Venue: Wellington House, 40-50 Wellington Street, Leeds LS1 2DE
Contact: Scrutiny Unit, Legal & Governance Services
Items
No. |
Item |
10. |
Apologies for absence
To note apologies for absence
and confirm the quorum of 11 members is met.
Minutes:
Apologies for absence were
received from Councillors Rowley, Kaushik and Iqbal.
The meeting was confirmed as
quorate with 12 members present out of 11 needed for
quorum.
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11. |
Declarations of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests
Minutes:
here were no declarations of disclosable pecuniary
interests.
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12. |
Possible exclusion of the press and public
Minutes:
There were no items requiring the exclusion of the press
and public.
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13. |
Minutes of the meeting held on 17 November 2021 PDF 246 KB
Minutes:
Resolved:
That the notes of the
inquorate meeting held on 17 November 2021 be noted and entered as
public record of what was discussed.
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14. |
Notes of the informal meeting held on 19 January 2022 PDF 307 KB
Minutes:
Members asked that the notes
capture their view that social housing was an important element in
achieving more affordable housing.
Resolved: That the notes of the informal meeting held on 19
January 2022 be noted and entered as public record of what was
discussed, pending the above amendment.
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15. |
Chair's comments and update
Minutes:
The Committee received a verbal
update from the Chair. Members noted the initial proposed changes
to the Committee structure and plans going forward to transfer
place/environment work from the Economy Scrutiny Committee remit to
Transport Scrutiny Committee, an update to follow. The Committee
also heard that a wrap-up session was due to be arranged for the
end of the year to discuss lessons learned, evaluate performance
and forward plan for the coming year.
Considering the economic impact
of the Ukraine crisis and the sanctions on Russia and freezing of
assets, the Chair invited the Director of Economic Services to give
a brief update. Key points from the update included:
- The challenge of
significant inflationary pressures due to inflation which was 5.5%
two weeks prior to the meeting and was expected to rise to
7%. An example of the impact was the
cost of gas which was 20p per therm last year compared to the
current price, £2.24 per therm.
- According to
statistics there was 158 companies in West Yorkshire currently
exporting to Russia. Members heard that a large number of
businesses had grown on the back of Russian brands, and it would
have an impact on some companies more than others.
- Food production -
around 25% of global wheat production was from Russia and
Ukraine.
- Cyber security
– the crisis had significantly increased the risk of
cyber-attacks and hacking, with one local firm saying they were not
going public with the help they were giving Ukraine with fear of
cyber-attacks.
- The long-term impact
of stability was evident, investors had been moving out of public
investments to gold and currency. There were increased regulatory
burdens expected also.
- In-work Universal
Credit claims had increased while business liquidations had
stabilised in the new year.
Resolved: That the Chair’s verbal update and the Director’s
update on economic impact be noted.
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16. |
Economy Scrutiny Work Programme PDF 134 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Committee considered the
Work programme for 2021/22. The Annual Report was due to be
produced and short wrap-up sessions arranged for each Scrutiny
Committee.
Resolved: That the report and comments
be noted.
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17. |
Mayors Question Time - Tracy Brabin PDF 234 KB
Minutes:
The Chair thanked the Mayor
Tracy Brabin for attending Economy Scrutiny to answer the
Committee’s questions and outlined the format of the
Mayor’s Question Time. 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:
·
Partnerships and delivery
·
Skills and jobs
·
Businesses
·
Culture
·
Housing
Following questions and
supplementary questions, the following was reported to the
committee:
1.
Partnerships and Delivery
- Quality of
partnerships: the Mayor felt that the
Local Authorities were aligned and working well together, they all
had similar challenges and agreed on solutions.
- Delivery
capacity: Gainshare was being used to
support each member authority in developing a pipeline of projects
ready for bidding in new government funding announcements. The
Mayor felt government didn’t understand delivery capacity
issues facing local government and was too demanding in the number
of funding announcements and the limited time to deadlines
requiring resources to be spent on bidding.
- York: West Yorkshire worked with York
on various joint schemes, not just in transport, but also in
business. Further devolution to York was supported as it would also
benefit West Yorkshire.
- Leeds-centricity
& West Yorkshire levelling up:
Members had the perception of Leeds centricity. Other cities and
towns felt side-lined, particularly on office space. Wakefield
Council was bidding for the new Rail HQ, but it was bidding against
larger areas/authorities such as Doncaster, Preston and
York.
2.
Jobs and skills
- Labour
shortages: Members heard of the use of
the Adult Education Budget (AEB) budget to respond to reactive
labour needs such as the HGV driver training during the recent
shortage.
- Green
jobs: There was demand for green jobs in
the development of EV charging infrastructure and EV mechanics,
retrofitting homes opportunities and the use of AEB funding to
help. Members wished to know the definition of a ‘green
job’; to ensure it was not the marketing industry
‘greenwashing’ campaigns, but direct jobs for example
as EV related workers and electric boiler fitters.
- Parent
workers: The importance of support for
parent workers, particularly women.
- Over
50s: The CA wanted to support people to
reskill as their careers progressed. Older workers had been
positively targeted through the employment Hub to help people ge5t
back into work.
- University
engagement: The Mayor had regular
meetings with Vice Chancellors encouraging positive engagement. The
Mayor emphasised to importance of careers advice, working with
businesses and helping young people make important
choices.
3.
Business
- Support for small
businesses: historically economic
development policy focussed on businesses with growth potential.
There were various versatile initiatives to support small/medium
sized businesses including integral local, community businesses
such as ‘corner shops’ which may not be looking to
grow.
- Cost of
living: the cost-of-living crisis was
affecting business costs/expenses and there were schemes in place
to advise/fund businesses helping them in reducing energy costs
through greater efficiency.
- Grants vs
advice; Members felt that on occasion,
businesses needed ...
view the full minutes text for item 17.
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