Agenda item

The Leader introduced the report to Cabinet.  The current local government structure in Wales consisted of 22 county and county borough councils (known as “principal councils”) and was established in 1996 by the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994.

In recent years there were a number of reports, commissions and white paper consultations, with the aim of reforming the local government structure, strengthening democratic accountability and increasing diversity of representation.

In 2019 the Welsh Government introduced the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Bill. The Bill proposed to reform the legislative framework for local government electoral arrangements, democracy, performance and governance. It was anticipated that the Bill would receive Royal Assent early in 2021 in time for the 2022 local elections.

The report provided an overview of the Bill and proposed a response to the consultation regarding the establishment of Corporate Joint Committees.

Bill Overview

This was an extensive piece of legislation, a brief summary of key points were therefore highlighted:

Part 1 Elections

Part 2 General Power of Competence

Part 3 – Promoting Access to Local Government

Part 4 – Local Authority Executives, Members, Officers and Committees

Part 5 – Collaborative Working by Principal Councils:

This focussed the creation of corporate joint committees (CJCs) for two or more principal councils to deliver specified functions.

These CJCs could be seen as an evolution from existing regional arrangements such as the City Deal, school improvement consortia and regional planning and transport arrangements.

CJCs would be a new form of governance body, comprised of the democratic leadership of local authorities in its area, rather than traditional committees.

Part 6 - Performance and Governance of Principal Councils:

This section would be the subject of a further Cabinet Report.

Part 7 onwards:

The Bill also provided principal councils with the opportunity to merge voluntarily.

In terms of local government finance, the Bill introduced new measures in relation to non-domestic rates.

There was also a number of miscellaneous provisions.  These included information sharing between

regulators; and the merging and demerging of Public Services Boards.

Impact on Newport City Council and Consultation response

Colleagues would be aware that an all member seminar took place and there was a range of views expressed.

These were carefully considered in the draft consultation response, which was included as an Appendix to the report.  Key points from this were:

·         The intention to provide a general power of competence to local government was helpful, although its use may be limited in practice.

·         Members welcomed the intention to extend the voting franchise to include 16 and 17 year olds and foreign nationals which reflected the principle of involvement.  This was also in keeping with our Young Person’s Promise. However, it was recognised that the proposals to allow changes to the voting system could be confusing for the electorate.

·         The Council had already proven track record of working collaboratively on a local and regional footprint.  We had formed formal and informal partnerships with neighbouring Authorities and third sector partners, including the Public Services Board and Regional Skills Partnership.

·         Members had however voiced concerns about the lack of transparency and accountability of the proposed CJCs, and the consequent impact on local government resources, skills and expertise.

·         Members were also rightly concerned that the move to more regional bodies may not represent the views of local communities, and that was reflected in the response that is attached.

The report acknowledged that the proposed changes were continuing at pace but it was felt that a number of points should be raised through the consultation about how this would work in practice.  This included workforce conditions and management, the impact on local government finances and skills, and most importantly that the voice of our communities was reflected in decision making through the engagement of members of the Council.

The Leader invited the Cabinet Member for Licensing and Regulation to speak.

The Cabinet Member highlighted that Newport City Council had always remained flexible and compliant with any changes and would continue to do this.  The electorate however, would have concerns and the Cabinet Member felt that decision making should be made at local level.  CJCs would move away from a local community engagement and the issues that needed to be addressed from Central Government to Welsh Government.  We would continue to work with what we were given, but it was reiterated that decision making needed to be closer to people.

The Leader invited the Chief Executive to speak.

Chief Executive echoed comments of the Leader that this was an important document for Local Government and the report accurately reflected the feedback from members at the all member seminar and as the Cabinet Member had mentioned, the Bill had made significant progress through the Senedd and would continue to do so.  It was therefore important to work with councillors so that whatever model was adopted in terms of CJCs would be brought to officers, the Council would be working closely with members to ensure that they would brought forward for further discussion.

Decision:

Cabinet considered the contents of the report and agreed the consultation response for submission by the closing date of 4th January 2021.