Uh growth and infrastructure overview and scy committee the final formal one that’s not to say we’re not having select committees in there um right welcome Ju Just to uh say I think most of you are experienced now but uh we are live on video from from 2
Pm and um obviously uh if you can sort of stun your mobile phones to silent uh or indeed turn them off and um also I would I would just say uh I don’t need to remind people but but obviously we don’t have parliamentary privilege in here so it’s always very civilized in
The committee meetings but just to remind people that is not the case so therefore we are individually sort of legal for the comments that we may make um right okay uh number one apologies for absence yeah uh so chair we’ve received apologies from Council reinford and councelor Penrose is substituting
Councelor Stevens and councelor Tui is substituting and we’ve also receiv received apologies from councelor salmon thank you sorry did I not say that sorry yes councelor Penrose is substituting for councelor reinford and councelor Tu is substituting for councelor Stevens sorry both very welcome yes whoever they replac right and uh Declarations of
Interest colleagues okay uh agenda item three U minutes this there’s two sets of minutes actually to agree uh hopefully uh first set from the 8th of November 2023 which I think was the regular committee and then 22nd a January 2024 uh which was the select committee uh that I will have to abstain
On because I wasn’t permitted to be there so are we all in agreement of those minutes yeah brilliant thank you uh agenda item four chairs urgent business I don’t have any urgent business to to raise Vice chair no okay nothing from here so great uh agenda
Item five uh The Net Zero action plan for 2024 to 2027 delighted to introduce uh councelor Tom brers Dell back to the committee over to you great thanks a lot chair um and thanks everyone for having us here today to discuss our proposed net action
Plan um for the years 2024 to 27 um I wanted to start with a brief reminder of of how we’ve got to this point um so will have been um before a few of us in this room were elected um but in 2019 the council voted unanimously to declare
A climate emergency and pledged an ambitious Target of net zero emissions by 2030 um various policies emerged as a result that were contained in two primary documents the corporate carbon reduction plans and the climate emergency action plans um various acronyms that um always struggled to remember um both of those covered
One-year periods um and they tried to separate out the council’s internal decarbonization goals um from that greater influencing role um that we have to play across the city with residents with organizations and with businesses um and what more of us here perhaps will remember was that last year there was a
Kind of cross-party backing um to to shift that emphasis to a single overarching document um led by councelor Stoneman um which became known as the Nary action plan um looking at a more medium-term um strategic vision for decarbonization over a three-year period um and that was something I was grateful
To have the opportunity to second on a cross party basis um in appendix B of your PC you’ll have seen a progress report on the the commitments that we inherited as a new Administration in May um it’s really important for us that we really transparently publish an annual review
Of the progress rather than let that document sit on the shelf for a three-year period and then just looking out at the end of that um you can see exactly what was pledged um last March when it was aimed to be delivered and how we’re getting on with that so far um
And I just wanted to lift out a few examples of the work that we’ve delivered over the last year just to try and bring what is quite an extensive document to life a little bit um so the first thing I wanted to mention was the climate impact assessment um some of you
Will remember there used to be quite vague Environmental paragraph narratives um on decisions um that’s been replaced with a wheel of eight environmental aspects which is is really trying to help to bring um both nature and Net Zero to the heart of decision- making on
All key decisions um one that I pick out from from the heating side of it is we all know we’re in the midst of a cost of living crisis um we’ve been working really closely with Liv West andoy for Community homes on improving the sustainability and Energy Efficiency of
Hundreds um of social homes locally on the transport um we’ve continued um to finish the roll out of the 500 barrel bikes um and more recently last month signed a new contract with co- Wheels um to provide a new all electric car club for Plymouth in fact I’ve got a meeting
With them later this afternoon on the waist side of it um been working hard to try and increase the recycling rate which is now something we know that we need to go further on here in Plymouth um with a new campaign called write stuff WR bin
Um and the social media side of that which is the first phase has had 880,000 Impressions so far over the last two months on Behavior change there’s lots of things I could talk about a new Exhibition at the box which is just about to start around climate change climate ambassadors organizing lots of
Events in different public spaces um the new um climate connections website which was launched last year has a new phase on business engagement making sure that businesses and organizations are being transparent about their PA to Net Zero um and also a contract um around support for City businesses
Um so overall I’m pleased that 84% of the actions that were written into the 2023 2024 part of the nzap um have already been completed or on track um and one thing I wanted to be upfront about is that there’s an interesting balance to be struck here um politically
It’s always nice to see lots of green on a on a report like this um but personally I’d be worried if at this stage of a few months too that we add 100% completion over those um because the whole point of the nzap is that we’re being ambitious and Urgent in the
