Agenda item

            The Committee was reminded that as part of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Economic Appraisal, which had identified potential options as to how the Review of Public Administration reform programme could be funded, there had been a proposal to establish two regional organisations: a Business Support Organisation to deliver a number of core functions on a shared service basis; and a Strategic Waste Authority.  The report had indicated that the reform programme, including the establishment of the proposed regional organisations, would require funding of £118 million, with a return of £438 million over a twenty-five year period.

            In responding to the proposals in the PricewaterhouseCoopers report, the Local Government Sector had challenged the financial assumptions and projections made and had stated its consensual opposition to the establishment of a Business Support Organisation.  Belfast City Council, in line with its current policy, had supported the establishment of a Strategic Waste Authority.  At the meeting of the Strategic Leadership Board, which had been held in December, 2009, and more recently at the Northern Ireland Local Government Association Annual Conference, the Environment Minister, Mr. Edwin Poots, M.L.A., had challenged Local Government to provide an alternative solution to the establishment of a Business Support Organisation and to make alternative proposals to achieve efficiency savings in the order of the figure referred to by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

            The Chief Executive reported that in recent weeks work had been ongoing to prepare an initial response to the Minister’s challenge.  The premise of the emerging Local Government response was that the sector should be set an efficiency target which would be linked to the drawdown of an upfront ‘seed funding’ to finance the Review of Public Administration reform programme.  That would provide Transition Committees and Councils with the autonomy to deliver their own efficiency programme to meet the agreed targets within a specified period.  He stressed that the Local Government Sector recognised that delivering value-for-money to the ratepayer was one of its key objectives.

            The Chief Executive pointed out that underlying the £438 million savings projected by PricewaterhouseCoopers there were two types of ongoing annual savings, that is, transition and transformation savings:

·         transition savings: PricewaterhouseCoopers reported that transition savings of £10.7 million could be secured mainly from the reductions in the senior management teams and Councillors in the new Councils;

·         transformation savings: the ongoing transformation savings which had been identified under the preferred Option 5 in the PricewaterhouseCoopers report had amounted to £52.9 million approximately, which had been profiled on the basis of 20% being achieved in 2012/2013, a further 40% in 2013/2014 and the remaining 40% in 2014/2015.

            In the initial response which had been submitted for the Environment Minister’s consideration at the meeting of the Strategic Leadership Board on 25th February, the Local Government Sector had indicated its willingness to consider how the £52.9 million efficiency figure could be achieved.  It had been proposed that each Council/cluster of Councils, through their Statutory Transition Committees, would carry out detailed design work on the costs associated with transition and transformation.

            The costs broken down on an indicative eleven Council basis would be:

            However, a more detailed and sophisticated analysis would have to be undertaken in order to identify the costs associated on a Council cluster basis so that overall efficiency targets could be agreed and attributed to each Council.

            The Chief Executive pointed out that a range of key principles which it was proposed should underpin the target-based approach had been put forward by the Local Government Sector and welcomed by the Minister.  However, it had been agreed that further work needed to be undertaken between the Sector and Department of Environment officials in order to:

(i)   develop further work on the figures; and

(ii)  engage with Transition Committees to seek agreement on the strategic direction of the Local Government proposals, that is, a target-based approach.

            A joint Northern Ireland Local Government Association/SOLACE workshop had been arranged for 12th March for political representatives of the Transition Committees and Chief Executives to discuss the emerging Local Government counter proposals to the establishment of a Business Support Organisation and the potential implications for Councils and the Chief Executive recommended that any Member of the Transition Committee who so wished be authorised to attend.

            After discussion, the Committee:

(i)   agreed, in principle, to the proposed target-based approach to securing efficiencies within Local Government, subject to a further detailed report being submitted to the Committee setting out the possible implications for the Council;

(ii)  authorised the attendance of all Members of the Transition Committee at the Northern Ireland Local Government Association/SOLACE workshop to be held on 12th March; and

(iii)agreed that the special meeting of the Committee scheduled to be held on 12th March to receive representatives from Libraries Northern Ireland and from the Trades Unions in connection with the consultation on the future of Libraries be rearranged for an alternative date.