core (i) confirmed the capital programme, as part of the Capital Strategy and (ii) the various borrowing limits and other indicators which governed the management of the Councils borrowing and investing activities, as part of the Treasury Management Strategy.

 

The Leader advised that whilst the Cabinet made decisions relating to what could be spent on capital projects, it was the full Council that approved the ‘borrowing limits’.  Many projects were funded from capital grants, capital receipts and specific reserves which did not impact on borrowing levels, but where borrowing was required, the programme was required to be set within those limits. This was an important area of overall financial management governance in that borrowing levels, once taken up, lock in the Council to a long term lability for revenue costs in relation to the provision of the repayment of those loans (MRP costs) and external loan interest costs; together known as ‘capital financing costs’,

 

Both these strategies were a requirement of CIPFA’s Prudential Code which set out the requirement for them and ensured, within the frameworks which these document set, that capital expenditure plans were:

 

·         Affordable - capital spend and programmes were within sustainable limits and could be accommodated within current and forecast future funding levels.

·         Prudent – Councils needed to set borrowing limits called ‘operational’ and ‘authorised limits’ which reflected the Councils plan for affordable capital plans and their financing costs. On investing activities, Councils needed to consider the balance between security, liquidity and yieldwhich reflected their own risk appetite but prioritised security and liquidity over yield. 

·         Sustainable – Council’s capital plans and the revenue cost of financing the current and future forecast borrowing/debt taken out for thatneeds to be sustainable in terms of the Councils overall finances and its impact on that. 

 

These issues were reviewed and the Head of Finance comments were included in his section in paragraph 31 onwards. 

 

Treasury Strategy and the capital programme

The Council’s capital programme extended to 2024/25 (this was the original capital five year programme to 2022/23 which was extended by two years for projects whose completion spanned beyond the five years). It was a significant capital programme. The capital programme included £211.4m of already approved projects and alongside new investments such as the borrowing for Cardiff City Capital Region spend at £17.3m, £19.7m for the new leisure scheme and £4.5m for further uncommitted borrowing for future projects, which brought a total investment of £252.9m for the programme ending 2024/25.

 

This was a large investment for the City’s key infrastructure. Key projects included:

 

·         Our new leisure scheme in the city centre -£19.7m.   This would also pave the way for the new Coleg Gwent College. Both would bring much needed footfall  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.

Revenue Budget and Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP): Final Proposals pdf icon PDF 354 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Leader presented to Cabinet the Medium Term Financial Plan and 2021/22 revenue budget report. This was one of the Council’s most significant reports, which need to be carefully considered.

 

It represented the culmination of about six months of hard work, from agreeing the budget assumptions to form the basis of our planning.  After the detailed budget proposals were agreed, there was a further period of refinement and development following the announcement of the Welsh Government’s revenue support grant.  The Council had done this under difficult conditions, working remotely, with the significant uncertainty of developing budgets in the current challenging times.  On this latter point, the Council was notified of its Revenue Support Grant very late in December; about two months later than ‘normal’ and looking ahead, the prospect for public sector funding was uncertain given that the Comprehensive Spending Review planned for 2020 was replaced with a one year budget.  We awaited further information from the UK Chancellor as to how he would deal with the UK growing debt and the impact of that on public sector funding.  Including the current route out of national lockdowns and how the UK, and indeed the rest of the world, would recover from the Covid pandemic; that remained unknown, as it was a fragile situation.

 

Notwithstanding all of this, however, a budget was produced and the Leader thaned her Cabinet colleagues and officers of the Council who worked hard to get us to this point; it had been a tremendous effort by all.

 

The Leader reminded those present that, as the ‘Administration’, decisions would be taken on where to spend the Council’s resources and a key part of that was the Council Tax level required to fund that alongside the Revenue Support Grant.  Council Tax only made up about 24% of the Council’s revenue budget funding but was still an essential part of that.  Full Council made the decision on the Council Tax and they would review and consider the recommendations made by Cabinet.

 

Our funding

The Councils Revenue Support Grant increased significantly, by nearly £13m, due, in large part, to a correction in the population estimates that drove a large part of the distribution of that grant to Councils. We consulted on a 5% Council Tax increase which added a further £3.2m to potential funding for next year’s budget. In total, funding in our draft budget increased by £15.9m. 

