President update 3rd October - latest news from ADEPT
This month sees us with a new Prime Minister and Chancellor making massive changes to the UK’s economic approach with huge borrowing and tax cuts that have created enormous market uncertainty. What this means for us in local government, already working under exceptional financial pressures and more than a few sleepless nights, is as yet unknown. At the time of writing, we have an idea what’s coming with the instruction to government departments to find yet more ‘efficiency’ savings, but we will have to wait until November 23rd for the details.
We are used to doing the best we can with straitened budgets, but alongside the supply chain issues, energy and cost of living crises, we are in new terrain with increasingly volatile times ahead.
I can’t write this update without acknowledging the passing of Queen Elizabeth II who was the queen for as long as most of us can remember. On behalf of ADEPT, I want to pay tribute to her life of service and dedication and offer our sincere condolences to the Royal Family.
ADEPT changes
There have been a couple of changes to the Leadership Team this month. With Anthony Payne becoming 1st Vice President, his role as chair of ADEPT’s South West Board is being taken up by Sophie Broadfield, Director of Sustainable Communities, Bath & North East Somerset Council. I want to congratulate Adrian Smith and wish him well in his new role as Chief Executive at Nottinghamshire County Council. Andy Gutherson, Executive Director of Place at Lincolnshire County Council is taking up the position of chair of ADEPT’s Midlands Board. A big welcome to Sophie and Andy! Congratulations to Sue Halliwell too for securing the role of Chief Executive of Bracknell Forest Council. I will be able to confirm the new vice chair of the South East Board shortly.
Live Labs 2
Due to the impact of the period of national mourning, the deadline for applications for Live Labs 2 has been extended to 12:00 Tuesday 4th October. Our Live Labs 2 forum which you can sign up to from the webpage is open for further support and any questions you might have. All the information you need is in the Live Labs 2 prospectus. For more information, please email [email protected]. You can read a new article on Live Labs 2 from Neil Gibson in the latest MJ.
Also on Live Labs, the original programme teams have started publishing their business cases. Reports from Buckinghamshire, Cumbria, Staffordshire and Suffolk are available on the Live Labs 1 outputs page.
ADEPT working with government
This month, Ann Carruthers, Mark Stevens and Hannah Bartram met with Emma Ward and Stephen Fidler at DfT. On the agenda was energy and the impact on costs, new DfT ministers, bus recovery funding and subsidised services. We continue to support the department in collating intelligence on inflationary pressures for service delivery. Danny Williams, the new Chief Executive of Active Travel England also attended the latest Leadership Team meeting. Ann and I also attended a meeting with the Chief Executive of National Highways, and raised the issue of surety clauses.
Publications
Devon County Council has been trialling preventative winter treatment on the most well used cycleways in Exeter. We’ve made the report, Trial of Preventative Winter Salting Treatment for Key Cycleways Around Exeter available to members on the ADEPT website.
Events & other news
There is still time to book your place on ADEPT’s 4th National Traffic Managers conference, which is being held in The Eastside Rooms, Birmingham on 20th October. This year’s conference will discuss the skills gap, how the education sector is preparing the next generation of traffic managers and how to increase diversity in leadership. The conference, which is supported by DfT, is free to attend thanks to sponsors One.Network, Gramm Barrier Systems, National Highways, the RSMA, Chargelight, AppyWay and StarTraq. Download the draft programme.
Looking ahead, Green Finance Training with CIPFA is a new ADEPT training session designed for place leaders and their senior finance business partners run in collaboration with CIPFA. The session costs £199 + VAT and is being held at CIPFA, 77 Mansell St, London, E1 8AN on Thursday 24th November, 10:00-16:00.There’s more information on the ADEPT events page and email [email protected] to book your place.
This month we have a guest blog from Dr Jake Ainscough talking about the Climate Citizens project from Lancaster University where he is a leading researcher. Read his analysis and the findings of the citizens' panel on home energy decarbonisation in the latest Climate Change blog.
And finally – the ADEPT’s Autumn conference, Place Leadership in a Perfect Storm will be held in the Hilton Leeds City Hotel on 17th and 18th November. Always a very popular event on the ADEPT calendar, this year it is designed on my presidential themes of People Place and Planet. It will explore the ever more acute challenges facing place leadership in a perfect storm of cost of living and energy crises, inflation and ongoing post-covid recovery. Confirmed speakers include Lord Deben, Chair of the Climate Change Committee and Lord Kerslake, former head of the civil service. Download the draft programme and book your place here.
As ever you can find out more about ADEPT’s latest news, publications and the work of our boards and groups on the website: https://www.adeptnet.org.uk.