Transcript

Hi everyone, sorry for the small delay, I had a bit of a technical hitch with the internet and IT. Can I say thank you for joining today's joint cabinet cabinet resources panel. I need to advise you if today's meeting will be broadcast live via the council's internet site and that members of the present public may record and take photographs except to wear their confidential items. And we'll move on to agenda item one. Apologies for absence. Apologies received from Councillor Steve Evans. Thank you. Decorations of interest. Is there any Councillor who wishes to declare a disclosable procuring interest or a disclosable non-procuring interest in relation to any matter on today's agenda? Chair Mark Taylor, Deputy Chief Executive has declared an interest in the two WV Living reports at items 8 and 11 and will leave the meeting when the items are discussed. Thank you for that Derek. No more agenda item three minutes of the previous meeting. I move that the minutes of the previous meeting of the cabinet and cabinet resources panel both held on the 24th of April be approved as a correct true record. Is that seconded? Thank you. Is that agreed? Thank you. Decision items. Amber delegated to the cabinet cabinet resources panel agenda item for procurement of awards and contracts. I call on Councillor Louise Miles to propose the paper. I formally move this paper. Is that seconded? Seconded leader if I may say a few words. Of course. Thank you leader. This is a specialist work which needs to be undertaken on a regular basis and out of hours as well. Basically this is to ensure that our waste service continues to be clean and efficient and you can imagine what is involved in this job so it has to be done thoroughly and safely which is why this is an important operation. It is a four year contract. You can see the actual numeration figures there in your packs and you can see from the report as well what options are available. And in me if I give my humble opinion on this, this is a very good bit of business. It really is. All options were taken into consideration but this one is actually as I've said earlier it's a specialist job. It's needed to keep our fleet up and running and it is a very good bit of business. If I could just finish off leader just by saying let me give you an analogy. If you think of it as a government that's leaving and you need somebody to come in and clean all the dirt and get everything up and running again to a good standard. It's a bit like that if you look at it. So this highly recommended and I think it's an excellent bit of business. Thank you. Any other members wish to speak? It's been proposed and seconded. All those in favour say aye. All those against say nope. That's carried. We shall move on to Agenda Item 5. I will propose this paper. This is the Staffordshire Local Plan Consultation Response from Wolverhampton. This report seeks the approval for Wolverhampton Council to respond on the important local plan that affects our neighboring areas and ourselves. Staffordshire Council have been preparing this local plan for a number of years or so have we and we need to respond so we're responding to that. The plan proposes large housing developments in the Greenbelt at the edge of Wolverhampton and this would have put pressure on to Wolverhampton and its infrastructure. The 2022 plan also made large contributions to housing employment and shortfalls in neighboring areas, including Wolverhampton. Staffordshire Council paused to do some work on their plan, as we did in 2022, where the government consulted on major changes to national guidance on the Greenbelt. Glad that the government saw sense to protect the Greenbelt. We were always going to protect the Greenbelt in Wolverhampton. We have got large blighted areas of contaminated ex-industrial land that needs to be utilized. And through working with the Combine Authority, we can lay the foundations to remediate their brownfield and to attract developers in to come and build out. Some good news that have come out over the weekend, we signed a big contract with regards to this and we'll be drifting off a little. But we've got a massive scheme that's coming forward for Wolverhampton on the canal side south of Wavensmere, which was signed off and it's going to be an absolutely fantastic new community. It's going to be embedded into an existing community on the edge of that, and only can we do that through the planning process. So we are here with the response to the Staffordshire plan. So, the Staffordshire consultation has revised its plan and revision does not include any Greenbelt housing, and I'll reiterate that. There's no Greenbelt housing proposed from Staffordshire, which is a relief to all of us in this city, and also I would say to the residents of South Staffordshire. So that really gives us an update of putting the South Staffordshire council in a very strong position to resist developer-led unplanned development, including on the border of Wolverhampton, and that's the reason why we then deny our plan. The revised plan has the potential to provide 464 homes to the Wolverhampton housing shortfall and address some of the employment land that also needs to be developed. We need both within this. Therefore, I propose a response to support the revised South Staffordshire plan and aims to secure as much housing employment land as possible for the benefit of Wolverhampton. South Staffordshire will consider the consultation response and make minor changes to the plan and then submit it to the government, where it will then be examined and we'll have a response that should be adopted in 2025. So I'll move that paper moving forward. Is that seconded? Councillor Burdon? Yeah, I'd like to second this paper. I think it's a really important piece of work, us responding to South Staffordshire in this way. Of course, we had supported this process of actually this democratic insight into how other authorities plan and how other authorities manage their housing allowance. And of course, we thought that original plan, which provided huge amounts of housing right on the border of Wolverhampton, where they would have used our resources, has been inappropriate. And actually, we're glad that we had that