It was encouraging while there that Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner promised a relationship 'reset' with councils and pledging a series of measures to boost councillor safety. She also launched the new Leaders Council to give councils a greater voice at the heart of government, and to support a new relationship based on honesty and respect between central and local government, helping drive economic growth and improve lives.
Another hot topic was the devolution of powers down to local level. And I have come away with the absolute certainty that this is going to happen this time. As such, it is probably one of the most important and exciting reforms that this new Labour Government is carrying out.
When you look at many of the bigger public services that require a much wider strategic outlook: transport, the health service, housing allocations, the Police, economic development – all of them are either run by central government or on footprints which are Sussex wide. A population the size of Sussex also gives the sort of resources to address some of the bigger issues.
Crawley Borough Council has joined with all the other Borough and District Councils in West Sussex in supporting the Expression of Interest sent in by Brighton and Hove City Council which suggests a strategic combined authority that covers the whole of Sussex.
We could not support West Sussex County Council’s own proposal for an interim or permanent “West Sussex only” boundary to any devolved arrangement. None of it seemed to be about what actually might be best for our residents, but instead just an attempt to protect the institution of the county councils themselves.
It didn’t make sense to me, particularly given that single county council devolution arrangements are unlikely to be agreed anyway, the Government having just cancelled the ones in Suffolk and Norfolk on the very basis they weren’t strategic enough.
Things are moving again – in the right direction!