Update from Cllr David Robertson, Chairman, Regional Transport Board

The Regional Transport Board met on 23 July to review progress with Local Transport Authorities and the Highway Agency to ensure that the agreed programme of investment to 2013/14 is delivered to time and budget and also to commission and oversee the regional Delivering a Sustainable Transport System (DaSTS) work programme and to ensure linkages are made between the regional and national work programme.
 
The Board was pleased to note that the Department for Transport formally announced approval to start work on the East Kent Access Phase 2 at the end of August. With considerable pressure on public sector finances in the short and medium term, the RTB recognised that this could affect the current programme and consequently the Board arranged a member workshop on 23 October so that this could be fully debated with the Local Transport Authority portfolio holders.
 
The Board received an update of the regional DaSTS work programme following the submission of the regional draft and was pleased to note that the Department for Transport has given the green light to the region's top two priorities of the West Sussex Coast and the Portsmouth/Southampton (PUSH) region. Progress with the remaining seven DaSTS programmes was reviewed at the Board's  
meeting on 23 October to prepare for the interim report that has to be submitted to the Strategy Board by the end of April 2010.

The Board also considered Network Rail's Utilisation Strategies (RUS) and agreed the draft responses to both the Kent and the Sussex consultations. The Board specifically registered its concern at the proposal to reduce the level of service to Hastings in the medium term as this is not consistent with the regional priority given to regenerating this part of the coastal area. The Board noted that the next RUS to be considered will be the Great Western RUS with a response considered at the Board's meeting on 23 October.

Mayor of London’s Transport Strategy has been published for consultation and the Board will receive a draft response to consider at our meeting in January.



Update from Cllr Elizabeth Cartwright, Chairman, Housing and Regeneration Board

The Regional Housing and Regeneration Board met on 8 September.  We had introductions into the work of the Board including the Government’s expectations of us and the role of the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA).    Our focus should be on the full range of housing issues as well as the regeneration remit and better alignment of our policies.  Public spending is to be made more efficient - getting more from less.  We should also be aware of the work of other Boards.

The priorities for the Board are to maximise the levels of Affordable Housing, to continue to provide the ratio of social rented to intermediate tenures as 71% to 29%.   We would like to take the greatest possible advantage of the Government’s new funding initiatives such as Kickstart and the Local Authority Challenge Fund Newbuild in the region.  We also see the provision of more larger homes to be a continuing priority.  We are disappointed by the continuing lack of progress in the provision of rural affordable housing in communities of less than 3000 and would like to work with others to address this problem in delivery. 

We are pleased by the progress made in the Private Sector Housing Renewal Programme but disappointed that the Government is reducing the funding for this scheme.  Equally the reduction in funding for the Growth Fund will cause difficulties in the provision of the necessary infrastructure for planned growth. Another priority is to see a resolution to the Housing Revenue Account Subsidy system which has such a detrimental affect on many S.E. Councils’ ability to achieve Decent Homes Standards.

We should also like to see better value for money in the bids for Gypsy and Traveller site applications in order to be able to address the needs of more of this ethnic minority. We need to achieve greater consistency in the Strategic Housing Market Assessments (SHMA) and Strategic Land Availability Assessments (SHLAA).  This work is regarded as very important for our understanding of the whole housing market. Unfortunately different methodology used makes comparison between different areas unreliable.



Brief update from Paul Carter, Chairman, Strategy Board, on the Regional Strategy timetable 

The Strategy Board (SB) met on 17 September 2009.  The SB will advise the Partnership Board on scoping and delivering the Single Regional Strategy – the working draft timetable is as follows:

Oct 2009–Feb 2010 - Develop project plan, statement of policies on community involvement and SA Scoping Report
March 2010 - Stakeholder consultation on SA Scoping Report   
Jan–Jun 2010 - Develop regional evidence base   
Feb–Apr 2010 - Request to local authorities for local ‘bottom-up’ evidence   
Jun–Dec 2010 - Regional options development and testing
Sep–Dec 2010 - Local authority advice on regional options   
Jan–Nov 2011 - RS atrategy delivery options testing and policy development   
Dec 2011 - Submit draft RS and SA Report   
Jan–Mar 2012 - Public consultation on draft RS   
July 2012 - Examination in public   
Jan 2013 - Public consultation on final draft RS   
June 2013 - Adoption of RS



Update from Cllr Gordon Keymer CBE on European matters

The European Parliament and Commission are currently going through a relatively quiet time at the beginning of the new European Parliamentary term.  New commissioners are still to be appointed and the new political groups in the European Parliament are settling in.

