Our thanks to Leader of Isle of Wight council, Phil Jordan, for sharing with readers his reflection of the past year and hopes for 2025. Ed
In a scale of tough years — and there have been some for our council since 2010 — the past year of 2024 ranks quite high in terms of difficulty.
We have had flooding to an extreme, landslides that have affected our community so badly and the continuing pressures of not having enough money to deliver even our statutory services with an ever-growing demand for social care provision, both adult and children’s. The demand for care services is growing. It might be an Island issue only, except it is not!
80% of total IW council budget spent on social care
Councils across the country are finding social care costs accelerating and demand growing. Almost 80 per cent of the total IW council budget is now spent on social care. It is not dis-similar elsewhere in the country. The 20 per cent left to deliver other services simply is not enough.
On top of that, because of having to find the savings each year the council have lost nearly eight hundred jobs since 2010.
Island Deal
I spend a fair amount of time trying to get Government to provide us with the fair funding we believe we should have and have already evidenced. It is a tough ask.
I meet with Ministers and our staff meet with civil servants from Westminster and we press for the money we need. Last year we did have some success.
Extra funding successes
We managed an extra £4m of funding which was welcome and put to beneficial use. But when you realise we have evidenced and asked for £26m for each year you begin to see the discrepancies and the ongoing financial pressures we face.,
We managed to get £500,000 out into community projects and initiatives which has been very welcome and an enormous success, although it does not go far enough. I managed to stop parking charge increases and ticket rises on the Floating Bridge.
Additional £3m of savings needed
After 14 years it is little comfort, but I am proud to have managed to deliver that through the council budget process. And we are faced with similar challenges this coming year on our budget. Currently we must find an additional £3m of savings which is not going to be easy.
But there have been positives during the year. The Discretionary Rate Relief policy we created and adopted has been a significant help to small businesses and to our charities where they had a little extra help for the work they provide to us all.
The Island Plan
After a tortuous route we finally managed to get the draft Island Plan agreed by Full Council and I am aware this will be examined by the Planning Inspector in the spring of 2025, around March time.
We are hopeful our Plan will get accepted. The alternative is potentially more homes required by Government to be built on our Island.
New floating bridge
In March, I brought forward proposals for the Floating bridge after years of troubles and turmoil, legal disputes and more. Cabinet agreed to replace the vessel.
So, work is now underway to finalise the problem finally.
Children’s services
I have also been involved in the switch away from Hampshire managing our children’s services and part of the decision-making process to bring the whole educational system back under council control. I am pleased with our recruitment process and the team we have selected to help our Island try to restore the life chances for our children.
The issue of surplus places in our schools has been an enormous problem to face. To make matters worse, we are faced with falling birth rates and find ourselves at the bottom of the educational achievement lists nationally. The process to make the critical changes we must make if we are to succeed for our Island, are currently underway.
Concessionary fares scheme for the Island
In the Spring of 2024, we agreed to maintain the concessionary fares scheme for the Island, and we have been successful in bidding for and getting £1.6m of additional funding for bus services across our Island.
Indeed, we have had some success in funding over the past year and we bid for, and eventually received, £2m for safety works along the Sandown to Blackwater route and £13m for sustainable route of cycling and walking from Freshwater to Ryde. And we were also successful in an additional £1.2m for sustainable travel in Ryde.
Housing
And housing has been the number one priority for me and the council priority this past year. It has always been a priority, but we have stepped up action on it this year.
There are many initiatives currently being arranged. We built about eighty affordable homes this year, so far which is not enough but with plans in place we are going to see this increase. But it is not easy to deliver affordable homes. The costs of building these homes makes it impossible to deliver without some sort of subsidy. The council has limited reserves for such subsidies and borrowing cannot be undertaken unless the cost of the loan is covered from day one.
Built more than 300 homes this year
That said, we have built over three hundred homes more generally this year and we are collaborating with social driven partners including housing associations to help with our priority.
Nearly two hundred homes are being built closer to the hospital starting this year and I am involved in ensuring the Highway aspect of the scheme is fully ready for implementation. And we continue to seek other partners for other land the council own.
Regular discussions
We want more affordable homes both to rent and to buy and with a property action group in place within the council who meet every two weeks, we are beginning to bring forward hope and houses for those needing them. It will not happen overnight, and it is never quick enough but I have made sure that our priority and our work is going to deliver even more affordable homes.
