Memorandum by North Yorkshire County Council
(BOP 30)
1. NORTH YORKSHIRE
COUNTY COUNCIL
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 England's largest
county geographically. It is responsible for delivering strategic
local government functions and services to the county's residents
including education, social care, highways, passenger transport,
strategic planning, waste management, trading standards, and libraries.
The total cost of services provided by the County Council amounts
to £875.5 million in 2008-09. All these services help
to promote the social, economic and environmental well-being of
our communities and are delivered by the County Council directly
or through partnership working with a range of public, private
and voluntary sector partners.
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 NORTH
YORKSHIRE COUNTY
COUNCIL IS
USING EXISTING
POWERS, SUCH
AS THE
POWER OF
WELL-BEING,
TO DELIVER
CHANGES THAT
LOCAL PEOPLE
WANT TO
SEE
3.1 NYNet—Broadband Provision in North
Yorkshire
The provision of broadband is seen as key to
ensuring successful economic activity and increased access to
services throughout North Yorkshire. The County is highly rural
and, as a result, does not attract the same priority for ADSL
or high bandwidth given the commercial imperatives of broadband
companies.
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. It is one of the 10 priorities
in our Sustainable Community Strategy and a key target in our
Local Area Agreement.
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 North Yorkshire. It also had the advantage
of enabling a much quicker response to the issue than might otherwise
have happened. NYCC's capital fund is for £4 million
and the Housing Corporation have match funded this with an additional
£4 million. This is being used to deliver 156 homes
on 22 sites across the county.
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 NORTH
YORKSHIRE COUNTY
COUNCIL GREATER
FREEDOM IN
DELIVERING ITS
AMBITIONS AND
VISION
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 Scarborough, and vice-versa. In order for business rate
supplements to work, local authorities will need to be able to
define discrete local areas which are deemed to benefit and then
consult with business in that locality.
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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