Agenda and minutes

You are invited to declare any registerable and/or non-registerable interests in matters appearing on the agenda, and the nature of that interest.

You are also invited to disclose any dispensation in relation to any registerable and/or non-registerable interests that have been granted to you in respect of any matters appearing on the agenda.

Please complete the Declarations of Interests card available at the meeting and return it to the Democratic Services Officer before leaving the meeting.

Councillor K Clark declared a registerable personal interest in agenda Item 5: 2023-24 Financial Management and Performance Report to 31 May 2023 (CAB35/23), as she was a Director and Employee at Justice Prince CIC (Working Roots), which had contracts with North Tyneside Council funded to deliver community-based programmes.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 26 June 2023.

Resolved that the Minutes of the previous meeting held on 26 June 2023 be confirmed and signed by the Chair.

To receive a verbal report on the latest activities of the Young Mayor and Young Cabinet.

The Young Mayor reported on the following activities in which he and Young Cabinet Members and/or Youth Councilors had been involved:

·       Youth Councillors had attended an allotment and small garden event that provided information about the benefits of creating spaces within schools with experts Vicky Smith from VODA along with Wendy from Lovaine Gardens Allotment on hand to answer questions which included grant funding offers for schools.

·       The Young Mayor had met with the food technology lead from Norham High School, Ms Bowers, to plan the launch of the

cost-of-living cookery project as part of his pledge, to include a cost cutting guide and cookery booklet with recipes created by students available on the school lunch menu. He also thanked Shiremoor Adventure Playground which would also be running a cookery session over the summer break.

·       The Young Mayor and Youth Councillors had taken part in fundraising with bag packing at Morrisons, Whitley Bay.

·       Youth Councillors had taken part in the ‘State of the Area’ planning meetings, this year the theme was North Tyneside 2030 with contributions made on what they believed to be key themes for the future.

·       Youth Councillor’s, SEND Youth Forum members and Children in Care Council members had attended the launch of a safeguarding video animation at the Jam Jar Cinema, which was made with the North Tyneside Safeguarding Children’s Partnership to be used in schools and colleges on how and where they could get help.

·       Member of Youth Parliament, Sharon Zeng, had  attended the UKYP Annual Conference along with MYPs from around the country, the focus being on Food for Learning Campaign, which calls for free school meals for all young people which would be a topic for debate at the House of Commons.

·       The Young Mayor thanked the Authority’s Director of Resources, Jon Ritchie, who had met with the young people to explain the financial processes between the Council and Schools, also Community Protection Officer, Katie Lawson, who provided details of the work she and her teams were doing with young people around the borough.

·       Youth Councillors had taken part in a Young Carers Awareness session run by Peter Thorpe and Lucy Hodgson and staff from the Young Carers Centre.

The Elected Mayor thanked the Young Mayor for his update and praised the young people for promoting children’s safeguarding, also their cost-of-living cookery and fund-raising projects.

To receive a report on a full overview of both the budget and service delivery performance position across the Authority as at 31 May 2023.

(Councillor Clark left the meeting at this point in proceedings and took no part in the following item of business).

Cabinet considered the first financial and performance monitoring report outlining the 2023/24 financial position.  It provided a full overview of both the budget and service delivery performance position across the Authority as at 31 May 2023.  In terms of the budget, it set out the forecast outturn position for 31 March 2024 for both revenue and capital.  For performance, it set out the key areas of service delivery, including where this impacted in budget terms; and the key performance metrics which would be monitored by the new Office for Local Government which had now been established by Government.

The report also set out the current position in relation to schools finance, the Authority’s Investment Plan and treasury management.  In addition, it provided details of additional revenue grants received up until 31 May 2023. 

The report set out the programme of work which was in place to manage and mitigate the 2023/24 budget pressures and formed the 2024-2028 Medium Term Financial Plan.  From a performance point of view, service delivery overall across the Authority remained strong.  Key areas of strength were delivery of the Our North Tyneside Plan 2021-2025 programmes including delivery of the affordable homes and carbon reduction programme.  The Ambition for North Tyneside Programme was progressing very well with regeneration projects across all four areas of the borough.  The Authority continued to manage high levels of demand in a number of areas including Education, Health and Care Needs Assessments, children in care and home care.

The forecast net pressure for the current year as at 31 May 2023 was £11.7m.  A breakdown of this by Directorate was shown in Table 1 of paragraph 1.5.1.2 of the report, with the key areas of variation summarised in the following paragraphs. A more detailed commentary of pressures was contained in section 1 of Annex 1.  Many of the pressures in the current year were consistent with those faced in recent years.  This included the impact of inflation, on both in-house delivery and externally commissioned services, as well as rising demand and increased complexity for services within both adults and children’s social care.  An overview of the key areas of pressure and related performance information was set out below.

