President update 1st November - latest news from ADEPT
This month sees us with a new, new Prime Minister. That’s almost exactly how I started off my last update! We also have a different Chancellor busily undoing much of his predecessor’s work. Where that leaves us in terms of funding and ‘efficiency’ savings, we now have to wait until November 17th to find out. The same day as our Autumn Conference (details below).
It looks like the markets are finally settling down, but that is small consolation to people who can add mortgage payments and rent increases to concerns about energy and food price hikes. After scrambling to complete applications, we also await the future of Investment Zones. Our sleepless nights continue.
Live Labs 2
We were excited to have received 30 applications for the new programme. The initial assessments have been completed and we will shortly be announcing who will go forward to the Dragons’ Den stage on November 4th.
ADEPT working with government
With the upheaval of recent weeks, it’s no surprise that we hadn’t yet secured meetings with Ministers appointed by Liz Truss. We will be submitting letters to new Secretaries of State shortly and hope for some certainty. Meanwhile, we have discussed the new £2 bus fare cap with DfT and have also attended a meeting with the Defra team working on a review of the air quality strategy. We delivered a joint webinar with IPROW and Network Rail, chaired by DfT, on new guidance relating to level crossing closures.
For those of you who attend Regional Boards, we will be asking for feedback on funding pressures to get a feel for what councils are doing to get the books balanced over the current financial year and beyond. We want to capture the stresses, strains and drastic cuts being considered so that we can go to government departments and present outcomes as a group / national trend, rather than as isolated cases that can be ignored. But in all honesty, we can no longer talk about efficiencies, everyone is looking at making significant cuts and that’s the message we need to send.
I attended an interesting local government meeting at the National Audit Office this month. Discussions were focused on the skills gap and the issue around risk share. We asked if they could look at the impact on local authorities and our ability to deliver against the government agenda. We also attended the second Local Net Zero Forum where we discussed the outputs of the Task & Finish groups and the Skidmore Net Zero Review (both ADEPT and the Blueprint Coalition have responded to this consultation – see ADEPT’s response here and the Blueprint Coalition here).
Events & other news
We were pleased to welcome Chris Tambini, President of the Society of County Treasurers to last week’s Leadership Team Meeting. It was a positive, if worrying session on future local government finance, which comes as no surprise. We also discussed future collaboration opportunities, which can do nothing but strengthen each other’s message to government.
The 4th National Traffic Managers Conference’ was a great success. The conference focused on the skills gap facing the sector and how we need to be competitive and look beyond traditional routes to recruit new talent. The TfWM Transport Skills Academy – Transport Skills Insight Report is an interesting read for anyone looking at the scale of the challenge.
Have you booked your place on our new training session? Green Finance Training with CIPFA has been created specifically for place leaders and their senior finance business partners. 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 in the training programme. Please email [email protected] to book your place.
Navigating Transition is a new ADEPT workshop for senior leaders who are considering stepping down from their role and embarking on a new stage in their careers. Facilitated by Roger Paine, a former town planner, local authority chief executive and managing director of SOLACE Enterprises, the half-day session will explore five key themes in depth: finance, health & wellbeing, intellectual stimulation, skills & talents and home & family. The session costs £300 +VAT and will be held in Birmingham on 2nd February 2023. For more information, please see the workshop programme and email: [email protected].
The next Lunch & Learn session on 25th November (12:00 – 12:45) is hosted by Colas. The session will be of particular interest to highways teams as the subject is an in-situ cold road re-construction and recycling technique that Colas recently delivered for Coventry City Council. Places are free to ADEPT members, you can register here.
Last month’s Lunch and Learn session was a deep dive into this year’s Excellence in Place Leadership Programme’s key themes, hosted by Amey. The latest EIPL blog captures the key points from session speakers on how creating an environment for change demands fresh thinking.
This month we have another guest blog, this time from Paul Binks, Highways Asset Manager for Lancashire County Council. The Council have just won the Chartered Institute of Highways and Transportation Climate Action Award for their Highways Decarbonisation Strategy. Paul describes how the strategy was developed, the impact it’s already had and his key takeaways from the whole process. Find out more in the latest Climate Change blog.
And finally, time is almost running out to book your place for ADEPT’s Autumn Conference, Place Leadership in a Perfect Storm at the Hilton Leeds City Hotel on 17th and 18th November. Drawn from my presidential themes of People Place and Planet, we have responded to changing times by reducing and then restoring our emphasis on levelling up. Let’s hope the current Secretary of State is here until the end of the month! What we will definitely do is explore the ever more acute challenges facing us. With the new Autumns Statement set for the 17th November, out analysis will certainly be hot off the press!
Our confirmed speakers include Lord Deben, Chair of the Climate Change Committee, Sophie Howe, Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, David Forbes from the UK Infrastructure Bank and Monica Fogarty, the CEO of Warwickshire County Council. Download the 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.