Agenda, decisions and minutes

The Leader opened the meeting by confirming that at the last Cabinet meeting on the 18^th March, the Council had moved to emergency powers.  Today’s Cabinet meeting is the first to be held since that time and is being held virtually.  The Leader asked for everyone to take a moment of quiet reflection for those who have lost their lives and to give thought to those families who have lost loved ones to this virus.

No apologies received

The Leader presented the report that set out the strategic recovery aims that will enable the Council’s

services to recover and operate whilst continuing to support the Council’s strategic aims set in the

Corporate Plan 2017/22.

The report confirmed the Covid-19 health emergency has posed significant and unprecedented challenges

to the way the Council delivers its services and the impact on the way of life. 

The Leader confirmed that:

·      The Council’s focus has been to preserve life, minimise the spread of the virus and support its communities and the vulnerable that have been impacted by this disease.

·      During this difficult time, the Council has ensured that frontline services continue to be delivered to communities across Newport.  At the very outset Cabinet said it would focus on: 

o    Continuation of waste collection from households;

o    Over 700 food parcels distributed from the Council’s Neighbourhood Hubs;

o    Schools supporting children of key workers and vulnerable children.

o    10 Flying Start settings looking after 94 children and supporting 81 key workers;

o    Continued care and support provided by the Council’s Children and Adult Social Services and ensuring front line staff had access to PPE;

o    Administered £30 million of business grants to 2,250 eligible businesses within Newport;

o    With our partners providing safe and secure accommodation for the homeless in Newport; 

o    Council staff working from home through the IT support provided by the Shared Resource Service.

o    Operating virtual contact centre; answering over 31,000 calls and over 2,400 emails.

The Leader and Cabinet extended their thanks to all members of staff, volunteers, partners and communities that have continued to deliver services and support vulnerable people throughout this difficult and challenging time.  Working from home with excellent IT support has been a success and a virtual contact centre was established which has worked extremely well.  This has been an unprecedented period and the citizens of Newport have been outstanding.  Heads of Service and the senior leadership team have provided exceptional performance and service which is very much welcomed and appreciated.

The Leader reported that overthe last few weeks, statistics from Public Health Wales have shown encouraging signs of Covid-19 cases slowing but that future peaks could still occur, therefore the City has to remain vigilant and adhere to the guidance provided by the Welsh Government and Public Health Wales.

There has been some easing of restrictions and the re-establishment of the Council’s services such as the Household Waste Recycling Facility, establishment of a Track and Trace Centre and preparation for the safe reopening of schools.

The Leader confirmed that further Council services are recovering into a ‘new normal’ way of working and there is a renewed focus to ensure that this good work is not undone; the Council is supporting Newport’s economy to rebuild and focus on those communities that have been impacted the most by Covid-19.  To support the Council to do this, four Strategic Recovery Aims have been proposed that will provide a focus for members, staff, partners, and communities  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

The Leader presented the report that set out the Economic Impact and Recovery Strategy to support and

facilitate Newport’s businesses to recover and to continue operating.   

The Leader confirmed:

·         The Newport Economic Growth Strategy was adopted in 2015; and updated and approved by Cabinet in February 2020.  At that time it was recognised that Newport had become a more competitive city with a growing influence in high value sectors and a rapidly expanding tourism sector. 

·         Following the announcement of lockdown on 23rd March 2020, the UK and Welsh Governments announced unprecedented intervention packages to help mitigate the worst of the economic damage a prolonged lockdown would bring.  Over 2000 Newport businesses have received more than £26m in grant support.  There has been a huge effort by the finance team to support businesses at this time and a number of very positive letters and feedback have been received from the business community in Newport.

·         Economically, Newport is now in a different place.  Unemployment in Wales is expected to rise from 3.2% to over 7.3% and it has been confirmed the UK economy shrank by 20.4% in April.  Further reports predict the UK to be on the brink of the worst recession for three centuries. 

·         In order to recover and reposition itself, Newport needs to identify what areas of its economy will require support, where there are new opportunities and how the Council can shape the ‘new normal’ with businesses and investors; and to work collaboratively towards Newport’s recovery.

·         The strategy contained in the report will form an addendum to the adopted Economic Growth Strategy; the strategy proposed three key areas of focus: Recovery, Repositioning and Renewal:

o   Short term RECOVERY.  Supporting businesses to ensure they claim all the grants and financial support available, supporting new opportunities and making sure interventions are appropriate, efficient and most of all timely.

o   Medium term REPOSITIONING.  Continuing to attract inward investment and being clear about what the City has to offer in terms of quality of life and employment opportunities.  Accelerating improvements to the digital infrastructure to support increased levels of home working, and growing the education and skills offer for the workforce to be able to adapt to a ‘new normal’; not just across the Council but across the whole of Newport.

o   Longer term RENEWAL.  Repositioning Newport in a new world where there will be opportunities to rebalance the economy with the environment and society to give greater resilience and improved well-being for residents, now and in the future.

The Leader confirmed this is a partnership approach and the Council will work with all partners, including the Cardiff Capital Region and the Western Gateway, to ensure that Newport emerges in a stronger and more resilient position. 