Adults Services had a forecast pressure of £2.3m.  Within this, costs for externally commissioned care were the main cause, with the greatest pressure continuing within residential care.  This was partly mitigated by vacant posts, additional health income but the main improvement being seen in increased client contributions.  The pressure was driven by a range of factors, but primarily inflationary pressure on care providers fees and the lack of home care provision, resulting in more short-term residential care placements to facilitate hospital discharge.  Further detail was contained within section 1.2 of the Annex.  From a performance perspective within Adults Services, despite the focus to facilitate hospital discharge, the number of clients in short and long-term  ...  view the full minutes text for item CAB35/23

To seek approval to develop a comprehensive Economic Strategy for North Tyneside and accept grant funding from the North of Tyneside Combined Authority to support the development and commissioning of the Strategy.

Cabinet considered a report seeking approvalto develop a comprehensive Economic Strategy for North Tyneside and accept grant funding of £65,000 from the North of Tyne Combined Authority to support the development and commissioning of the Strategy.

In May 2021 Cabinet agreed an Inclusive Economic Strategy for North Tyneside. The strategy included a framework, built around the concept of rights to seven fundamental areas. These included Education, Employment, Safety, Social Equity, Housing, Connections and Environment and the Strategy sets out how the Authority can use economic growth to ensure residents had access to good quality provision. As well as ensuring those with protected characteristics were fully linked to opportunities.

The Economic Strategy would take this thinking further and include an additional focus on how North Tyneside as a coordinated ‘place’ would achieve economic growth and provide a greater understanding of the Boroughs strengths and the opportunities that can act as enablers. The Strategy would then incorporate the principles of the existing Inclusive Economic Strategy which demonstrated how growth would provide opportunity for the Boroughs deprived wards and how it supported the objective of reducing inequalities.

The Authority had allocated a small budget within the Director ofRegeneration and Economic Development’s approved budget to develop this strategy but by securing the additional North of Tyne Combined Authority (NTCA) funding this work could be truly amplified to ensure that the strategy was fully collaborative across stakeholders and partners and could clearly demonstrate how the Borough could contribute to the region’s aims and objectives, particularly in light of North East Devolution.The project would be delivered in the following stages:

·       Consultation – Led by the Authority via the Regeneration and

Economic Development Team and the Engagement, Participation and Advocacy Team. Consultation will be carried out with partners, stakeholders, businesses, and residents.

·        Economic Analysis –The appointed specialist will look at baseline economic data and provide a robust analysis to set out the position in North Tyneside and identify key strengths, challenges and opportunities.

·        Drafting the Strategy – Using feedback from consultation, economic evidence and analysis and information and review from the team, the specialist will draft the strategy in line with key priorities. There will be scheduled review points where feedback and further consultation can be sought before the final draft is produced.

·         Publication – The strategy would be published and promoted in partnership 

      with stakeholders and partners as a place-based strategy for the Borough.

This project supported the NTCA’s Corporate Plan by defining, understanding, and articulating how North Tyneside can support the key aims and ambitions as outlined within the plan.  In particular, how the Borough can deliver against the following portfolios:

·       Jobs, Innovation and Growth – Developing a deeper understanding of the North Tyneside business profile and the opportunities they represent, defining the opportunities for job growth and tackling challenges in the talent pipeline, defining real sector strengths and identifying leading clusters with future potential. Working to understand where innovation can lead productivity gains, prosperity and growth, with links to the green  ...  view the full minutes text for item CAB36/23

To seek approval to accept grant funding from the North of Tyne Combined Authority to deliver “The Business Factory” project; and funding secured from UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) to support residents and businesses in the Borough to start new or grow existing businesses.

Cabinet considered a report seeking approval to accept grant funding of £699,648 from the North of Tyne Combined Authority (NTCA) to deliver “The Business Factory” project. Funding had been secured from UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) to support residents and businesses in the Borough looking to start up a new business or grow an existing business, with the aim of increasing the number of businesses, availability of jobs and levels of productivity within North Tyneside.  

The Authority had been delivering business support within the Borough for over 10 years. Most recently via the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) funded “Made in North Tyneside - Enterprise Ready (MINT)” project that started in 2019 and ended delivery on 30^th June 2023. This was preceded by the “Raising Enterprise” project delivered between 2013 and 2019.  The MINT project was delivered by TEDCO Business Support and focused on providing fully funded local start up support to residents and new businesses in North Tyneside, including 1:1 advice, a suite of workshops and access to consultants. The support was delivered under the Authority’s brand “The Business Factory” which had always been owned and managed by the Authority.

