Minutes:
The Leader of the Council provided an update to the Council as follows:-
· The Leader had given a verbal update to Cabinet on 14 September 2016 on devolution. Following the referendum result in June, NECA had sought assurances from the Government over funding for the region, particularly in relation to the future of EU funding, a major part of the proposed devolution agreement.
The Government had confirmed that funding for projects contracted prior to the Autumn Statement would be guaranteed but provided little clarity on the remaining resource. Only a minority of funding allocated to both the North East and County Durham had been allocated to projects and therefore the majority of funding was at risk.
Unfortunately despite meetings, letters and dialogue over the summer, the Government had not provided assurances on future funding. Consequently the NECA Leadership Board had decided by a majority not to progress to the next stage of devolution at this time. In response the Government had withdrawn the devolution deal.
The Leader had given an opportunity to all groups to comment at last week’s Cabinet meeting and was in no doubt that the decision not to proceed was supported by all.
He had stated at the meeting of NECA that true devolution must be a bottom-up process involving communities and residents, which was how devolution had developed in Scotland.
· The Leader reported that initial proposals for revised parliamentary boundaries across the whole country had been released. The initial recommendations proposed that County Durham would retain six constituencies, although there were significant changes proposed and no fewer than five of them would now include wards from neighbouring local authority areas. Previously the Constitution Working Group had considered proposals for changes to boundaries and he suggested that the same process be followed in respect of the recent proposals.
· The Leader reported that on top of the £180 million already cut from budgets since 2011, it was anticipated that a further £64 million of savings would need to be achieved by 2020, £29 million of which needed to be made in 2017/18. It was becoming more and more difficult to deliver services as a decade of austerity was approached.
Major budget consultations had been carried out in 2011 and 2013 in order that the public could determine which areas should be prioritised in the face of such large budget reductions and the Council was now consulting again to establish if the public’s priorities had changed. It was vital that the public again had a say on how the Council moved forward in these times of sharply reduced spending.
· The Leader highlighted the summer of events held across County Durham, including the hugely successful Kynren which had brought tens of thousands of visitors into County Durham. He congratulated the organisers and volunteers from Bishop Auckland and surrounding areas.