Minutes:
(1) The Leader stated that since last County Council meeting, the Chancellor’s statement had been received and there was little good news in it for local government, particularly in the financial year 2015/16 onwards. How the County Council was going to respond to this major challenge - of a lot less money flowing through revenue support grant to support local government services was the topic for debate later in the day under the item ‘Facing the Challenge: Whole Council Transformation’.
(2) The Leader stated that he was pleased to note that unemployment was falling really quite dramatically in the county and was lower than that of the national picture. He was encouraged that every day, new businesses were being established in Kent and existing businesses were growing. The substantial national Government funding for Regional Growth Fund allocations and recent very good news that West Kent would now be the beneficiary of additional Regional Growth Fund meant that the Council would now have at its disposal some £60m worth of recyclable money to support businesses start up and grow, predominantly through interest free loans.
(3) He stated that the county was enormously indebted to those who serve on the Kent Economic Board, our link with the business community in Kent which really was growing from strength to strength. It is interesting, the Leader stated, to see that both the business community in Kent through the links with the Kent Economic Board and more broadly across the South East Local Enterprise Partnership area very much supported the Council’s direction of travel and response to the Government consultation on the Third Thames Crossing.
(4) The Leader stated that the Council would continue to work hard to improve the environment conducive to businesses being set up in Kent and businesses to grow. Part of this was clearly seen through the ‘Make Kent Quicker’ Programme and some of the Highways schemes which, through hard lobbying with national Government, had brought success, examples being the A21 and the pinch point funding at North Farm in Tunbridge Wells.
(5) The Kent Economic Growth Strategy was due out in the autumn and the Leader stated that he very much looked forward to bringing it before the County Council. It was being produced working alongside district colleagues and Kent Economic Board business colleagues to refresh Kent’s previous economic development strategy ‘Unlocking Kent’s Potential’.
(6) He stated that the previous week the Council had hosted a highly successful conference on the roll out of the Troubled Families programme at which the keynote speaker was Louise Casey, the Director General for the Troubled Families programme appointed by the Government. The Leader stated that a great deal of intensive work getting new teams established, multi-agency teams across the 12 districts and boroughs in Kent had preceded the launch of the Troubled Families programme and he was enormously excited by this programme, and optimistic that it can deliver. Some good news in the Chancellor’s statement was that they were extending and expanding the Troubled Families agenda from 2015/16 and beyond.
(7) He finished by stating that he hoped the next day would be a good day for Kent as the Council expected to receive its targeted basic need bid to national Government which hopefully would involve the granting of some £30-40m worth of money to continue to expand against a rising school population in Kent and carry out some much needed modernisation and improvement.
(8) Mr Latchford stated that everyone was aware of the pressures facing the Council to balance the budget against the savage cuts from Government of £239 million. He believed it was a disgrace that Government should continue to offload the responsibility onto County Councils reducing the funding to carry out those responsibilities at the same time as, over a four day period, giving a similar amount to EU and overseas aid.
(9) He stated that it was clear that the Council had to make savings and the Whole-Council Transformation paper would outline the proposals of how to do this. He was very pleased to hear the news from the Leader, he said it was easy to criticise when you did not have responsibility. He stated that the typical definition of opposition was to oppose everything and propose nothing but that he thought the news heard today had been very positive and he would like to congratulate the Leader.
(10) Mr Cowan stated that with regard to the Troubled Families initiative it was very good and very promising but he felt that a lot of new Members would wonder what this was all about and it would be usual at some stage to have a presentation on how exactly the authority was working with those people involved.
(11) He stated that it was good that the unemployment figures were going down but that it would be good if the figures were repeated when they went up as well.
(12) He stated that it had been an interesting few weeks. First there had been the announcement on the consultation about closing 23 of the 97 children’s centres and to reduce hours in others. Then there had been the news from the Leader about the whole-Council transformation with all frontline services probably being outsourced which had been badly handled with staff learning of the proposals less than 24 hours before it broke in the media.
(13) Finally Mr Cowan stated that he felt in terms of the Lower Thames Crossing Option 4 – None of the above, could be the option taken.
(14) Mrs Dean stated that she rejoiced, as Mr Carter did, in the fall in unemployment and she welcomed the winning of the £5 million on the Escalate programme although she had concerns about the degree to which industrial development or commercial development there may put yet more traffic onto the A21.
(15) Mrs Dean stated that she also welcomed and supported the Council’s move on broadband. However she did express concern that more and more stress was being laid on access to technology to allow Kent residents to report problems, something she felt KCC needed to keep an eye on and be aware of.
(16) Mrs Dean had attended the Troubled Families conference Mr Carter had spoken of and had been delighted to hear Louise Casey pay tribute both to Mr Carter and to Amanda Honey for the way they had supported the Troubled Families programme generally and how Kent had played its part in that. She was concerned however that there were still areas of the county where this programme had not yet started and that there was still much bad practice, 20 practitioners at one case meeting.
(17) Mr Carter thanked Mr Latchford for his gracious comments and agreed with Mrs Dean on the good progress achieved on the Troubled Families agenda and the input being given to support the Kent economy. He also agreed with Mr Cowan, stating that he had said only earlier in the week at Corporate Board that he should write to Mr Pickles and lobby him to put the Council Tax freeze grant into base grant money. He stated that the Children’s Centre consultation was a genuine one. He also agreed that a Troubled Families briefing would be a very good idea.