The Business Factory also delivered ‘Business Factory Online,’ an online resource where residents and businesses could access support tools. This included fact sheets, business planning tools, diagnostic tools, videos, and tutorials. This offer would continue to be delivered under the new proposals. The Business Factory was managed by the Business and Enterprise team, under Inclusive Economic Growth and as part of the wider Regeneration and Economic Development Directorate (RED.)  As ERDF funding had now come to an end, officers had been seeking alternative funding sources to deliver business support within the Borough and had successfully secured funding from North of Tyne Combined Authority’s, UKSPF.

The Government launched the UKSPF in April 2022 with funding intended to support activity and interventions previously supported by European Funding and with the primary goal to build pride in place and increase life chances across the UK via activity across three key themes - Community and Place; Supporting Local Business; and People and Skills.  On behalf of North Tyneside, Newcastle and Northumberland, the North of Tyne Combined Authority (NTCA) submitted a Delivery Plan totaling £47.1m across the key themes with circa £19m attributed to the ‘Business Support’ theme. The plan had been codesigned with the three Local Authorities and stakeholders and it would provide a whole suite of business support for the Authority to refer businesses into.  UKSPF provided considerably less funding than what was available from European Funding so delivery needed to be redesigned and reallocated to reflect the reduction.

As part of this Delivery Plan NTCA had allocated to the three North of Tyne Local Authorities £750k each to deliver local support and the remaining amount would be allocated using a ‘Dynamic Purchasing System.’ This system was a commissioning tool that invited delivery agencies to become part of a supplier framework that could be used by the three Local Authorities and  ...  view the full minutes text for item CAB37/23

This is to give further notice in accordance with paragraphs 5(4) and 5(5) of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012 of the intention to consider item 9 below in private.

Cabinet is requested to consider passing the following resolution:

Resolved that under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended) and having applied a public interest test as defined in Part 3 of Schedule 12A of the Act, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act.

Reason(s) for taking Item 9 in private: the report contains information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding the information).

Resolved that under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended) and having applied a public interest test as defined in Part 2 of Schedule 12A of the Act, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act.

To seek approval to purchase land interests by the Authority within the site boundary of the former Tyne Brand Factory and all ancillary matters.

Cabinet considered a report seeking approval to purchase all the land interests necessary by the Authority within the site boundary (as indicated on the plan at Appendix 1) for the acquisition of the former Tyne Brand site, Tynemouth; and to declare the “Hunters Engineering” site (as indicated on the plan at Appendix 2) surplus to the Authority’s requirements and to dispose of the site to facilitate the relocation of an existing business currently located within the Tyne Brand site boundary.

At its meeting on 25 January 2021 Cabinet approved the North Shields Masterplan. The plan identified several housing sites including the redevelopment of the former Tyne Brand factory site as key to the regeneration ambitions for North Shields. The Tyne Brand site was currently in multiple ownership (including North Tyneside Council owned land). Despite several attempts by private developers to assemble the land, the market had failed to bring forward a viable development for the site. It was therefore considered appropriate for the Authority to take steps to acquire the sites to bring them into public ownership and secure onward development. This approach was agreed by Cabinet on the 24 January 2022. In addition, Cabinet supported the utilisation of a Compulsory Purchase Order to acquire the land should purchase by voluntary agreement not be possible.

This report deals with the voluntary acquisition of land interests on the Tyne Brand site as well as the necessary site development procedures.

Cabinet considered the following decision options: either to agree the recommendations as set out in paragraph 1.2 of the report and to agree the acquisition of all land interests, procurement of demolition and site investigation decline the opportunity to acquire all land interests, procurement of demolition and site investigation contractors and the disposal of the form Hunters Engineering site.

Resolved that (1)the “Hunters Engineering” site as detailed in Appendix 2 to the report as being surplus to the Authority’s requirements and its disposal, be approved;

(2) the Director of Housing and Property Services, in consultation with the Director of Commissioning and Asset Management, the Director of Resources, the Head of Law and the Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources, be authorised:

                            i.          to take all necessary steps to purchase all the land interests necessary for the acquisition of the former Tyne Brand site, North Shields, as indicated on the plan at Appendix 1.

                          ii.          to take all necessary steps to procure and enter into a contract to secure the demolition of all existing buildings on the former Tyne Brand site, North Shields, as indicated on the plan at Appendix 1.

                         iii.          to take all necessary steps to procure and enter into a contract to undertake site and ground investigation across the former Tyne Brand site, North Shields, as indicated on the plan at Appendix 1.

(Reason for decision: It is considered the best and only way to acquire the necessary land interests by agreement to develop the site and comply with the requirements of any subsequent Compulsory Purchase Order  ...  view the full minutes text for item CAB39/23

Monday 18 September 2023 at 6.00pm.

Monday 18 September 2023 at 6.00pm.