Agenda item - Chair's Communications

149.1      The Chair provided the following communications:

“With Brighton and Hope confirmed as being on the government's accelerated scheme for devolution, this is an incredibly exciting time for the city and for our residents and wider region. As well as unlocking new powers, new money and investment for our region and our city, devolution will give the people of Brighton and Sussex a stronger voice in how national decisions that affect them are made and enable more decisions to be made locally. We are one of only six areas accepted onto this programme, which is a massive vote of confidence in what we are doing here in Brighton and Hove and our growth potential.

Both for our people and for our country, more local powers and more local decision making is only a good thing and after a very difficult period for local government over the last 14 years, year on year of Conservative austerity, it's now possible to start seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

Today the Cabinet will discuss the budget that we will put forward to Budget Council later this month. Difficult decisions have been needed to propose a legally balanced budget, despite the uplift in spending power from our new Labour government.

Increased demand on our statutory services, increased costs and a decade of underfunding from the previous Conservative governments means that savings are unfortunately unavoidable.

But our Labour administration has also produced a draft budget with significant spending commitments and an unprecedented investment across a range of services in areas we know are a priority for residents, including our most vulnerable. More than £24,000,000 has been identified to support temporary and emergency accommodation for people made homeless.

We're looking at setting up a housing company with the goal of buying and potentially leasing more temporary properties in the city to help tackle the housing crisis and high rent, and we have ambitious plans to deliver more than 2000 more affordable homes in our city in the coming years. Building on the work we've already done in this area with 726 new council homes delivered by this Council in the last five years.

We are freezing parking charges in the city and making more money available to repair potholes and maintain our streets.

And at long last, and despite previous claims by the Green Party that this was not possible, we are launching a food waste collection service and increasing our recycling. We're investing further in adult and children's social care, special, educational needs and home to school transport. And we've also committed to keeping all public toilets open. These investments reflect our Council plan, which focuses on creating a fair, inclusive and healthy city that people can be proud of and thrive in.

With well run services delivered by a responsive Council, and they also reflect the priorities of our local residents under our new governance system, our budget proposals went to Place and People Scrutiny Committees last Friday and as will become clear today, we have listened and taken on board concerns in protect, in particular around public health budgeting. Importantly, while our budget is ambitious, it's also financially responsible.

This administration will never put the financial stability of this Council and the services that we provide at risk.

With this in mind, I'm also pleased to see the progress made, which we will be discussing today on our Targeted Budget Management, which was predicting an overspend for the current financial year.

It's vital that, as a Council, we take every step available to balance our books and with increased demand and costs over the last 12 months in statutory areas where this Council has a legal obligation to deliver services, we have predicted a significant overspend. Spending controls, recruitment freezes and the introduction of innovative and different ways of working throughout the authority, however, have had a genuine impact.

Our forecasts overspend as of month 9 is now down to £3.3 million. This represents 1.3% of the net budget and approximately 7% of the gross budget gross budget.

We are determined to continue bringing this figure down and to break even this year and my thanks go to all of the staff here at the Council who are working so hard to do this. I know that these are very difficult circumstances that colleagues are working under, which is why our work on a medium term financial strategy and our Labour government's commitment to multi year funding settlements is so important. We need to end the hand to mouth approach to local government services.

Of course, much of our city's wider economic outlook is driven by the millions of visitors who come to Brighton home each year.

Which is why I'm particularly pleased to see our Sussex Visitor Economy Strategy for Growth, 2024 to 2034 included in today's agenda. The visitor economy plays a pivotal role in the vibrancy and economic vitality of our city and Sussex. It grows our local economies, generates and sustains jobs and provides meaningful regenerative experiences.

It puts Brighton and Hove and Sussex firmly on the map and has people coming back to this area time and again spending their money with our local businesses each time they do.

The report that we will discuss today outlines how working together with colleagues across Sussex, we can further build on this success. It underscores our region's commitment to the devolution agenda and highlights not only the strength of our existing public private sector collaboration, but the importance and the potential of a unified one regional voice approach. The Visitor Economy will be pivotal to the success of the incoming Sussex Mayoral Strategic Authority.

Driving forward, our economic ambitions and growing our already fantastic reputation.

Today, we'll also discuss the Council's response to the Procurement Act 2023 coming into force. This will shape how public bodies, including this council, buy goods and services. It's the biggest change to procurement legislation in recent years and it's intended to improve and streamline the way procurement is done and benefit prospective suppliers of all sizes, but particularly small businesses, startups and social enterprises. It's a welcome change and one that this Council will embrace. By adapting a 12 month detailed forward plan, identifying contracts worth more than £1,000,000, which are set for renewal, replacement or new requirement, our approach will also make sure that councillors have more oversight of how taxpayers money is being spent. It will also enable more proactive and strategic decision making and provide greater transparency and insight as projects progress. A big change, perhaps, but one in line with this Council's commitment to openness, transparency and delivering value for money while creating a better Brighton and Hove for all.