cooperative approach with South Staffordshire and actually to have seen those retracted from the plan and a prioritisation on Brownfield over Greenfield sites in Staffordshire. I think that's really important. And I think actually, we don't just comment on these things, we act as well and we act and we lead in this respect, as the leaders just said. We've had confirmation contracts signed on a huge new city centre, Brownfield Regeneration in Wolverhampton, that's not just going to deliver homes, but it's going to deliver amenity, parkland. And actually, it shows that urban regeneration, urban sites and building up the density of our cities and towns is the key way forward. So I'm glad that South Staffordshire shares our ambition and also shares the idea that we're going to transform Wolverhampton. And actually, we're going to address the housing crisis because we're not just going to sit here and say that we shouldn't build houses. We acknowledge the pressures that are on the housing system, but we're going about it in the right way, building up our cities and making sure people have high quality homes to live in in Wolverhampton. And we'd hope South Staffordshire do the same with their local plan. Thank you. Any other members wish to speak? Councillor Miles. Thank you, leader. Just to add that Wolverhampton, through this paper, acknowledges that some staffs have carried out a legal consultation. But also, as the paper outlines, we actually continue to protect Wolverhampton's borders from other kinds of developments, not just difficult housing. We also seek, obviously, to protect Wolverhampton's schools and other resources from overuse. Thank you, chair. That's quite right to point that out. It's nice to say that there couldn't be proposals moving forward, but in this plan that they've got now, there's no proposed development on the border of Wolverhampton. And if there is in the future, who knows what the future is. And where they do develop, Councillor Burdon's quite right, we do need more houses, not just in and around Wolverhampton and the West Midlands, but the whole nation is crying out for housing. What we need to do is make sure that we respond appropriately, and I think this is the right response. We need to also make sure that in our city, we only develop the brownfield sites that we've got. That is a better utilisation of the land within our city, takes away blight, creates communities, gives us an opportunity to create bigger and better green spaces within communities. It's really important that we do that. And I think it's important that we do collaborate and negotiate, especially on infrastructure with our neighbours all around our border, because having a growing conversation to resolve these issues is the only way forward. So it's been proposed and seconded. All those in favour say aye. All those against say no. That's carried. We move on to agenda item six, Wolverhampton education plan, place planning, sorry. Councillor Jackie Coogan to move. Colleagues, before I do move this education planning, education place planning strategy, I'd like to congratulate our education service on now achieving 92% good or outstanding OFSTED reports. Something absolutely tremendous for our city, and I think probably outstanding in our region. The education place planning strategy outlines the framework for decision making for the provision of school places across the city. The strategy seeks to secure sufficient high quality places for our children across the city and contains criteria to support the identification for expansion and in the event of surplus capacity, the reduction of that provision. This went out in the spring to an external consultation, which I think all but one of the consultees agreed with the strategy. It will mean actually increasing our level of surplus from the agreed 2% to 5%, which rather ties in with what we've been saying about development around the city will require that kind of flexibility in order to accommodate any kind of development in housing and forward planning in the city. So the reports before you recommend that we accept that. Is that seconded? Councillor Jasper. I welcome this report of strategy and second this report of the strategy. And I also note that we have to work with the regional schools commissioner and they are responsible for determining if the cabinets can expand, so there's work there to be done. So that makes it a bit challenging because we don't have full control of that. But I welcome the strategy, thank you. That's quite right, I think what we need to do as we're a young city, we've got lots of young people, that we do have adequate space and strategies for the increase, but then on the other occasion there will be decreases, my experience tells me there's peaks and troughs. But I think it's important that we do start to put these plans in place for the future of the city. So the papers been before you, it's been proposed and seconded, all those in favour say aye. Aye. All those against say no. That's agreed, that's carried. We'll move on to agenda item 7, review of agency staff provision. I call on Councillor Paula Brookfield to propose the paper. Thank you leader. Members, this paper proposes a change to how the council employs temporary agency staff going forward. Locally and nationally there are recruitment and retention challenges that mean that agency workers have become a key part of ours and others staff to provide our services. Members will be aware of the work that we do in the Growing Your Own programme to provide our services going forward with our Breaking Through and Aim High programmes which have led to promotions within our staff and our graduate and apprenticeship schemes which have brought us more than 100 new employees into the service. However these are long-term solutions and do not meet immediate fixes. As a public service we have a responsibility to maintain vital services for our residents. We also have a statutory duty to ensure that our services can be provided regardless of vacant posts, long-term illnesses or maternity leave. We also require specialist staff sometimes for projects outside of the council such as city learning quarter and the civic halls, just for two examples. So