Agenda item

The Select Committee gave consideration to a report which provided them with the updated programme and financial implications.

Members noted that the ‘Creating a Better Place’ strategic framework was approved by Cabinet in January 2020. before the Covid-19 pandemic arrived in the UK. 

Creating a Better Place focussed on building more homes for residents, creating new jobs through town centre regeneration, and ensuring Oldham was a great place to visit with lots of family friendly and accessible places to go. 

In light of the pandemic, the Council had to respond with the provision of significant funding support to ensure the safety and welfare of Oldham’s local communities. 

This resulted in a serious funding impact on the Council’s financial plans, and therefore endorsement had been sought from the Select Committee on the review principles to consider whether:

•              the programme was able to respond to support the post-CV19 recovery plans,

•              the use of public capital funds was still justified, and

•              the original savings proposals were at risk or could be accelerated / enhanced in any way to reduce the demands and pressures being considered on service baseline budget allocations.

The report provided an overview of the programme, the review findings, together with an update for the town centre vision and new priorities following feedback from the local community, members and town centre businesses about the importance of green open space and was in alignment with Council ambitions and Covid recovery plans. 

Following previous discussions at Scrutiny Committee, a set of principles were applied to the programme to check:

•              contribution towards performance targets for homes, jobs and apprenticeships

•              business case development – risks, issues, opportunities, value for money

The results and findings of applying these principles to the Creating a Better Place programme were outlined in the report for Members to note. 

Members were informed that Oldham Council was ambitious and bold and this remained unchanged following the review to support economic recovery across the borough and reinforced the importance of green open space in alignment with Council priorities to remain the Greenest Borough.  Focus areas continued to include: creating 2,400 (previously 2,000) new homes for our residents with a range of different budgets and needs; the importance of creating 1,000 new jobs through regeneration was now associated with economic recovery, especially in light of the impact on redundancies caused by the pandemic; and, supporting and creating skilled pathways for 100+ new apprenticeships to help ensure residents of any age could learn new skills to help them secure the employment opportunities available across the economy. More than ever the Council needed to ensure Oldham was a great place to visit with safety prioritised and with lots of family friendly and accessible places to go. 

The review provided an opportunity to think again about the Council’s property portfolio as a catalyst for building new homes, creating job opportunities, re-skilling residents through new apprenticeship opportunities, and re-engaging communities and partners through property / estate co-location and collaboration. This strategic work also supported the Council’s ambitions for inclusive growth, thriving communities and co-operative services, and a further paper would be brought back to Cabinet for consideration when more work has developed, to explore the possibilities of accelerating placed-based working across the five districts. 

In the report considered by Cabinet in January 2020, the programme included £306m of priority schemes to deliver Creating a Better Place programme: in turn this generated c£10.5m revenue savings. Following the review, the new capital allocation required to deliver the priority schemes for economic recovery had reduced by c£100m, but continued to generate revenue savings of c£8.5m. 

The review findings confirmed that, with a reduction of the capital programme and a reduction in the amount needed from prudential borrowing, the Council could still deliver the ambition while providing much needed savings to support the post-Covid financial stability of the Council and future service delivery. The review and findings took into account external funding streams, which would continue to be targeted to support and enable project delivery, (ie Towns Fund, High Street Fund, Growth Deal, Decarbonisation Fund etc). 

Members sought and received clarification on the following:

·         Progress in relation to new health centres – a business case was being prepared in partnership with the CCG. Trials were ongoing of different ways or working and the findings from these would help to develop the business case, which should be finalised before Christmas.

RESOLVED that:

1.    ‘Creating a Better Place’ as a revised comprehensive vision and strategic framework for the borough to deliver the ambition for regeneration, homes, jobs and skills-pathways be endorsed.

2.    The proposed amendments to the Council’s capital programme to accelerate economic recovery be noted.

3.    The acceleration of the potential for contributing revenue savings to the Council’s financial plans be noted.