Agenda item

The Leader of the Council provided an update on a meeting of all Leaders in the 3SC Devolution proposal, held on 8 April 2016. Concerns had been expressed as:

(i)            The Government proposals had yet to be published and the contribution of individual Councils was not known;

(ii)           The proposals tabled were Sussex centric, with most infrastructure proposals in Sussex, rather than in Surrey;

(iii)          The Government had been unable to indicate what infrastructure funding would be transferred to Shire Counties;

It had been made clear, at the 3SC meeting, that Councils would want infrastructure in place before delivering housing.

Members considered options around ‘double devolution’ and suggested that devolution round the EM3 LEP and a Northern/Southern configuration could prove more productive for this Borough.

            Resolved, that

(i)            The contents of the report be noted; and

(ii)          The Chief Executive be authorised, in consultation with the Leader of the Council, to feed comments back to the 3SC devolution bid team.