And when I say affordable, I mean at 60% and 70% of market prices, not 80% as Government defines ‘affordable’.
Public Health partnership
Towards the end of 2024, we were informed by Hampshire that our partnership on our Director of Public Health was to end in 2025.
I have made sure that we now embark on a similar exercise as children’s services and we are going to bring the Public Health team back into the Isle of Wight council sometime between now and the summer of 2025, depending on recruitment and appointment timeframes. I expect to see our new team flourish and deliver great public health initiatives because of the new approach we are now taking.
Supporting Islanders
In May, Cabinet approved the Holiday Activity and Food grant which saw £300,000 awarded and we approved the Household Support Fund meeting the neds of some of the most vulnerable in our community.
I cannot say how pleased I am we have managed to make such support available under the serious financially predicament we face, but we have done so, and I know that people and organisations have directly benefited from these decisions we have taken.
S106 monies
In May we also provided £500,000 of S106 monies to a £4.4m grant from Government as the Island will see around twenty-two electric buses in place by 2026 as a result.
I have been working with the SLEP (Solent Local Enterprise Partnership) for some time. It has come to an end of its life by government decision and I have been working with fellow Leaders of Portsmouth and Southampton to resolve the remaining funding of around £12m under control of the Solent Growth Partnership (via a Board consisting of Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton) and for granting out into our economy and projects delivering employment and regeneration. We are building ideas for funding as we speak.
Could have listed dozens and dozens of important actions
As we come to the end of this year, I could have listed dozens and dozens of important actions, decisions and Policies we have brought forward, but they are all there as public record to the extent of our work over the 12 months and more we have had the privilege of running the Local Authority as an administration and as my role not only on Transport and Highways, but as Leader of the council and all of the work, commitment, effort and determination I have tried to put in alongside cabinet colleagues in very difficult circumstances.
I have tried to deliver what is best for our Island
No one said it would be easy and away from the glare of public service and media attention, I have tried to deliver what is best for our Island and our community without political ideas and ethos, judging matter as best one can with the information we are given, talking to people, listening.
I have learned that listening is far better than talking.
Sadly, the political divide sets people against people
But also, away from much of the public gaze, I work in a local political environment. I cannot escape that reality, and I am constantly the target of attention, political grandstanding, and political opportunity – sometimes to the detriment of our Island and community.
I try to be collaborative with other councillors, but I would be stretching the truth if I said that was possible with all councillors. Sadly, the political divide sets people against people and whilst I do not hold those political party views I am subject to the outcomes from those people who do hold them.
Devolution driven by the Government
But finally, as we turn into 2025 there are substantial changes afoot for the council. I hasten to add they are not of our making and are entirely driven by the new Government and they involve Devolution.
What appear to be big decisions to be made are actually small decisions in the context of what Government has planned for the country as a whole. Government is going to devolve powers down to Local Areas and it is going to additionally fund those services and powers. It is setting out certain criteria which it will expect to be met and if not, it will impose those parameters.
Local Government Review
In addition to Devolution and alongside the process, it is setting out /re-organisation which effectively means any area not embarking on priority Devolution pathway will have to give Government their Plans before May 2025 for a new Unitary Authority that will include 500,000 population minimum.
The Island has 140,000 population. This means that the Island will not be able to continue as a stand-alone Unitary Authority and either a Devolution deal is entered into, or a larger Unitary Authority is created.
Our near neighbours are planning to join in a Devolution deal
There are complications in the latter as our near neighbours are planning to join in a Devolution deal so not available to form larger Unitary Authority. Government have made it noticeably clear what happens if local areas cannot agree on combined authorities.
They will act to force an area into either a larger Unitary Authority or into a Devolved power arrangement. Either way, the Island is set change in terms of Governance one way or another.
Priority Devolution discussions a must
In my own view, the best way forward is to be in early with Government, under a priority Devolution discussion, where we debate and argue for certain arrangements that benefit the Island and the region first rather than waiting for Government to impose their plans.
More to come on this with more detail in the coming week or two as we head into extraordinary meetings to comply with Government laid down timescales.
Looking ahead
I do wish you a peaceful and positive New Year.
Let us hope and trust it shines brighter than the one we are now leaving.
