I attended my first Growth Board meeting on 11 June 18, which had many more people and much less discussion than I expected. I guess they discuss everything ahead of time, in private, so there’s no business to discuss at the actual public meeting. All the council leaders had something to say to contribute, except for the Leader of the Vale, Cllr Roger Cox. I’m always disappointed when my representative has nothing to contribute.
I submitted my question ahead of time, as required. Here’s what I asked:
1. Question from Cllr Debby Hallett, Chairman of Scrutiny Vale of White Horse District Council
The district and city councils have signed up to a deal with Government to provide a number of new houses that is significantly more than is needed (according to the housing minister). Growth Board says it needs effective scrutiny, yet as of this question’s deadline, there is no scrutiny committee appointed to scrutinise whether signing this agreement was a good idea, nor the work progressing now.
i. Who is the member of the Growth Board responsible for ensuring good governance practices (including Scrutiny) are set up and operating as expected and providing the value we all think they should?
ii. What steps are being taken, by whom, reporting how, to ensure good governance of this Growth Deal?
iii. How will Growth Board balance the need to get things done and progress the work, with your responsibility to be accountable to the people of Oxfordshire, and to ensure your decisions benefit residents?
Here is the written reply I received:
Written Response
i. Since its establishment in 2014, the responsibility for the scrutiny of any decisions made by the Growth Board has rested with the scrutiny arrangements in each of the six Oxfordshire councils that make up the Growth Board. Since this date several councils have taken up this option periodically. These arrangements reflected the fact that the Board has no Executive decision making powers of its own, save for those that are delegated to the council leaders in their capacity as that council’s Board representative.
ii. The decision by Government to rest the task of oversight of the delivery of the Oxfordshire Housing and Growth Deal with the Growth Board highlighted a need to adopt appropriate new scrutiny arrangements and the partners committed to this as part of the Deal. We are now in the process of establishing this scrutiny regime and council partners have been asked and provided nominations to a Growth Board Scrutiny Panel. Once these are approved at today’s meeting, officers will be working with the nominees to set up the meetings, drawing up terms of reference etc. with a view to establishing a timetable of meetings as soon as possible.
iii. The Governance arrangements for the Housing and Growth Deal are designed to balance the need for delivery, as required by the Deal with the transparency and accountability required for all local authority work.
Cross partnership officer arrangements, up to and including Chief Executives will ensure a high quality output and this will be overseen at a detailed level by three Housing and Growth Deal Advisory Sub- groups, populated by councillors drawn from across the partnership, the Growth Board itself in its role as the strategic governing body and both the scrutiny arrangements for the Board set out earlier in the response and the complimentary [sic] scrutiny arrangements that each council has in place to examine the work of the Board. The Board will review the effectiveness of these arrangements periodically to ensure they are fit for purpose.
I had the opportunity to ask a supplementary question:
Supplementary question
How does the Growth Board see its responsibility to create good governance and ensure the scrutiny committee is functioning effectively? Who has responsibility for this? It is disappointing that four months after the Deal was signed this committee has not yet met.
And here is the reply:
Response
At this meeting the Growth Board are appointing and noting the membership of the Sub-Groups and Scrutiny Committee. After this the first meetings of these will be set up to agree terms of reference and functions. There is no requirement for a dedicated scrutiny committee for the Growth Board but we considered this necessary for good governance. We hope it will allow you to have a strong oversight of the Board’s work.
Today is 20th June, and no developments yet.
My mother used to tell me that if no one was responsible for something, it wouldn’t get done. Growth Board were unable to tell me who is responsible. Maybe, since the chairmanship is coming to SODC next, their leader, Cllr Jane Murphy, will be responsible.