Meeting documents

1.1 The Multi Area Agreement (hence forth referred to in this report as the MAA) is a voluntary agreement, being developed by the West of England Partnership. It is an agreement between the four authorities in the Partnership (Bath & North East Somerset Council, North Somerset Council, Bristol City Council, and South Gloucestershire Council) about how to tackle issues that are best addressed in partnership at both a sub regional and regional level. It also involves agreement with Government on freedoms and flexibilities to be provided in order to help enable delivery.

1.2 The key issues contained within the MAA are principally; managing homes and job growth, reducing congestion and improving skills and competitiveness of the sub region.

1.3 In order to be effective, the MAA needs to be endorsed and supported by each of the four unitary authorities in the West of England. The purpose of this report is to present the MAA to Cabinet for approval. Detailed negotiations with central government are ongoing and therefore the recommendation to Cabinet is that any approval should be granted with delegated authority to the Chief Executive in consultation with the Leader, in light of changes that may arise from said negotiations.

2 RECOMMENDATION

2.1 The West of England Multi Area Agreement is approved subject to any final adjustments following final negotiation with central government

2.2 The Chief Executive is authorised to finalise the document in consultation with the Leader in light of final negotiations with central government

3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 Effective sub-regional working will be critical in ensuring access to government funding streams, and is in competition with other sub-regions. The MAA provides a basis for the 4 Unitary Authorities to work together with other public bodies, and thereby align use of public money.

3.2 The MAA also offers the opportunity to negotiate funding commitment and investment from central government for the sub region as a whole to achieve the targeted outcome set out in the MAA. This helps in the achievement of the Council's corporate plan.

4 CORPORATE PRIORITIES

The MAA will help the Council achieve its Corporate Plan priorities particularly where the achievement of those priorities require the co-operation of our sub regional partners. The MAA has a number of outcomes and it will specifically help the Council deliver on the following corporate priorities.

5 THE REPORT

5.1 The aims of the West of England MAA cover the main strategic issues affecting the sub-region, namely to:

5.2 Each section of the MAA outlines a number of specific issues which includes the following:

5.3 Central to the MAA are the asks of central government and these are summarised at the beginning of the Agreement under each of the headings set out in paragraph 5.1 above.

5.4 MAA's provide a framework for negotiating priority outcomes and actions at a sub regional level where additional support is required from government and/or its agencies. The benefits of negotiating an MAA are as follows:

5.5 In relation to planning for growth in jobs and homes, the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) is yet to be finalised but the MAA focuses on the principles of achieving sustainable communities and securing delivery of much needed development. As currently drafted, the MAA makes it clear that the West of England authorities have major reservations about the ability of the West of England to accommodate the scale of change and the implied delivery rates proposed by the Secretary of State, without further consideration of the possible effects on sustainability, the environment and quality of life. The delivery rates themselves will need to be changed, at least in the early years, to take account of the impact of the Economic Recession. Together with the West of England Partnership, the authorities have set out their concerns in their formal response to the Secretary of State and may exercise their legal rights in response to the Government's decision on RSS.

5.6 The MAA is not a sub regional version of the Local Area Agreement (LAA). However there are strong links between the two agreements. The Bath & North East Somerset Local Area Agreement sets out over three years a number of indicators and targets that show how well Bath & North East Somerset is delivering on the priorities for the local area. MAA's may in some cases be a mechanism for the delivery of some designated LAA targets.

5.7 For MAA's to be successful there needs to be an understanding across partners of how the priorities for the sub-region relate to regional and local priorities. The relationship between LAAs and MAAs should be seen as complementary rather than hierarchical.

5.8 More broadly MAA outcomes may also be drawn from the National Indicator Set. For those MAA outcomes that are drawn from the National Set, areas need to decide whether to treat these as local targets i.e. voluntary and therefore outside the Local Performance Framework, or whether they are part of the set of 35 designated targets reporting to central Government under this performance framework.

5.9 In future years the Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) will also take account of sub-regional outcomes delivered through MAA sub-regional partnerships. CAA will also consider whether the opportunities to deliver better economic development outcomes are being realised.

5.10 In order to proceed with the MAA, the West of England Partnership has had to demonstrate that it has appropriate governance structures in place. Chapter 10 of the MAA (attached at Appendix 2) sets out in detail the governance arrangements for delivery of the MAA.

5.11 It will be responsibility of the West of England Partnership Board to deliver and monitor performance of the MAA. The West of England Partnership Joint Scrutiny Board will be responsible for scrutinising all aspects of the MAA.

6 RISK MANAGEMENT

6.1 Risk assessments will be prepared by the West of England Partnership as part of the implementation of the agreed actions in the MAA.

7 EQUALITIES

7.1 Bath & North East Somerset Council have conducted an equalities impact assessment into the selection of priority indicators for the B&NES Local Area Agreement.

7.2 The West of England Partnership have stated that one of the longer term aims of the initiative is to increase access to opportunity and prosperity including in disadvantaged areas, helping to address inequalities. Further detailed Equalities Impact Assessment work will be undertaken by the West of England Partnership as the initiative progresses

7.3 The MAA needs to be fully endorsed and supported by each of the 4 unitary authorities across the West of England if it is it to be successful in meeting its stated outcomes.

8 OTHER OPTIONS CONSIDERED

8.1 None.

9 CONSULTATION

9.1 Cabinet members; B&NES Services; Other Public Sector Bodies; Section 151 Finance Officer; Chief Executive; Monitoring Officer

9.2 Consultation has mainly been conducted through the West of England Partnership and its various officer and elected member sub groups. The Council Leader and Chief Executive are members of the West of England Partnership Board. An officer working group also input into the content cross the themes.

10 ISSUES TO CONSIDER IN REACHING THE DECISION

10.1 Social Inclusion; Customer Focus; Sustainability; Human Resources; Property; Human Rights; Corporate; Other Legal Considerations

11 ADVICE SOUGHT

11.1 The Council's Monitoring Officer (Council Solicitor) and Section 151 Officer (Strategic Director - Support Services) have had the opportunity to input to this report and have cleared it for publication.