This week’s Isle of Wight full council (Wednesday 21st) will consider a motion by Labour councillor for Newport East, Geoff Lumley, calling on the Executive to abandon the public consultation on the proposed Solent Devolution aka the combined authority plan.
Cllr Lumley suggests the consultation prior to more information being available – such as how the share of the £30m per annum will be redistributed – is “both premature and disingenuous”.
Having previously led the successful ‘No’ campaign during the Mayoral Referendum in 2005, it will be of no surprise to see Cllr Lumley referring to the draft proposal being “based on the unpopular Mayoral model”.
The motion
Cllr Lumley’s motion reads,
Council notes that the Executive of 14 July took decisions regarding the latest Mayoral Combined Authority proposals and specifically to consult upon a proposed Governance Scheme.
Council has serious reservations about this DRAFT Mayoral Combined Authority proposal, including the Island with Portsmouth and Southampton City Councils. In particular,
- Any Isle of Wight share of the £30m per year for the three authorities will only come with additional major responsibilities and is unlikely to help the Council with the financial problems it currently faces for its statutory services;
- Without an overt redistributive mechanism, supporting ourselves on 100% retention of business rates is more likely to reduce our core funding;
- Delivering our share of 52,000 more largely unaffordable homes across the combined authority by 2026 (increasing our annual requirement by 15% from 520 to 600) will not solve our real need for more affordable/social housing for Islanders, without guarantees around tenure affordability.
- It continues to be based on the unpopular Mayoral model
Nonetheless, given this remains a DRAFT proposal we consider the Executive’s decision to consult on a draft Governance Scheme both premature and disingenuous.
Once there is a definitive deal on the table then public consultation will be appropriate, prior to our agreed referendum. Of course the very future of devolution may be subject to change with the change of Government last week.
Therefore, we urge the Executive to abandon the proposed consultation on a governance scheme.