 

Budget savings

We had included £2.7m of new saving proposals for our draft budget.  However, most of which; £1.8m, did not impact on services and implementing them increased our flexibility to invest more into front line services to the public and the city. We consulted on proposals that we considered improved services and were part of a wider transformation of those services. The results of the public consultation would confirm this as they agreed strongly with those proposals with the exception of one and the proposed increase in council tax. This was a very positive result and showed we were doing the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

Proposed Leisure and Wellbeing Facility pdf icon PDF 134 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Leader introduced the report. In December, the Cabinet agreed to consult with the public on proposals to build a new environmentally sustainable and energy efficient leisure and wellbeing facility on a brownfield site overlooking the River Usk, allocating the existing Newport Centre land to Coleg Gwent for the purpose of relocation of their further education campus into the city centre.

 

The Leader invited the Cabinet Member for Leisure and Culture to present the report.

 

Councillor Harvey advised that it was clear from the over 1,000 separate responses received that the public was excited and engaged in the plans.

 

The existing Newport Centre building was suffering from a range of structural issues and required significant investment to bring it up to modern day standards.

 

The building configuration was neither efficient nor sustainable and changes in demand over the decades meant that it was no longer able to compete with modern facilities.

 

The plans put forward were for a modern leisure pool, with family friendly changing facilities, fitness suite and a roof garden / active roof. The facility would also encompass more informal relaxation areas and be seamlessly connected to the expanding active travel network.

 

The building of a new facility not only allowed us to provide an enhanced user experience, it also freed up land to re locate Coleg Gwent’s further education provision into the city centre, close to the existing high education provision.

 

The proposals would bring increased footfall into our City Centre and help support retail and hospitality business as it sought to recover from the impact of Covid.

 

The project would cost £20M, but only £4.5M would come from council funds. Far less than the cost of refurbing the existing centre.

 

A large part of the project would be financed from efficiency savings as a result of operating from a modern facility which would attract greater patronage. The council was also seeking capital investment from Welsh Government through its Targeted Regeneration and Investment Fund.

 

The last year was extremely challenging, but throughout the pandemic, we have not stopped working on plans to improve the City and the lives of our residents, particularly in supporting our City Centre to return stronger.

 

Based on the consultation feedback officers would now work with cabinet to develop detailed plans and deliver this project for our residents.

 

Comments of Cabinet Members:

 

Councillor Mayer noted that this was an exciting project and was shocked by the structural damage to the Newport Centre but was pleased that were we in a situation where we would have one of the best leisure facilities in Wales and possibly the UK.  94% of residents thought it was a great idea to build a new leisure centre and 85% agreed that Coleg Gwent should be part of the Knowledge Quarter.

 

Councillor Davies considered that the level of response from residents was outstanding.  The Council was listening to residents, which was integral to what we did.  It was pertinent to Councillor Davies’ Cabinet Member role  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Transporter Bridge Funding pdf icon PDF 98 KB

Minutes:

The Leader introduced the report.  The National Lottery Heritage Fund approved the Council’s application for funding to repair and restore the Transporter Bridge as well as provide a new visitor centre in December.  The Council now needed to formally accept the award and fulfil a number of obligations before the Heritage Fund granted ‘permission to start’.   The award of 8.65 million was the third largest Heritage Fund award made in Wales.

 

The report sought permission to provide National Lottery with an agreed underwrite for the £365k of unconfirmed matched funding within the project budget.  The unconfirmed funding was money that was expected to be raised over the life of the project from direct fundraising, sponsorship and further applications to grant bodies for packages of funding to support a range of events and activities.  The maximum exposure to the Council was £365k and would only be required should not a penny more be raised.

 

The Leader invited the Cabinet Member for Leisure and Culture presented the report.

 

Councillor Harvey was pleased to inform colleagues on the result of the consultation.  The Transporter Bridge was a historical and prominent part of Newport and thanked the Culture and Continuing Learning Manager for his very hard work, even putting off his retirement to complete the project.

 

A stage 2 application to the Wolfson Foundation; following a successful stage 1 application was due to be submitted at the end of February.  That application was for funding to help cover the existing gap and was not for a specific amount.  

