FOI request (FOIR-391574220)

Recommendations of the Overview and Scrutiny Review of Regeneration Funding 13/06/2019

Requested Mon 10 January 2022
Responded  Thu 20 January 2022

The Overview and Scrutiny Review of Regeneration Funding report https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https://hastings.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s33278/Scrutiny Review of Regeneration.pdf&c=E,1,jDIu65qCxRGQX7cqkAYe5D_LOMd8RJKP8QaRuR8TGnZZ9dXi4QWHPfrmEvy41TC4q8gaWmIJ5ljRupIIj9r8k8kEnEF8Os8ozGkkBCxL&typo=0 makes four recommendations:

Recommendation 1

16. That cabinet agree that a key driver for all that the council does going forward is meeting the needs of the town's most deprived residents, narrowing the gap between the life chances of those residents in our more deprived and more affluent wards.

Recommendation 2

25. That the council's regeneration area of the website be updated to celebrate successes, clearly setting out what has been achieved and include aspirations and plans for the future.

Recommendation 3

39. That the council consider reinstating a renewed area focus and potentially 'area champions' so that named senior officers (perhaps with cabinet member champions) within the council have lead responsibility for issues in a particular geographical patch.

Recommendation 4

That a Regeneration cabinet committee is established to ensure delivery of a timetabled and prioritised programme of council regeneration activity that:

a. includes resource implications and governance arrangements,

b. identifies benefits to residents and or evidence of need - reflecting the timetable and priority order.

I request under FOI any documents held (in any format including letters and emails and so on) that show what progress has been made on these recommendations.

In particular:

1. Links to the updated HBC website pages that have implemented recommendation 2.

2. Details of the senior officers and cabinet members who have been allocated as 'area champions' as recommended by recommendation 3.

3. Minutes of any meetings held by these 'area champions'.

4. Details of the members of the Regeneration Cabinet Committee as recommended in recommendation 4.

5. Copies of the timetabled and prioritised programme of regeneration activity as described in recommendation 4.

Response

As part of the Overview and Scrutiny work programme they agreed to look at Regeneration and sent the report referenced in your request to Cabinet.

A management response to this was sent to Cabinet for them to make a decision on.

A management response to the Overview and Scrutiny report was reviewed by cabinet on the 2nd September 2019. I have attached the original report and minutes from the meeting.

The management response made the following recommendations:

Recommendation(s)

1. Cabinet thanks the review team for their report.

2. Recommendation 1 is agreed, but that it is noted that actions that grow the wider Hastings economy will be critical to creating new opportunity for economic inclusion.

3. Recommendation 2 is agreed.

4. Recommendation 3 regrettably cannot be currently supported because there are no council or partnership resources to support area structures since the ending of neighbourhood renewal funding.

5. Recommendation 4 is agreed. A 'project board' drawn from Cabinet members will have oversight of the programme to be adopted in the forthcoming budget.

6. Overview and Scrutiny members are invited to comment upon the Hastings and Rother Task Force review of regeneration work and structures when this work is presented.

Cabinet agreed to the following (in minutes):

1. Cabinet thanks the review team for their report.

2. Recommendation 1 is agreed, but that it is noted that actions that grow the wider Hastings economy will be critical to creating new opportunity for economic inclusion.

3. Recommendation 2 is agreed.

4. To accommodate recommendation 3 the Council will investigate how a greater focus could be given to representing local neighbourhoods through officer area champions.

5. Recommendation 4 is agreed. A 'project board' drawn from Cabinet members will have oversight of the programme to be adopted in the forthcoming budget.

6. Overview and Scrutiny members are invited to comment upon the Hastings and Rother Task Force review. Since the meeting the scrutiny work programme has included to review how these were implemented.

They have not been able to do this in full due to prioritising other matters. A large part of there focus had been monitoring activities around COVID-19 and the associated recovery.

The COVID-19 recovery plan has been the Councils focus. In particular they have helped monitor councils activities focusing on health and education for our most deprived communities. It is on this years work programme and they are hoping to review.

In terms of regeneration work that Overview and Scrutiny currently monitoring, they are waiting for the news about what the levelling up fund will mean for us.

They are also monitoring the Town Deal's Progress as part of their work programme. Information about the Town Deal can be found here:

https://www.hastings.gov.uk/regeneration/towndeal/

Given this background the answer to your request is as follows:

1. The Town Deal web page is the best current focus of regeneration activities.

2. Area champions were not publicly created as Senior Officers focussed on COVID-19 related activities.

3. No specific meetings were held formally between area champions so no minutes are available.

4. A Regeneration Cabinet Committee has not been created but regeneration reports are still discussed at main Cabinet meetings when needed.

5. The Town Deal web page contains main regeneration activities.

Attachments

• FOIR-391574220_FOIR-391574220_1-FOI_Management_Response_OnS_-_13082019.pdf
• FOIR-391574220_FOIR-391574220_2-FOI_Printed_minutes_02092019_1800_Cabinet.pdf