Agenda and minutes

To note apologies and confirm the quorum of 11 members is met.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Betty Rhodes and Fiona Fitzpatrick.

The meeting was confirmed as quorate, with 13 members present out of 11 needed for quorum.

There were no declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests.

There were no items requiring the exclusion of the press and public.

Resolved: That the minutes of the meeting held on 23 September 2022 be approved.

The Committee was introduced by the Chair who reminded Members of the process and proceedings for the Mayor’s Question Time.

Resolved:  That the Chair’s verbal update be noted.

The Chair thanked the Mayor Tracy Brabin and officers for attending Corporate Scrutiny to answer the Committee’s questions. The session would be split into pre-agreed topic areas and members would be able to ask any questions under those topic areas, and any follow ups. The topic areas were broadly around Mayoral Powers and partnerships, Impact of Inflation and budgets and the Mayor’s Pledges on Equality, Diversity & Inclusion.

Mayoral Powers and “trailblazers”:

• The Mayor wished to deepen devolved powers relating to skills, transport, climate, and culture.
• There were two “trailblazer” schemes taking place at the West Midlands and Greater Manchester combined authorities which sought to trial certain additional powers and funding models before potential rollout to other combined authorities.
• It is not currently known if previously promised planning powers would be part of this rollout and the future of fire authority devolution is also still in consideration.
• The importance of resourcing local authorities was emphasised, as the Mayor felt that the partnership could not be efficiently transformational when the five local authorities were facing financial and delivery challenges due to uncertainty and lack of long-term funding.

The M10 and soft power relationships:

• The Mayor had been elected Chair of the M10 which, as a group, was an effective way to come together as one ‘voice’ speaking on areas of mutual interest such as bus service funding and HS2/northern powerhouse rail. There are preliminary plans to make the M10 a more formal body, but this is in its infancy.
• The Mayor hoped to deepen her profile as a spokeswoman for the West Yorkshire region, the M10 and globally. She recently completed a trade delegation to India, securing some agreements and investments. The Inward Investment teams were increasingly seeing a demand from other countries to directly engage with City Mayors and Regional Governates, instead of only going through national ministries.
• The Mayor had also been accepted onto the Bloomberg Mayors Project, consisting of mayors across the world, and is part of the project the Mayor had been chosen to participate in a data track programme which aimed to deepen understanding of mass transit and bus reform.
• The Mayor continued to develop working relationships with Government Ministers, letters had been sent to new Ministers following the change in government – stability in ministers is welcomed after a period of changeover that was not ideal.
• All of these ‘soft power’ relationships and stakeholder engagement had benefited from the Mayor’s increasing profile among the public and the engagement strategy since her election.

Inflation, budgets, and mayoral precept and gainshare:

• The Mayor acknowledged the strain on budgets and reminded members of the partner and business packages on offer.
• Budget forecasting was consistent with the Combined Authority’s Local Authority partners and is based on national projections on inflation and expected national spending freezes in some areas.
• The Director for Corporate and Commercial Services had mapped out the budgets going forwards and the Combined Authority is in the midst of a complete in-depth review of capital programmes and schemes  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

The Deputy Chair reminded members of the workshop to be held on 25 November at 2pm focusing on internal staff and workforce issues and plans. All members are invited to attend virtually. The Chair also reminded members of the budget workshop due to be held on 20 December at 11am, virtually, which all members are also invited to. The purpose of the workshops was to lay the groundwork for discussion of these topics at the next committee meeting on 20 January 2023.

Resolved: That the appended 2022/23 Work Programme be noted.