The current mandate of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) ends in January 2010.  Meanwhile the UK nominations for the next CoR mandate (2010 – 2014, or 2015 if the relevant section of the Lisbon Treaty comes into effect) are moving through the UK Government approval process.  National governments propose the members of their CoR delegations.  This has sometimes been a slow process in the UK but, partly thanks to the LGA team that supports the CoR members, it looks as though it will proceed more quickly this time.

The CoR has made major strides over the current mandate to improve its performance and effectiveness, probably more than during any previous mandate.  I am pleased that my proposal that the operation of the CoR be subject to an assessment programme has been implemented.  The CoR has just started the Common Assessment Framework run by the European Institute of Public Administration in Maastricht.  This puts the CoR at the forefront of the EU Institutions.

Why do I believe it is so important to build up the competence of the CoR?  The CoR is the ONLY organisation set up under the EU treaties with the role of putting forward EU local government views to the European Commission, Parliament and Council of Ministers.  The higher the standing and professionalism of the CoR, the more likely its views will be listened to and acted upon. .This is particularly important in the area of proposed EU legislation.

With great and increasing financial pressures on local government in the South East of England, trying to ensure that the costs of EU legislation are kept down is going to become increasingly important.  Having helped improve the standing of the CoR during the present mandate, I am keen to see the CoR putting on greater pressure to reduce the EU legislative burden on local government during the next mandate.



TOTAL PLACE UPDATE
By Martyn Ayre, Senior Policy Manager, Kent County Council

The Kent Total Place (TP) pilot is focused on improving services to the customer, reducing duplication and improving efficiency across the public sector. Although Kent partners have welcomed the focus that the pilot timescale brings, the key actions were already underway before TP was announced and will persist for at least 3 to 5 years into the future.

Counting the totality of public expenditure is a core activity for the all the pilots. This is not new in Kent; we’ve been doing this for a number of years. The TP pilot gives us the opportunity to further refine and develop this work, but counting by itself does not lead to action. The significant opportunity arising from the TP pilot is to take the same multi-agency approach to our understanding residents and customers and to add significant impetus to changing organisational culture across the public sector. Counting, customer insight and organisational culture are the common themes that run through all the detailed work. The three Kent workstreams are:

The Gateway multi-channel programme for transforming public access began as far back as 2003, with the pilot Ashford Gateway opening in October 2005. The programme already enjoys extensive support and collaboration from many existing local partners. It has a huge potential to radically improve the customer experience of accessing public services, simplify processes within and between organisations, increase the efficiency of transactional services and reduce costs overall. Central government services are yet to fully embrace this model of working and that’s at the core of what we hope the TP pilot will change.

The Single Asset Management strategy is focused on buildings. This too is based on a history of collaboration between local partners in Kent, but seeks to broaden and deepen the work. The proposition is intended to help all partners migrate from the asset base we currently have to the base required for transformed public service delivery. This partly flows from the ‘front office shared service’ that the Gateway offers, but also questions the scale and nature of future back office accommodation needs as well as seeking to make a reality of truly integrated service facilities between local authorities and the NHS for example.

Finally, the Margate Task Force builds on the significant momentum of the Margate Renewal Partnership and of a range of public sector and community actions in the two wards of Margate Central and Cliftonville West. These two wards have been beset by multiple disadvantages over many years. Efforts at physical regeneration have been ongoing, but cumulative public policy decisions at national and local level have tended work against this. Poorly-supported, transient and vulnerable individuals have continued to be placed into an area already under considerable stress. The Task Force is set up to develop new ways of working, connecting strategic decision-makers into action at a very local level.

If TP and the legacy that emerges from it is to be truly transformational for residents and taxpayers, it needs partners from central government, NDPBs and regional agencies to be fully on board for an exciting journey into the future of public services.



NEWS DIGEST

Funding for Private Housing Renewal under threat

Government funding for restoring empty homes to use and improving the standard of private sector (privately rented and owner occupied) housing is to be reduced by 20 per cent for 2010/11 from £376 million to £301 million.

This funding reduction contradicts the findings of a recent Audit Commission report, Building Better Lives, which concluded that public expenditure was more effectively targeted on improving existing housing stock than building new homes.  However, the Commission found that councils felt pressured into focusing on building brand new housing rather than improve existing stock.  94 per cent of councils have prioritised new and/or affordable housing targets through their local area agreements, but fewer than a third prioritised targets relating to their existing housing stock. This is despite the financial savings, environmental improvements and social benefits of doing so.  Key findings in the report showed that:

- spending between £2,000 and £20,000 on adaptations that enable an elderly person to remain in their own home can save £6,000 per year in care costs.
- if only five per cent of empty homes could be brought back into use, councils could cut their annual homelessness costs by £500 million.

