The Leader will present his statement.
Minutes:
The Leader of the Council presented a verbal statement updating the Assembly on a range of matters since the last meeting as follows:
Reflection on the outcome of the General Election- Congratulated both Margaret Hodge and Jon Cruddas on their re-election as constituency MP’s for Barking and Dagenham and Rainham respectively.
Fair Funding Formula- what it could mean for us – Criticism of the Government’s plans to rebalance regional funding through its review of local government finances in what is known as the Fair Funding Review. An analysis by the LGA has shown that £320m a year could be diverted from some of the most deprived areas including Barking and Dagenham to Tory-controlled shire councils mainly in the South-East in 2021/22, which flies in the face of the Prime Minister’s post election promise to level up poor areas. Reference was made to recent research about the amount of funding which would be lost to the regions as a consequence of leaving the EU and the significant financial gap this would leave for this Council to make up.
Despite this, the Council was doing everything the public sector considered best practice as reflected in the many awards in recent years, including Council of the Year.
Budget 2020/21 - Update on the public consultation exercise led by the Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance & Core Services.
Work of backbench Members – Paid compliment to the work of backbench Members over the past year including the Chair of Overview & Scrutiny, the two appointed Member Champions for Quality in Care and Mental Health, as well as the members on the Policy Task Group.
Redevelopment of the Gascoigne Estate and Affordable Housing start-ups – Update on (i) the next phase of housing development at the western end of the estate where it is planned to build over the next two years more than 200 homes including 60% affordable rented properties, and (ii) confirmation from the GLA that working with the Council and Be First they were committed to providing grant funding to deliver a significant number of affordable homes in the Borough under the Mayor’s ‘Building Council Homes for Londoners’ Programme.
Local Plan – The launch this month of a public consultation exercise for the Council’s new Local Plan, the biggest and most ambitious ever Local Plan which will set out the future of planning in the Borough and will include targets for the number of homes and jobs to be delivered over the next 15 years.
Serious Crime Summit – The fourth and final Serious Violence Summit led by the Cabinet Member for Enforcement and Community Safety was being held at London East on 12 February 2020. Keynote speakers include the Deputy Mayor of London for Crime and Policing and the BCU Police Commander.
City of London Public Consultation – Three public consultation events taking place in the borough between 29 January and 1 February in connection with the proposals to re-locate the three iconic markets of Billingsgate, New Spitalfields and Smithfield to Dagenham Dock.
Domestic Abuse Commission – The Commission, the first if its kind in this Country, being launched on 4 February at City Hall. The Commission will bring together a Panel of national and local experts to look at the attitudes to domestic violence in the borough which has one of the highest recorded incidents of domestic abuse in the Country.