Agenda item

As a consequence of the decision taken in the light of the coronavirus situation to cancel the meeting of Council scheduled for 25 March, and the subsequent addition of the report on the Implementation of the South Yorkshire Devolution Deal to the Cabinet agenda, the Chair advised that he had agreed that the report “Implementing the South Yorkshire Devolution Deal” should be considered by the Board as an urgent item of business.

The Leader advised that it had been planned that the report would be considered at full Council so that all members could be included in the discussion on the proposed South Yorkshire Devolution Deal, however due to the meeting of Council scheduled for 25 March being cancelled the report would instead be considered by Cabinet on 23 March. The Leader advised that as the proposed Devolution Agreement and the next steps required to move the process forward had already be endorsed by the other South Yorkshire Councils it was important that Rotherham did so as well in order to prevent further delays to the processes of implementing the agreement.

It was noted in the report of the Chief Executive that the proposed devolution deal had been agreed with Government in 2015 and had been endorsed at the meeting of Council held on 2 March 2016 (Minute No.150 2015/16).  The economic deal that had been endorsed would involve the establishment of a directly elected mayor to chair the Mayoral Combined Authority who, working alongside local authority leaders would exercise powers and functions devolved from central government, enabling decisions on how £30 million a year of funding was spent to be decided locally.

The powers required to implement the deal had been set out in a governance review and scheme, and this had been subject to a public consultation that had concluded on 15 March 2020.  It was noted that subject to the consultation results and the decision of the Mayoral Combined Authority, that the proposed scheme would be submitted to the Secretary of State for approval in anticipation that a powers order to would be produced by the end of May 2020.

The Leader emphasised that even though the devolution deal had been agreed over four years ago the areas included in the deal were still very relevant. It was noted that the proposed deal was one of the largest individual settlements for any combined authority area and covered a range of themes, including skills and employment; housing, planning and public assets, innovation, advanced manufacturing and business growth, and transport. The Leader advised that the proposed deal would, when implemented show very clearly that South Yorkshire was open for business, and that due to the UK leaving the EU this was even more important than it had been when the devolution deal had originally been proposed. The Leader advised that the responses to the consultation had been overwhelmingly positive with all questions in the consultation receiving as a minimum two thirds positive approval.

The Leader noted that the decision being sought from Cabinet was for authority to be delegated to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader of the Council and the Monitoring Officer, to take forward and conclude the legal steps necessary to implement the devolution agreement.

Members noted that with regard to the powers included in the proposed devolution deal regarding public transport that the establishment publicly owned bus company would be desirable. The Leader advised that this could be difficult due to existing laws regarding the operation of public transport, but noted that the devolved powers that would be granted regarding public transport would enable the Mayoral Combined Authority to define public transport franchises and consequently influence how public transport operated. 

Members welcomed the report and noted that while ideally it would have been better being discussed at Council, that due to the current situation with coronavirus it was important that the steps taken to move the proposed deal closer to implementation were taken.

The Chair asked whether the current situation regarding the coronavirus pandemic would impact on the timescales for the implementation of the devolution deal. The Leader advised that there could be delays in receiving the final approval from the Secretary of State, but noted that by ensuring that Cabinet was able to delegate authority to the Chief Executive to take forward and conclude the legal steps necessary to implement the devolution agreement, the Council would have done as much as it could to prevent further delays to the implementation of the devolution deal.

Resolved: -

That Cabinet be advised that the recommendations be supported.