 

Key points

The project team submitted an application to Welsh Government for a further £1.5M support package for the project through Visit Wales’ Tourism Investment Support scheme. Welsh Government officials were currently going through a due diligence process and had indicated the money required was available in their capital fund.  Welsh Government also provided National Lottery Heritage Fund with a statement that provided sufficient support to enable NLHF to make the award.  Welsh Government have indicated that the outcome would be communicated the week commencing 15 February 15, however a note received Thursday confirmed the necessary ministerial decision would not be taken until the week commencing 22 February.  Nevertheless, it was important to proceed to confirm this with the underwriter, as it was important that permission to commence was granted for two reasons:

 

1.     The capital works associated with the Bridge repairs and the new visitor centre were tendered, and any significant delay was likely to increase costs.

2.     The target date for reopening was March 2023.  There was some timetable contingency built into the project plan, however there was significant benefit to opening the bridge at the beginning of the season.

 

National Lottery Heritage Fund would not grant permission to start until Welsh Government agree their portion of the funding.

 

The project underpinned by a significant National Lottery Heritage Fund award would enable some much needed repair and restoration to the structure and would stabilise the structure.  The new visitor centre and improved interpretation would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.

Guidance on Socio-Economic Duty pdf icon PDF 115 KB

Minutes:

The Leader introduced the report to Cabinet.  The Socio-economic Duty as set out in the Equality Act 2010 required specified public bodies, when making strategic decisions, such as deciding priorities and setting objectives, were to give due regard to the need to reduce the inequalities of outcome that resulted from socio-economic disadvantage.

 

Inequalities of outcome were felt most acutely in areas such as health, education, work, living standards, justice and personal security, and participation.

 

The Leader invited the Cabinet Member for Sustainable Development to present the report.

 

Welsh Government had the powers to enact this part of the Act, and intended to do so on the 31 March 2021. The duty was intended to complement and not compete with, or override, other statutory duties, for example the Public Sector Equality Duty and the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act.

 

The overall aim of the Duty was to deliver better outcomes for those who experienced socio-economic disadvantage by ensuring that those taking strategic decisions engaged with relevant communities, welcomed challenge and scrutiny, and drove a change in the way decisions were made.

This Cabinet Report proposed short and medium term steps in order to effectively embed the Duty across council decision making processes. This included amending our existing equality impact assessment, providing training to decision makers, and incorporating appropriate measures in our existing performance monitoring frameworks.

 

Key points

There were close links between the Duty and our existing Strategic Equality and Wellbeing Plans, all of which aimed to reduce inequalities for our most vulnerable or disadvantaged citizens. It also recognised the intersectionality that exists across socio-economically disadvantaged groups and people that shared protected characteristics, for example, we know that BAME and disabled people were also more likely to be experiencing hardship and financial difficulties.

 

We recognised the impact of socio-economic disadvantage on people’s opportunities and life outcomes in terms of employment, health and participation. The Duty would ensure that we focussed on those people who were living in poverty in Newport, and took steps to lessen this divide which was more important than ever given the impact that COVID-19 had on our communities.

 

The report highlighted the importance of embedding the Duty in our decision making processes, avoiding tokenism, and ensured our engagement with the Duty is meaningful, with positive outcomes

 

The Cabinet Member reinforced to Cabinet that this Duty applied to strategic decisions, and was incumbent on those who make decisions at the highest level.

 

Cabinet Members were encouraged to familiarise themselves with the requirements of the Duty and engage with any training opportunities offered

 

Comments of Cabinet Members:

 

Councillor Mayer had been in discussion with the Cabinet Member for Sustainable Development regarding the report and agreed that the Welsh Government was forward thinking in introducing this Duty and was looking forward to seeing this in action to make sure that everyone done in Newport impacted on the disadvantaged more than it did at present.  The difficulty was embedding this and how to undertake this Duty should not be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

9.

Covid-19 Recovery Update pdf icon PDF 186 KB

Minutes:

The Leader presented the report to Cabinet.  The report was an update on the Council’s and its partner’s response to the Covid-19 crisis supporting the City (Residents and Businesses) to comply with the current restrictions and progress in the Council’s Strategic Recovery Aims. 

 

It was over a year since the UK first reported Covid-19 cases and eight weeks (20 December 2020) since Wales entered into the current Alert Level Four restrictions.

 

In this last year we saw the impact that Covid-19 had on our families, communities, businesses, schools and services delivered in the City. 

 

Sadly, we continued to see our loved ones taken from us due to Covid but we have also seen the resourcefulness and resilience of our communities to support our most vulnerable residents.

