Agenda item

To receive a presentation from Councillor G Sanderson, Leader of the Council and S McMillan, Service Director.

G Sanderson, Leader of the Council and S McMillan, Service Director provided a presentation on the North East Devolution Consultation.  A copy of the presentation had been circulated with the papers, uploaded to the website and a copy filed with the signed minutes.  It was explained that a number of consultation events had been undertaken across the County involving Members, stakeholders, residents and businesses, and consultations were also ongoing across all the involved authorities in the North East.  The deal which was being put forward would see both NECA (North East Combined Authority) and NTCA (North of Tyne Combined Authority) cease to operate with a new combined authority formed to cover the seven local areas of County Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Northumberland, South Tyneside and Sunderland and would be headed up by a Metro Mayor.   The deal would bring significantly more power and money with a potential £4.2bn of investment into the region over 30 years, made up of a number of different elements which were outlined.  It was clarified that devolution would not impact on the way Northumberland County Council operated and it would continue to provide the services it did at present. 

Public consultation would continue until 23 March following which feedback would be reviewed and individual Councils would decide if they wished to proceed. If all agreed then a summary of the consultations would be prepared and once approved by all Cabinets it would be submitted to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, who would decide if the statutory criteria had been met before making the statutory order to create a new MCA (Mayoral Combined Authority).   If successful, it would be likely that a new MCA would be created and an election held in May 2024 to appoint a  Mayor.

In light of the size of the proposed MCA, it was queried whether a specific Cabinet role would need to be created with responsibility for the MCA and if there would need to be a rethink of how the Council operated.  The Leader clarified that the Council would be responsible for making its own decisions and that there was currently a good and respectful relationship between the different authorities which had been shown to work well and it was expected that this would continue allowing all to move forward in a positive way.  As the MCA would operate on a wider geographical footprint than the current NTCA it would have louder voice in Government and would have more power  to do more than at present.  The consultation being carried out followed the Government’s requirements to ensure that the Secretary of State could be assured that the process had been undertaken correctly and those taking part had been given the opportunity to include their own views and suggested ideas.  An analysis of the responses from across the whole region  would be undertaken by a team at North Tyneside Council which would then be fed back to individual Councils in order for them to make their decision on whether to proceed.

In response to a question on whether rural Northumberland would have a voice or be overtaken by the larger urban areas, it was expected that the successful partnership working already demonstrated through the NTCA would continue and the relationship would be built upon.  Northumberland had benefited from investment and had proactively influenced the strategic approach to reflect our priorities and this would continue.  It was clarified that under the DEFRA definition for rural the majority of the County was classed as rural. 

The Chair thanked S McMillan and Councillor Sanderson for the presentation and answers.

RESOLVED that the information be noted.