President update 1st December - latest news from ADEPT
This month’s update is a long one, but bear with me as I wanted to give you some highlights from this year’s ADEPT Autumn Conference. But before I start, here is a quick round up of the latest ADEPT news:
- Congratulations and thanks to Ann Carruthers and Karl Battersby who were confirmed as 2nd Vice Presidents of ADEPT at the General Meeting held at the Autumn Conference.
- ADEPT Membership fees FROZEN! It was also agreed at the General Meeting to freeze ADEPT membership fees for all membership categories for 2023/24 at the current rates.
- The Blueprint Coalition has published a progress report on the effectiveness of central government support for local authority action on climate change and nature, highlighting many concerns. Read the report, the press release and find out more in this month’s climate change blog. The Coalition has also published its response to the Skidmore Net Zero Review here.
- ADEPT has published its own response to the Net Zero Review highlighting the need for engagement with local government.
- ADEPT has also published its response to the House of Commons Enquiry into Levelling Up here.
- This month’s Lunch & Learn with Colas on cold in-situ recycling proved popular with our highway engineers. The slide deck is available here. That’s the last session for 2023, but you can sign up for The role of highway condition data in carbon management hosted by WDM on 27th January 2023.
- 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, it will be held in Birmingham on 3rd February. Find out more here.
I’ll provide more detail on our recent activities in next month’s New Year update.
Back to the Conference. It was great to welcome so many people – more than 200 delegates, speakers, sponsors and contributors gathered in Leeds to explore and debate Place Leadership in a Perfect Storm.
Autumn Conference – day 1
Day one started with Sophie Howe, Future Generations Commissioner for Wales. She gave a fascinating presentation about how Wales is facing up to the climate challenge and is the only country in the world to legislate to protect the interests of future generations. Her observation that we have knowingly continued to cause damage to the planet since the UN published its first framework of evidence on climate change in the 1990s is shocking. There will be more on this session this month, so keep an eye on the climate change blog page.
Session 1 was a panel discussion looking at Net zero as the catalyst for delivering sustainable growth chaired by Jason Pavey from Atkins. Lord Deben, Chairman of the Climate Change Committee, challenged us to up our pace in this area and pointed out that both organisations and individuals have a role to play. We were reminded not to lose focus on the long term in a world where the short term is shouting at us.
Led by Karl Battersby, Chair of ADEPT’s Yorkshire & Humber board, Session 2 explored Developing financial systems in support of the place, climate and growth agenda. We heard that an extra £50 billion investment per year is needed to transition the economy to net zero and that financial institutions are seeking net zero projects. Going forwards, we need to play to our strengths as shown by Plymouth, which is utilising its green and blue spaces and has created a habitat bank.
After lunch, Anthony Payne, 1st Vice President of ADEPT, chaired Session 3, a panel discussion looking at growth and investment through the lens of local places: the challenges and opportunities. The panel included three local authority chief executives and Homes England – it was really interesting to hear some of their insights on the role of the private sector and the importance of understanding our partners.
We finished the day with four workshops: Making ‘Place’ the place to be - developing a sustainable future workforce;Planning, places and people; Digital Roads - understanding and shaping the future of local roads in a world of increasing connectivity; Making bolder steps together - collaborating to help those furthest from the labour market.Each one generated some really interesting, and at times emotive, conversations and ideas to take away.
Autumn Conference – day 2
Day two started with an early tour of the city. It was really good to see what Leeds is doing to improve the quality of life for residents and visitors.
It was then on to Session 4 How do we achieve policy coherence to support joined up local delivery? Led by Nigel Riglar, Past President of ADEPT, it is clear that prosperity and the environment cannot be mutually exclusive, and we need a stronger move towards coherence. Collaboration and bringing cross public services together are key to this.
In the final session, Carolyn McKenzie, Chair Designate of the ADEPT Environment Board and her panel pulled everything together with Tackling the challenges and embracing the opportunities. We heard about public and private sectors working together, the need to use data to help shape what we are doing and that developing policies in silos creates challenges and misses opportunities.
Many thanks to everyone involved in putting the conference together – our platinum sponsor Atkins and the silver and bronze sponsors, all our speakers and chairs who provided so much food for thought, and conference organisers SAS Event & Association Management. Finally, a big thank you to ADEPT’s Hannah Bartram and Helen Leach, without whom none of this would have happened.
Finally, it’s the last newsletter of the year…
And what a year it’s been! I don’t think any of us want to dwell too much on what lies behind us, but I do want to thank our members, our teams and our partners for the hard work and dedication that everyone has shown. I want to wish you all a very merry and restful Christmas.
Don’t forget you can keep up with ADEPT’s latest news, publications and the work of our boards and groups on our website: www.adeptnet.org.uk.
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