Details are still awaited on how the funding cuts for private sector housing stock will feed through to regional budgets.  However, if the reduction of around 20 per cent was to be applied across the board, with all regions being affected equally, the existing South East allocation would fall from £30 million to around £24 million.

South East Plan update

1. Aggregates Partial Review: Examination in Public

The EiP into the changes to Policy M3 for sub-regional apportionment of primary aggregates was held in Reading between 6 and 8 October. 

The Partnership Board was defending the policy in two main areas: the sub-regional apportionment (how much sand and gravel, and crushed rock each Minerals Planning Authority should provide) and also the overall total amount of aggregates that the region should provide for, as agreed by the Assembly in December 2008.

The Partnership Board stressed that the amount of sand and gravel the region should provide for should be 9 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).  This is lower than that set in government (CLG) Guidelines of 12.2 mtpa but is justified as sales of sand and gravel have declined substantially over the last ten years and are currently at around 7 million tonnes per annum. 

Strong evidence was given by the Partnership Board and the Mineral Planning Authorities (MPAs) that providing for more than 9mtpa is practically difficult (MPAs are having difficulty in finding sufficient sites) and not needed by actual market demand.  Opposition was from CLG and the industry (the Minerals Products Association and British Aggregates Association). 

Other regions also opposed our position - South West, East of England and East Midlands - concerned that they may need to export more to the South East, even though all of the evidence suggests this will not happen. Most MPAs were also supportive of the sub-regional apportionment in Policy M3 on condition that the total regional allocation is kept at around 9mtpa.

The EiP went well for the Partnership Board and the MPAs: The opposition did not make any new substantial points and much of their case was based on assertion rather than evidence.

The Panel will now prepare their report by the end of November 2009.  The Partnership Board is hopeful that they will take the evidence provided into account and reflect our challenge to the government’s figures by recommending that the sub-regional apportionment we recommended is applied but to a lower overall regional figure than set out in the government Guidelines.

For further information, contact David Payne at the Partnership Board on either davidpayne@se-partnershipboard.org.uk or 01483 555216.

2.    Gypsies, Travellers & Travelling Showpeople Partial Review

Technical work on the Partnership Board’s approach to transit provision is now complete and will be considered by the Strategy Board at its meeting on the 26 November, taking into account advice from the Planning Panel which met for the first time on the 15 October. It is intended as advice to assist local authorities to determine appropriate transit provision for Gypsies and Travellers in their county group areas, in accordance with the approach in submitted policy H7. It looks at the available evidence that might inform decisions on the level, form and broad location of transit provision, and recommends a way forward.

The date for the EiP has been arranged for the week beginning 1st February 2010 and this will be held in the Penta Hotel, Reading.
For more information please click here or contact Mark Williams at the Partnership Board on either markwilliams@se-partnershipboard.org.uk or 01483 555216.



Meeting Dates (Recent and Future)

17 September - Strategy Board, 10.30 to 12.30, RIBA, London
 
1 October - Transport Board, afternoon, central London (provisional)
 
12 October - Regional Housing Forum, afternoon, central London
 
14 October - Partnership Board Executive Steering Group, 14.30 to 16.30, Guildford (for information only, although Chris Williams is co-chair of this group)
 
15 October - first meeting of the Planning Panel will take place from 10.30 to 12.30 at the Institute of Materials, 1 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5DB

16 October - SEE Leaders Board/SEEC Executive, timing to be confirmed, Institute of Materials, London (however will take all day as there is to be a SEERA Ltd AGM as well)
 
23 October - Transport Board, morning, central London
 
11 November - Partnership Board Executive Steering Group, 14.30 to 16.30, Guildford (see note for 14 Oct)
 
20 November - Leaders' Board and SEEDA Board workshop, 10.30 to 15.30, central London
 
25 November - Planning Panel, all day, central London
 
26 November - Strategy Board, 10.30 to 13.00, central London
 
27 November - Inter-Regional Forum, 10.00 to 13.00, central London (for information only although Paul Carter is chairman of
this group)

4 December – SEEC PLENARY, CENTRAL LONDON VENUE (MORE INFORMATION TO COME)

11 December - Partnership Board Executive Steering Group, 14.30 to 16.30, Guildford (see note re 14 Oct)
 
7 January - Partnership Board Executive Steering Group, 10.30 to 12.30, Guildford (see note re 14 Oct)
 
8 January - Regional Transport Board, should be 10.30 to 13.00 but may change to p.m., central London
 
12 January - Planning Panel, morning, central London
 
22 January - SEE Leaders Board/SEEC Executive, 10.30 to 13.00, although the Conservative Group will have a pre-meet from 09.30, central London
 
9 February - Partnership Board, 14.30 to 17.30, central London