Issue - meetings

Report of the Director of Corporate Services

Councillor McKinley, the Chair of the Employment Development and Development of Local Town Centres and Economies Working Group will attend to outline the content and recommendations set out in the report

The Cabinet considered the report of the Director of Corporate Services which indicated that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Regeneration and Environmental Services) had established the Employment Development and Development of Local Town Centres and Economies Working Group to undertake a review on issues surrounding employment development within the Borough.

The recommendations of the Working Group were set out in the report and the Chair of the Working Group, Councillor McKinley outlined the key conclusions and recommendations of the scrutiny review and responded to questions from Members of the Cabinet. He also indicated that a further report by the Working Group on the development of local Town Centres and economies would be submitted to the Cabinet prior to the end of the current Council Year 2013/14.

Decision Made:

That:

(1)    it be noted that the Employment Development and Development of Local Town Centres and Economies Working Group actively supports and confirms the value of the proposed Member Reference Group for Jobs and Prosperity and requests that update reports on the work of the Member Reference Group are submitted to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Regeneration and Environmental Services);

(2)    it be noted that the Employment Development and Development of Local Town Centres and Economies Working Group welcomes a holistic, authority-wide high-level strategy/policy that enables all Council assets to be organised in an effective way to contribute to regeneration and reduce the potential for ‘silo working’, thereby identifying regeneration as a cross-cutting theme across all Council activity, and requests the Director of Built Environment to bring forward a Place-Based Regeneration policy for members to consider;

(3)       Further to (2) above, the Director of Built Environment and the Director of Corporate Services be requested to develop a Social Value Policy, underpinning the exercise of all the Council’s powers including procurement, regulation and employment which would authorise specific obligations to be placed on providers relating to local jobs, skills and supply, and work toward publishing a set of ethical business statements that demonstrate the Council’s commitment;

(4)       the Director of Built Environment be requested to include a high-level employment, skills and local supply objective within the Local Plan to provide justification for specific conditions and policies relating to the maximisation of local benefit from proposals for development and change of use;

(5)       the Director of Built Environment be requested to undertake a detailed investigation (with external expert assistance as necessary) on how to embed detailed obligations and operational targets and compliance regimes, proportional to the task, within planning consents and development agreements;

(6)       the Director of Built Environment be requested to work through the Sefton Employment and Skills Partners Group to align all partners’ employer engagement to ensure that all businesses across the Borough are given comparable opportunities to achieve our shared Employment, Education and Training objectives;

(7)       That the Council, a representative of Hugh Baird College, Southport College and other Further Education providers within the Borough be invited to update the Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Regeneration and Environmental Services) annually on the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 72