The Leader had no hesitation in presenting the Strategy to Cabinet with the recommendation that Cabinet endorse it and start Newport’s journey to economic recovery.

The Leader invited Cabinet Member comments on the report:

All Cabinet Members agreed that these are unprecedented times  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The Leader presented the report that outlined to Cabinet the key issues and risks to the Council’s

finances resulting from Covid-19, the estimated additional costs and funding for the

Council’s response to the crisis and progress in administering financial support given to local

businesses and taxpayers during the Covid-19 lockdown period. 

The Leader confirmed that Local Authority Leaders, Welsh Local Government Association, Welsh

Government Ministers have been meeting regularly and commended the Minister for Local Government

and Housing for the work she has done in partnership with local authorities.

The Leader reported the three key financial issues resulting from the Covid-19 situation:

·         What has the Council done to support businesses and vulnerable households/individuals?

·         What is all this forecast to cost and how is it being funded?

·         What does this mean for the financial outlook this year – what impact will it have on the Council’s finances?

The Leader confirmed the situation is very dynamic, with the response to the crisis at an all-Wales level and locally, changing daily.  In that respect, the impact on the Council’s finances is subject to change and the report highlights the current areas of potential risk and the costs the Council is incurring (mainly up to June).  The situation remains fluid and is dependent on further responses to the situation.

Welsh Government have responded to the crisis with over £2.4 billion of initiatives and local government has been at the frontline in delivering the various support schemes that are in place; the Leader applauded their support.

The Leader confirmed the report detailed where the funding has been spent with most going to support businesses through the ‘Economic Resilience Fund’ and providing rates relief for eligible businesses.   In addition, health service capacity is being supported, and local government is being funded to provide specific support for free school meal pupils, the homeless and care providers.

The Leader reported that locally the Council is providing financial support to businesses and vulnerable households/individuals, and highlighted the following:

·         actioned rate relief of a considerable amount of money to those eligible businesses meaning they will not need to pay business rates for this year;

·         paid out over £28m of non-repayable grants to approximately 2,300 businesses to provide short term financial support whilst closed over the period.  The Council has been complemented on the speed in which they addressed this, in fact the Council borrowed money in order to get this cash out to them as fast as possible and by doing so, paid about £16m by the end of the first week of April;

·         the Council has also worked with many households and deferred payments of Council Tax to those suffering some financial loss or uncertainty over this initial period.

The Leader further confirmed the Council is forecasting spend of approximately £6m in specific initiatives to support:

·         those children eligible for free school meals whilst schools are shut – to the end of August.

·         increasing its stock of short-term accommodation provision to support the homeless in this period.

·         supporting care  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Leader was pleased to say that this report goes someway to confirming our recovery period and

the way forward.

The Leader introduced the report, the purpose of which was to ensure that Cabinet are aware of the

current situation and to seek endorsement of the approach going forward for the delivery of Contact

Tracing in Gwent.

The Leader introduced the Cabinet Member for Licensing and Regulation to present the report.

The Cabinet Member confirmed the report sets out the work that has been undertaken, to date, to establish a Local Contact Tracing Team in Newport.   The Cabinet Member confirmed that these are just interim arrangements for the first three months, in order to get the service operational in an extremely short timescale.  A future strategy will need to be agreed in conjunction with other partners, to develop a delivery model and governance structure for the longer-term.  Key to this will be the funding that Welsh Government make available to pay for the service, as this cannot be delivered within existing Council resources.

The Cabinet Member went on to say, as everyone will be aware, the Test Trace Protect Strategy is a key element of the Welsh Government route plan for relaxing the Coronavirus lock-down in Wales.  The increased testing and contact tracing will allow identification of who has the virus and who is at risk of having caught it so they can self-isolate and prevent spreading it to others.

The Cabinet Member confirmed that in Wales, councils have been tasked with the responsibility to establish local community contact tracing cells in each of their areas, in partnership with the regional Health Boards, with the contact-tracing being overseen at a national level by Public Health Wales.

Welsh Government published their plan on the 13^th May so there was a very short timescale to set this up and running.  The Cabinet Member paid tribute to the officers for the enormous amount of work that has gone into setting up the Local Contact Tracing Team in Newport.  This required a collective effort across all Council services, to recruit and train staff, set up the equipment, develop temporary databases and put in place interim management arrangements.

The Council’s Environmental Health Officers, due to their experience in dealing with contagious diseases, are leading on this work at both a local and regional level.  The Cabinet Member stressed that this would not have been possible without significant numbers of staff from other services volunteering to carry out this contact tracing work from home, many of whom are currently vulnerable and “shielding”.

Due to the rapid pace of change, there have been significant developments since the report was first drafted, and the Cabinet Member updated Cabinet on progress in the past few weeks:

·         started contact tracing work on 1^st June with 10 contact advisers from Customer Services and five contact tracers from Public Protection, all working from home and using an interim database set up by the Shared Resource Service (SRS). 

·         the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

https://youtu.be/zpLEvxn4t3w