 

In our response and recovery from this crisis, we endorsed four Strategic Recovery Aims that ensures we respond to immediate and future needs of our communities and businesses.

 

·         Strategic Recovery Aim 1 – Supporting Education & Employment;

·         Strategic Recovery Aim 2 – Supporting the Environment and the Economy;

·         Strategic Recovery Aim 3 – Supporting the Health & Wellbeing of Citizens; and

·         Strategic Recovery Aim 4 – Supporting Citizens post Covid-19.

 

Since the implementation of the Alert Level Four restrictions in December, Newport and the wider southeast region saw a reduction in the case rate of Covid-19 cases. 

 

We understood the difficulty that these restrictions posed on our normal ways of life whether visiting close friends and family, children going to school, exercising in our local gyms or shopping in the City.

Without these restrictions, however, the Health service would have struggled and many more may have died or been affected by Covid and its new variants.   

 

The rollout of the vaccine by the NHS in Gwent and Wales was remarkable with over 600,000 people receiving their first dose in Wales.   

 

It was as important now than it was at the start of the current restrictions that we continued to follow the Welsh Government guidance to help the cases reduce further and ensure we can return back to normality.

 

The Leader went on to say that she was sure many families with young children were pleased to see the phased return of infant pupils back into school from today (22 February 2021). 

 

Since December, it was difficult for both Teachers and parents to support their children with home schooling and schools supporting children of key workers and the vulnerable.

 

It was important that we continued to support the City’s schools in returning back safely and help those children impacted by the restrictions to catch up and reduce any disadvantages over this last year.    

 

The economy in Newport and Wales was impacted significantly by the Covid restrictions. This last year was been extremely difficult for retailers and traders on the high street, small to medium sized business and the hospitality / entertainment sectors seeing many people lose their jobs. 

 

As highlighted in this report the Council and its partners (Newport Live) have been providing support to help those  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

10.

Brexit Update pdf icon PDF 120 KB

Minutes:

The Leader presented the report to Cabinet.  This was the Cabinet Report update of the new UK-EU trade relationship since 31 December 2020. 

 

Trade Negotiations Update

·       Since the last Cabinet Report (8 January 2021) the United Kingdom officially left the European Union (EU) and the Single Market. 

·       The UK and EU now had a trade agreement that enabled tariff free trade between both areas.  However, UK and EU businesses had to comply with new custom rules that required importers and exporters to complete additional documentation.

o     Nationally, many businesses had voiced the difficulties faced in meeting these new requirements and in some instances goods failing to be delivered either in the UK or EU. 

·       Now that we had entered into this new relationship, it was important that Wales, Newport and the region positioned itself to ensure that existing businesses could sustainably thrive into the future; new, home grown entrepreneurs were supported and that we could promote new global investment into the area.

·       The UK Government promised that regions across the UK including Newport and the South East Wales would receive investment through new frameworks such as the Shared Prosperity Fund and the proposed Subsidy Regime. 

·       As with many cities and towns in Wales, the gap between the rich and the poor was increasing, which had been made all too prominent during this pandemic. 

o   With any additional funding that Wales received through the new frameworks, we must ensure that Newport was able to use this investment to support communities not just to ‘level up’ but to also ensure that communities were able to become more resilient and thrive in the long term.           

 

·       New immigration rules also came into place from 1 January which ended free movement between the UK and Europe. 

·       Newport had and always would be an inclusive city where people from all nations are welcomed to live, work and be part of our communities that contributed towards the sustainable growth of the city.

·       For EU citizens, their families and friends already living in Newport it was important to apply to the EU Settled Status before the 30 June deadline. 

o     The Council’s and Welsh Government websites have all the necessary information to help people apply.

·       It was also good to see how the Council and its partners over the last four years were working with EU communities to support the most vulnerable and ensure people were able to apply. 

·       As the report highlighted, many EU citizens were facing barriers and uncertainty over their rights, and issues of hostility.  As representatives of Newport’s wards it was important that we supported our communities, Council officers and partners raising any issues or concerns.

·       The report also highlighted the UK enabling Hong Kong citizens to apply for Visas to live, work and study in the UK.  As Newport is a multi-cultural city it was expected that we would welcome Hong Kong citizens into the City.

o    The Council alongside its Housing, Educational and multi-agency partners were already considering what support, resources  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

11.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 85 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Cabinet accepted the updated work programme