Agenda item

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 to see where money could be saved.
• The current cost management process is to prioritise phases of certain schemes instead of cancelling anything – as it is important that strategically sound projects are retained, and that the authority has ‘shovel ready’ schemes which can be ready to go as soon as government announce funding.
• It is estimated that around £270m will be taken out of the overall £1.4bn transport capital programme.
• The Mayor did not intend on implementing an increase on the Mayoral Precept, which, in any case, can only be spent on transport and on a specified thing – due to expected rises in council tax.
• The Mayor has used Gainshare funds to support cost of living alleviation programmes. Addressing concerns around Gainshare which is supposed to be used as investments for economic growth, in the Mayor’s view, the economy cannot grow or be sustained if people are unable to buy the basics.
• Internal procurement and contracts were also under review to ensure that the authority was receiving value for money from suppliers contracted to deliver services and upcoming launch of a new internal corporate system is also expected to save money long term.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) and equity across the region:

• The Golden thread running through the Mayor’s approach was equality, diversity, and inclusion. As part of this:
  • The Combined Authority was in the process of recruiting an Inclusivity Champion, a specific individual with a managerial and health background to lead on diversity, inclusion, and equality across West Yorkshire.
  • The Mayor was also keen to ensure that all parts of West Yorkshire benefit from combined authority activity and are represented in any profile building, trade delegations, inward investment queries and any services the authority provides.
• The Mayor considers “Levelling Up” locally as important as “Levelling Up” nationally. The council leaders were agreed in the need to promote the entire region as a whole, and often support each other in doing so, instead of just promoting their areas.

Strategic prioritisation and Mayor’s Pledges:

• The Mayor told the Committee that all pledges held equal weight of importance in her view, however, some pledges had already been achieved and others are still in progress or face strategic challenges.
• In terms of achievement, the pledge for 1,000 well paid, skilled jobs for young people had been achieved and in response to the ‘put keeping women and girls safe at the heart of my policing plan’ pledge, 20 PCSOs had been placed in the bus network.
• The Mayor was hopeful that despite cost pressures, all 10 of her pledges would be addressed by the May 2024 election.
• Though commitments such as the one to tackle the climate emergency was harder than others, and £40 million had been allocated to the pledge – though more funding would be needed to achieve it.
• Local authorities also worked together to ensure that all priorities could be achieved, supporting each other’s strengths.
• Many schemes are jointly delivered with local authority partners, and everyone used each other’s existing community networks to deliver pledges.

Resolved:  That the Mayor, Chief Executive and Director of Corporate and Commercial Services be thanked for attending and the Committee’s feedback and conclusions be considered further.