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Memorandum from North Yorkshire County Council (BOP 30)
1.
1.1 North Yorkshire County Council is pleased to provide evidence to the Select Committee Inquiry into The Balance of Power - Central and Local Government.
1.2 The Authority
serves
2. Summary
2.1 North Yorkshire County Council recognises that different functions and decisions are properly exercised at different levels of Government, and it is the debate around the proper role of each level which is the core of this inquiry: balancing the need for local services to be adapted to suit local circumstances with the Government's desire to implement national initiatives.
2.2 However we believe that increased freedom and flexibility for local government is needed to enable it to make full use of the well-being powers to promote the social, economic and environmental well-being of communities. Examples are given below where North Yorkshire County Council has used existing powers to deliver changes that local people want to see, alongside examples of where the current legislation has had limitations or indeed acted as a barrier to allowing us to fulfil this aim and ultimately our 'place-shaping' role as prescribed in recent legislation.
3 Example of where
3.1 NYNet - Broadband Provision in
The provision of broadband is seen as key to ensuring
successful economic activity and increased access to services throughout
The County Council has created a company which has secured external funding in order to create the broadband network which has then been offered to public sector organisations and to ISPs and Application Service Providers who would, otherwise, be unable to commit to funding infrastructure.
The following legislation has been used in order to progress this innovative project and to ensure that the company can trade: · s95 Local Government Act 2003 - well being function is deemed an "ordinary function" · Local Government Act 2000 - ability to carry out an activity which is considered likely to improve economic well being of the area. · Local Government Power to Trade Order - authorises the authority to do these things for a commercial purpose where the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) category is fair or better.
4 Example of where the well-being powers are not as useful as first-thought and where the consent of the Secretary of State was still required.
4.1 Affordable housing
The
lack of affordable housing is a very significant issue in
North
Yorkshire County Council is using revenue income from reductions in the council
tax rebate on second homes to cover the cost of borrowing capital funds to
support district council-led affordable housing schemes. This approach has enabled access to Housing
Corporation funding that would have otherwise not been attracted to
The proposal was formulated on the basis that the County Council would be able to use the general well-being powers in s2 Local Government Act 2000 in conjunction with the borrowing powers in s1 Local Government Act 2003. Due to a restriction in 2000 Act powers on raising money and the link in the 2003 Act to the 'functions' of the authority (county councils are not housing authorities), it was felt to be unsafe to rely on these powers. Instead the County Council had to seek the consent of the Secretary of State under s28 Housing Act 1985.
5 Examples of where a change is needed such as removing barriers or a piece of
regulation from the centre to allow
5.1 Supplementary Business Rates
The principle behind the notion of an ability to raise a business rate supplement to support economic development is supported. Clearly there needs to be a clear benefit to the business community and the consultation process with business is therefore regarded as entirely appropriate. However, a number of authorities, including North Yorkshire County Council, have recognised that the guidelines are unworkable in their current state (see Public Finance 15 August 2008 and comments from Alan Gay, Leeds City Council Director of Resources).
In
essence, any proposal funded by a business rate supplement is likely to relate
to only one local part of any upper tier authority, but the application of the
supplement will have to be across all businesses (over the requisite
thresholds) within the upper tier authority.
Businesses in Harrogate are unlikely to want to pay a business rate
supplement for a project over 60 miles way in
5.2 Procurement
If a council wishes to set up a shared service with one or more other councils, current legislation drives them towards either a Joint Committee approach (which can be rather inflexible and/or bureaucratic) or a limited company approach (which brings with it TUPE and other implications). The alternative is for the other councils to simply buy services from the lead council. However, this gives them no say in the future development of that service - they are just clients of the lead council, receiving services under a contract. And the contract itself is subject to Public Procurement rules. Given the current threshold for EU services contracts is £139,893, buying the services of more than one middle manager for three years or more from another council is caught by these rules. So one council can undertake thorough market research which shows that buying from another (possibly neighbouring) council will not only save it money but be better value than anything the private sector can offer, but it still has to go through a full EU tender process before it can award a contract to that council.
September 2008
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