Leaders’ Committee 15 July 2014: 11:30 am At London Councils offices, 59½ Southwark St., London SE1 0AL Refreshments will be provided London Councils offices are wheelchair accessible Labour Group: Room 1 10:00 (Political Adviser: 07977 401955) Conservative Group: Room 3 10:00 (Political Adviser: 07976 712611) Contact Officer: Derek Gadd Telephone and email: 020 7934 9505 [email protected] Lunch will be provided in Room 3 for members after the meeting At the end of the meeting there will be a brief AGM of London Councils Ltd Agenda item Page 1 Declarations of Interest* 2 Minutes of the Leaders’ Committee held on 11 March 2014 1 3 Welcome to new members – Chair 4 London Infrastructure Investment Plan 2050 – Isabel Dedring & Jeremy Skinner 9 GLA attending 5 Governance of Fiscal Devolution -Tony Travers attending 17 6 Growth Deal, Devolution and Public Service Reform 35 7 Proposed Changes to the Governance of the Fire Service 49 8 Pensions Working Group: 67 Progress report and proposed next steps towards a London LGPS CIV 9 Minutes and summaries:- 85 • Capital Ambition – 6 March 2014 • TEC – 13 March 2014 • Audit Committee – 20 March 2014 • Grants – 26 March 2014 • GLPC – 31 March 2014 *Declarations of Interests If you are present at a meeting of London Councils’ or any of its associated joint committees or their sub-committees and you have a disclosable pecuniary interest* relating to any business that is or will be considered at the meeting you must not: • participate in any discussion of the business at the meeting, or if you become aware of your disclosable pecuniary interest during the meeting, participate further in any discussion of the business, or • participate in any vote taken on the matter at the meeting. These prohibitions apply to any form of participation, including speaking as a member of the public. It is a matter for each member to decide whether they should leave the room while an item that they have an interest in is being discussed. In arriving at a decision as to whether to leave the room they may wish to have regard to their home authority’s code of conduct and/or the Seven (Nolan) Principles of Public Life. *as defined by the Relevant Authorities (Disclosable Pecuniary Interests) Regulations 2012 London Councils Minutes of the London Councils Leaders’ Committee held on 11 March 2014 Mayor Jules Pipe chaired the meeting Present: BARKING AND DAGENHAM Cllr Rocky Gill BARNET Cllr Richard Cornelius BEXLEY Cllr Teresa O’Neill BRENT Cllr Muhammed Butt BROMLEY Cllr Stephen Carr CAMDEN Cllr Sarah Hayward CROYDON - EALING Cllr Ranjit Dheer ENFIELD Cllr Doug Taylor GREENWICH Cllr Chris Roberts HACKNEY Mayor Jules Pipe HAMMERSMITH & FULHAM Cllr Nicholas Botterill HARINGEY Cllr Claire Kober HARROW Cllr Susan Hall HAVERING Cllr Steven Kelly HILLINGDON Cllr Philip Corthorne HOUNSLOW - ISLINGTON Cllr Richard Watts KENSINGTON & CHELSEA Cllr Rock Fielding-Mellen KINGSTON Cllr Liz Green LAMBETH Cllr Lib Peck LEWISHAM Mayor Sir Steve Bullock MERTON Cllr Stephen Alambritis NEWHAM Cllr Lester Hudson REDBRIDGE Cllr Keith Prince RICHMOND UPON THAMES Cllr Lord True SOUTHWARK Cllr Peter John SUTTON Cllr Ruth Dombey TOWER HAMLETS Mayor Lutfur Rahman WALTHAM FOREST Cllr Clyde Loakes WANDSWORTH Cllr Ravi Govindia WESTMINSTER Cllr Melvyn Caplan CITY OF LONDON Ms Catherine McGuinness LFEPA - Ex officio (under the provisions of Standing Order 2.3) GRANTS Cllr Paul McGlone Apologies: BARKING AND DAGENHAM Cllr Liam Smith CROYDON Cllr Mike Fisher EALING Cllr Julian Bell KENSINGTON & CHELSEA Cllr Nicholas Paget-Brown HILLINGDON Cllr Ray Puddifoot MBE NEWHAM Mayor Sir Robin Wales WALTHAM FOREST Cllr Chris Robbins WESTMINSTER Cllr Philippa Roe CITY OF LONDON Mr Mark Boleat CC CAPITAL AMBITION Mr Edward Lord JP OBE CC EQUALITIES Cllr Marie Pye London Councils officers were in attendance. The Chair opened the meeting by pointing out that it was to be the last meeting of Leaders’ Committee before the borough elections in May and for some it would be their final meeting as a member of Leaders’ Committee. Two members had indicated that they did not intend to stand again, Cllr Chris Roberts, a member of London Councils’ Executive would not stand again as leader of the Royal Borough of Greenwich and Cllr Catherine West, the current Chair of the Transport and Environment Committee, would stand down in that capacity at its next meeting. He thanked them for their work for London Councils over many years and also took the opportunity to thank all those who had served on the Leaders’ Committee during the four year cycle from 2010. The Chair also thanked the officers of London Councils for their work over the previous four years. 1. Declarations of interest No interests were declared. 2. Minutes of Leaders’ Committee held on the 11 February 2014 Leaders’ Committee agreed the minutes of Leaders’ Committee held on the 11 February 2014. 