horndeanmatters

At the moment discussions and proposals are being considered which, if they can be agreed with the government, will see new powers and investment transferred from Whitehall to Hampshire and the Isle of Wight so that we can manage local affairs locally. These discussions are being led by the 15 leaders and executive officers of the Councils in Hampshire (County, District, Borough and City) but what might they mean for us?

The Hampshire and Isle of Wight economy is worth £47bn a year. And we are a major economy outside of London. We have Deep water ports, airports, renowned universities and specialist market sectors like aerospace, defence, maritime as well as a highly qualified and professional population earning above the average wage.

The main objective of the Combined Authority is to drive growth in business and economy. As well as making more jobs to cater for our growing population and combating our (relatively low) unemployment, this means working to up-skill the population to raise the average wage of our existing population. Much of the discussions that are taking place are therefore focused on the economy, but this is also a chance to look at other topics such as health, transport, housing and surplus government land.

A key principal though is to look to add responsibilities that complement existing duties carried out by HCC, EHDC and other organisations (like the LEPS – Local Enterprise Partnerships) to simplify the way we work and accountability without introducing a new level of government and bureaucracy.

Detail is now starting to emerge on some of the topics that might form the final plans:

• Local control of business rates to support business growth. This will help each local authority to reinvest income from business rates into projects and activities to promote new business growth. This could include enterprise centres, business parks, better Broadband, road improvements or regeneration of business areas.
• Local control over transport infrastructure funding working with rail, highways England etc. This might address issues on the motorways where there are bottlenecks and provide solutions like motorway hard shoulder shared use (as around Birmingham), greater say on rail franchise renewals and a more joined up approach with our road network which is currently managed by multiple agencies
• Better support for local enterprise to grow our SME’s through increased locally decided funding to support local businesses through the LEPS and other organisations.
• More cost effective public services. At the moment several organisations look into environmental issues – The Environment Agency, County and District Councils and others. By bringing these into one organisation the overhead reduces.
• Local skills for anyone currently working and our growing population, our skill base needs to grow in proportion and we would like local control over this to work with universities, colleges etc to ensure this is well coordinated. Currently our average wage per head is good but we would like to see this grow particularly in STEM (Science Technology, Engineering, Mathematics).
• Housing Making sure we get the best out of the right land, for example looking to use Ex MOD land for housing as a priority such as the Royal Clarence Yard in Gosport which is surplus but not yet released by the MOD. This would help us to increase housing delivery to meet our needs but to channel this to the areas that need it and can take it. (We have our local plan and are not willing to support housing above these levels)
• Make sure there are infrastructure improvements in areas like Tipner to access land so that it can be developed. In this case it would help Portsmouth provide some housing which it very much needs to prevent them looking elsewhere to satisfy their growth.
• Health. Bring service decisions closer to communities and service users. About 3bn a year is spent on health. The plans would help improve skills and training, look at areas that are under strain for example the local A+E and make local improvements. Prepare for future needs like increased strain from aging population.

Fundamentally the changes must present a benefit to our communities with the monies transferred to carry them out in full. EHDC will not support a Combined Authority which takes on new powers without the funding to support them, or changes that do not benefit our communities.

Combined Authorities Timescale:

• September 2015 – proposals for a devolution deal are tabled
• November 2015 – Spending review where the proposals will be assessed
• December 2015 to January 2016 – Stakeholder consultations
• February 2016 – “Cities and Local Government Devolution Act” expected to be in force
• February 2016 to April 2016 – Public Consultation
• September 2016 – Governance scheme put to full councils for approval
• April 2017 – Combined Authority would commence formal operation
• February 2016 to April 2016 – Public Consultation
• September 2016 – Governance scheme put to full councils for approval
• April 2017 – Combined Authority would commence formal operation