Agenda item - Chair's Communications

23.1      The Chair provided the following Communications:

Good afternoon and welcome everyone to our July Cabinet meeting.

It’s fair to say that a lot has happened since we last met. It’s hard to believe that it was just two weeks ago that Labour swept to victory in the General Election. I’d like to start by congratulating all of our local MPs on their election and extend my congratulations to Peter Kyle on his appointment as Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology.

Our Labour administration is naturally delighted by the result and stands ready to work with Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the new Labour Government to deliver change at pace for our city and country.

The King’s Speech announced yesterday contained a raft of new legislation which sets out the first steps our Labour Government will take to rebuild Britian. We particularly welcome the announcements on house building, reform of planning laws and delivering the long-awaited ban on no-fault evictions for renters.

The launch of GB Energy will provide a much-needed boost to investment in renewable energy projects. While the English Devolution Bill will help to unlock the potential of city regions like ours and give us the powers and budget to drive change in our community.

This morning I attended a meeting at Downing Street to discuss the opportunities around this and relay our city’s priorities. Our Cabinet leads have also written to new Secretaries of State to outline the challenges and opportunities in their areas. We will continue this engagement with government over the coming months as legislation is brought forward, to ensure our city reaps the benefits of these new opportunities.

One of the absolute priorities of this Labour government is to drive economic growth following years of stagnation and falling living standards. I am very pleased that today Cabinet will agree our three-year Economic Plan which sets out our vision for economic growth in Brighton & Hove.

I was also pleased to be elected as Chair of the Greater Brighton Economic Board this week and I look forward to working across the city region to build partnerships which will help drive growth and bring new investment to our region. On Tuesday, in my new capacity as Chair, I was pleased to launch Sussex Energy; a collaboration between public and private sectors across Sussex which aims to join forces to achieve net zero status by 2040.

Today our administration is also bringing forward proposals for 67 new affordable homes in Hollingbury, Portslade and Moulsecoomb, through our New Homes for Neighbourhoods programme. We are on a mission to fix the housing crisis in our city and we are exploring every avenue possible to do so. We're buying back properties previously sold under the Right to Buy scheme at a rate of more than one a week as part of our efforts to provide people with secure and affordable housing.

Cabinet will also be considering options for the King Alfred leisure centre, following extensive consultation and options scoping over several months. We have listened to residents and today Cabinet will consider options for building a new leisure centre on the current site.

Our report today on performance, shows the areas where the council has made improvements and helps to identify areas for improvement which we need to prioritise. Our administration made clear that getting the basics right is a priority and the early results of the work we have done over the past year are beginning to show. This includes a significant reduction in complaints to CityClean or Parking services and reduction in the number of reported missed refuse & recycling collections.  I am extremely proud that the report shows that our city is thriving as a visitor destination with a 14% increase in visitors compared to 2021. And there is no doubt that this is in part due to the fantastic open spaces we have to offer.

With that in mind, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our City Parks team and all of our park volunteers, on the announcement that 7 of our city’s parks have been awarded prestigious Green Flags for excellence. This is great news for our city and a reminder of how fortunate we are in this city to have access to so many excellent open spaces. Two of our parks – Stanmer and the Wild Park Rainscape – have also been shortlisted for prestigious South Downs Design awards. Congratulations to all council staff and all the partners involved in delivering such innovative and creative park projects.