agency staff help us cover these areas. They also help us to deal with peaks and troughs in demand, for instance gardening services which have a higher demand in the summer, not so much in the winter. So as part of our commitment to looking at our linked bodies and a deep dive into YouRecruit which is a wholly owned trading company which was set up in 2014 to provide temporary recruitment services to the council and help us reduce costs at that time. The deep dive has shown that we would be better served by engaging with a strategic partner to provide temporary services going forward. To achieve this, this paper suggests that we provide YouRecruit and ADECO with an 11 month extension period during which we hold a mini competition to find our strategic partner who we will engage with going forward to provide all our temporary workforce. This will bring us further savings which in the current budget problems that we'll be having going forward will help us. I move the paper going forward and the recommendations on the first page. I seconded. Councillor Miles. Thank you chair. I formally second the paper and in so doing I'd also just ask cabinet to note as Councillor Brookfield has indicated that the paper also seeks to improve the agency offer for the council. And also that kind of recommendation 4 refers the matter to scrutiny and again confirms the cabinet's commitment to scrutiny at all points with regard to processing the various policies. Thank you chair. Any other members wish to speak? I think you both make good valid points. The specialisms that we need at certain times would be hard for us to retain that specialism so we need to do that especially with the big infrastructure stuff and the big capital projects that we've got for the city. We need that specialist so as we can attract more investors into the city without them specialisms on hand. We need to do that but you also make a great valid point that this is open to scrutiny. This is open and transparent. Everything we do in this authority is open and transparent and I'm quite proud of that to be perfectly honest. And if there's no other member wishes to speak the paper's before you. All those in favour say aye. Aye. All those against say no. That's carried. We'll move on to agenda item 8, WV Living Business Plan 24 to 29. I shall move this paper. WV Living was established in 2016 with regards to Wolverhampton Council as a developer of high quality open market housing within the city. It was possible to address derelict land that was blight in all communities and we're making better use of that through this actual body that can deliver housing across this city. Although WV Living operates as a commercial house building company, there are four key objectives of what this body will do and what it will bring forward for our city. So, profit for purpose, creating desirable homes and communities, creating local investment and employment, delivering regeneration in neighbourhoods and also raising standards improvements. Since WV Living was established, we have developed 516 new homes in the city with a further pipeline of 147 to come under development giving a total of 663 which includes 158 affordable homes. WV Living has supported help to own schemes by the delivery of 100 new properties at the marches and this was primarily so as we could support our key workers in and during the pandemic. Also, connecting, add a connection to our city, I'll give me words at, and giving them much needed help to get onto the property ladder. That's really important and we've seen the tough times with the high rates of inflation, high rates of interest, high rates of mortgage demands as a deposit. It's difficult for people in the housing sector and that's why we need to do as much as we can and this allowed us to do that. So over the next five years, WV Living is planned to develop nearly 800 additional homes. That's an ongoing commitment of 25% of affordable homes and the company will move into overall profit within the next two years. It's important that the new business plan demonstrates to us as the council, as a sole shareholder, that WV Living is a going concern and at least for the next 12 months, unlike other places where there's been very tight arrangements in place and monitoring the way in which the company operates, thereby making it more secure. WV Living will deliver in line with the council's aims, objectives and priorities and limit the risks to the council. So I move that. Who's second? Anybody want to second that for me? I second that, Leader, and again, endorse all the comments you've made, particularly those around affordable housing for our residents. Sometimes as well, we're accused of not understanding people's aspiration to own their own homes, but clearly through WV Living and other organisations and programmes that we're operating, absolutely we do understand that aspiration and seek to make it a reality. That's quite right and I think it's important that we get as much government assistance in the housing market. We all know that housing is broken in this country and the things that we can do as a local authority, I think we're doing under the circumstances and the current financial settlements that we see for local government, I think in that context, this authority does an astronomical job of benefit to everybody within the city and we always would want to do more in this field and that's important for the future of our city to keep evolving. So the paper's been proposed and seconded. All those in favour say aye. Aye. All those against say no. I shall move on to Agenda Item 9. I move with accordance with the Section 100(a)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 that the present public be excluded from the meeting for the remaining items of business as they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information on the grounds that indicated on the agenda. Is that seconded? Seconded. Is that agreed? That's carried. And I thank everybody out there who's took the time out to watch us. I do know there's probably more important stuff, like a general election that's just been called, but we will continue business as that goes along. Thank you very much for everybody who's been watching.