3. Financial and Wider Devolution: Growth Deal The Chief Executive introduced the report saying: • The most immediate opportunity to secure devolution in the economic sphere continued to be the proposed Growth Deal, working with the Mayor of London through the London Enterprise panel (LEP) • Following the LEP’s initial submission, the proposals had been refined and a business case prepared following intensive work with leading members, chief executives, groups of boroughs and the GLA • London Councils advocated public service reform alongside its Growth Deal bid • The proposals for devolved powers, refined to take account of members’ comments and feedback from ministers were set out in the draft chapter entitled ‘New Levers and Influence’ which was attached as an appendix to the report. It covered: o Skills o Welfare to Work including employment programmes o Housing Investment and Supply • The proposals would be considered by the LEP on 13 March 2014 • In support of the submission, Leaders’ Committee on 11 February 2014, agreed in- principle to developing the readiness of borough groupings, subject to government offering tangible devolution through the Growth Deal negotiations. The Executive on 25 February 2014 went on to consider a more detailed set of principles to underpin this commitment, which it recommended be put to Leaders’ Committee These were also attached as an appendix to the report for consideration. Cllr Teresa O’Neill (Conservative, Bexley) emphasized the importance of comments made outside of the Leaders’ Committee meeting about the working of the LEP in relation to the Growth Deal and the LEP meeting on 13 March. Cllr Richard Watts (Labour, Islington) argued for the need to make a more specific case but Cllr Melvyn Caplan (Conservative, Westminster) stressed the need to present a more positive picture mentioning success stories from London. Cllr Rocky Gill (Labour, Barking and Dagenham) reiterated a point he had made at previous meetings about the importance of freeing up the Mayor’s land-holdings. Leaders’ Committee agreed: • That the comments made by leaders on the draft submission appended to the report be conveyed to the LEP to influence their draft. • The principles on strengthening borough groupings also attached as an appendix to the report. 4. Transforming Rehabilitation Update Cllr Claire Kober (Labour, Crime and Public Protection, Haringey) introduced the report saying that: • London Councils had been working with MOPAC to influence the implementation of the reforms of the probation service and the report provided an update • The Transforming Rehabilitation reforms would mean that from the 1 June 2014 two organisations would deliver probation services. Existing Probation Trusts would be reorganised into a national public sector Probation Service and 21 new government- run companies, Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC)s • Thirty per cent of high risk offenders would remain under the national Probation Service but 21 CRCs would be responsible for the supervision and the provision of services for the remaining 70% of low to medium-risk offenders across England and Wales • In October 2013 London Councils had launched “Reducing Reoffending in London: Why investing in local solutions will deliver” • The report welcomed the proposed extension of rehabilitation services to offenders on short term sentences and the government’s commitment to designate new local resettlement prisons • However it made clear London Councils’ real concerns about the national commissioning model that the Ministry of Justice had adopted, including the splitting of the probation service in two • It was clear, though, that the Government was pressing ahead with the reforms, despite London Councils’ concerns and the focus had adjusted to involve engaging with the Ministry of Justice to mitigate the effect of the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms so that they did not negatively impact on local area’s work to reduce crime and reduce reoffending • There were three bidders for the London CRC contract • The London Crime Reduction Board (LCRB) had established a London Reoffending Board taking a strategic overview of the emerging issues • London Councils and MOPAC have been seeking to progress three key areas with the Ministry of Justice: o That MOPAC and London Councils would work with the Ministry of Justice to shape and coordinate market engagement for London. o Seeking an advisory role for London partners in the evaluation process for a new provider for London. o Seeking a commitment to developing a shared London governance and oversight structure to take effect after the new contract was awarded. The Chair commented that he had been working with Mr Stephen Greenhalgh, Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime on this issue and they shared a commitment to localism in the way this evolved. He was concerned about the effect of the proposals on gang members, local knowledge about whom would not be taken into account if they were apprehended for a minor crime as they would still be treated as a low to medium risk offender despite the risk of violence.