Councillor Wearmouth, Portfolio
Holder for Corporate Services provided a power point presentation
and referred to the current Covid numbers which were
decreasing. Feedback from the Government was likely to see
the end of restrictions towards the end of January. (Copy of
the presentation would be attached to the signed
minutes).
He stated that Councillor
Sanderson was immensely proud to be the Leader of the Council in a
County which looked as good as Northumberland despite the effects
of Covid and Storm Arwen which had hit the county and communities
in different ways.
The presentation
highlighted:
- The work of frontline
services during the pandemic, and following Storm Arwen, was
appreciated and acknowledged with no budget cuts being
proposed.
- Health inequalities
to be addressed across the county with a summit planned in March
2022 to make meaningful change with partner
organisations.
- Unexpectedly,
employment rates were largely comparable with pre-pandemic rates at
4.1% which was lower than regional and national figures and the
economic performance of the county was quite strong. Targeted
interventions hoped to address areas where unemployment figures
were higher, including those within the 18–24-year-olds,
areas where there were job vacancies and the necessity of
introducing a real living wage in adult social care to retain staff
who were leaving for jobs in other sectors.
- The vision and aims
of the Corporate Plan identified 48 key priorities with targeted
actions to enable their delivery. Examples included
strengthening relationships with town and parish councils,
welcoming new businesses, free town centre car parks etc, rail
stations at Ashington, Bedlington and
Cramlington.
- The overall funding
context for the 2022/23 budget was set out; the increase in Council
Tax precept remained at 2% without holding a referendum with an
additional 1% for Adult Social Care for the next three
years.
- Areas were outlined
where the Council intended to invest in the future of the
county.
- A review of the
Budget for 2022-23 and the Medium-Term Financial Plan required
savings of £9.704 million to balance the budget. A
provisional savings requirement of £28 million had also been
calculated for the following two financial years. The
approach to identifying spend and savings within the budget were
outlined with proposed savings by Portfolio Holder, although some
of these included opportunities for income
generation.
- The consultation was
due to close on 21 January 2022. Over 200 responses had been
received to date which was helpful when assessing areas which
operated well and those that didn’t, as well as suggestions
where more funds should be allocated, before the budget was
finalised and published ahead of scrutiny and consideration by Full
Council on 23 February 2022.
The following issues were
discussed:-
- Loss of jobs and the
contribution of 8% towards council tax. 92% of support
was provided, which was the second most generous across the
region. The unemployment figures would be circulated.
Additional jobs would be created by British Volt, JDR cables,
development of the Coty site, Techflow in Cramlington and planning
applications on the southside of the A1.
- Providing jobs and
ensuring people were ready to work, physically and mentally by a
Ready to Work pilot in Northumberland.
- The real living wage
in the care sector
- Flexibility to help
small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and pop-up shops to get business
underway
- Local energy: heating
homes from surplus heat should be written into the
budget
- Generation of
income
(Councillor Flux joined the
meeting at 4.45pm)
- Investment in the
infrastructure in Cramlington for the elderly – the Places
Programme needed to consider mobility and accessibility for
vulnerable residents.
- Young people should
be made aware of employment and vacant posts and University
Technical Colleges. The Education Team looked at what jobs
were coming into the county and putting programmes in place.
More information would be presented to FACS in the
future.
- Data would be
extracted for those areas with job expansion.
- It was expected that
a White Paper would be presented the first week in February on the
Levelling Up Fund.
- The Government
settlement had been more generous than had been
anticipated
- Income from Local
Services came in from a mixed amount of money, £1.4 m from
waste, planning application fees and pre-planning advisory
service,
- A summary would be
provided on Community Services and a breakdown explained in the
budget.
- A response would be
provided on the 5G query.
- All care workers
would receive a wage increase. A recent report had been
agreed by Cabinet, in addition to a Workforce Retention and
Recruitment Fund for bonus payments for home care
workers.
- Further details on
library and youth services would be presented to Scrutiny in the
near future.
- Education regarding
costs in waste recycling would be taken to a future informal
cabinet.
- The details of
external contractors and in-house services would be taken up with
Councillor Riddle.
- British Volt had
recently advertised jobs.
- A lot of work had
been carried out with employers for 16-24 years olds regarding
education and learning.
- The Council carried
out external services which required experience and specialism for
other authorities which generated
income.
- The Local Plan which
was due to be implemented had initially been criticised by the
Inspector because of too much employment land, but more space would
be required in Cramlington and other areas
Councillor Wearmouth was
thanked for his presentation.
A short recess took place at
17:03 to allow officers to set up the planning
presentation.
The meeting recommenced at
17:05 with Councillor Wilczek in the Chair.