Commitments that we’re making and so by that very nature there’s going to be challenges whether that’s Financial whether that’s to do with Staffing constraints or others um but on a reflection I hope that appendix B gives a clear sense of the work we’re actually doing on the ground not just what I
Might be talking about in full Council um but I also wanted to talk briefly about new commitments so as well as cracking on with the previous commitments as well as undertaking that transparent annual review of progress um we’ve also committed to a Contin continuous rolling process of finding opportunities for new Innovations in
Line with emerging Technologies and best practice that we’re noticing from elsewhere um the new commitments are all highlighted in light green on the um appendix a pack just to make it clear of what were the previous commitments that we’re rolling forward and what are the new ones that we’ve added in over recent
Months um some of these priorities are ones that I personally wanted to add in and drive forward um that included things around waste reduction business support heat networks food decarbonization and Community engagement um but I really want to stress today that the vast majority of it is really
Been down to colleagues and various teams across the council over the last six months or so myself Emanuel Paul and Jonathan um in different combinations have met every single Cabinet member and their relevant directors um often on multiple occasions depending on the the breadth of their portfolio um I really
Want to thank those cabinet colleagues for making the climate emergency a top priority um we understand that every Cabinet member is grappling with huge things whether that’s you know homelessness whether that’s to do with social care um but the fact that they’re all trying to innovate in this area as
Well really means a lot um and I also wanted to mention the officers too so Emanuel personally has has dedicated hundreds of hours to getting this document in the place that it is um various specialist officers on different departments have contributed lots of ideas um and I was also pleased that
Team Plymouth which um involves a hundred of the council’s most senior officers has had a session solely focusing on Innovation around decarbonization um and we’ve also had commitments that have come through the carbon literacy training that councilors have done too um so again in terms of bringing the document to life a little
Bit I just wanted to pick out a few key examples of new commitments um so on the transport side of it one of the things that Community climate groups have have raised me on numerous occasions is that when you visit other cities around the UK you sometimes see um electric buses
Net Zero buses um and that’s something that we’ve been behind on in in Plymouth been working personally um with councelor Koka and transport officers on a really ambitious um zebra 2 bid um which involves a small amount of P city council funding um but working with bus companies um and national government in
The hope of unlocking over 30 million pounds investment for 50 zeroc carbon buses so we’re continuing to look at funding opportunities for that on the heat side of it um we’ve been successful in receiving nearly a million pounds of funding um for Technical and financial support around heat networks um we’re
One of a handful of councils that have got to the advanced zoning program stage um nationally um and that’s hugely important because about 25% of our emissions as a city um come from Heating and from um the wasted um hot water and heating um energy that is used so we’re
Really Keen to harness um the huge scale of of heat networks and what that Innovation could deliver on um and I also wanted to mention solar um I’m incredibly hopeful that this will be the first year ever the majority of P City council’s energy has come from renewable
Sources and solo will have a huge part to play in that um on consumption and waste um one of the first meetings that I had um in the new Administration I said to street services that we really need to move forward on food waste curbside collections again that’s
Something that other parts of the country have had there have been understandable reasons for that being um slower than than any of us might have wanted we’re waiting on um Clarity from the government on new burdens funding um and we’ve now got commitment in this document um to delivering on that um and
Then finally on Behavior change so I remember watching this scrutiny committee last year um I remember some of the feedback that came from Cross party counselors about the fact that we need to really boost what we’re doing to reach out to other organizations and businesses and so there are 19 new
Commitments around Behavior change a couple of the ones I’m particularly excited about include working with every school in the city encouraging them to get um accredit edited as EOS School status um which will have a huge um opportunity to influence thousands of young people um and also something um
That one of the councilors in this in this room has innovated on is the idea of neighborhood level um Community climate plans and that’s something that we’re going to be piloting um so I’m really looking forward to hearing your questions um and potentially some ideas coming forward and and thanks again for
For extending the opportunity for me to come today thank you thank you Council colleagues questions councelor Goslin first sorry C could you put your microphone on apologies I’ll start from scratch yeah thank you very much for this new updated uh Net Zero uh policy um which very much builds upon the
Previous year the vast majority of the actions on here are the are previous year’s actions um with you know quite considerable amount of new actions I note that we have 39 new actions and again thank you very much for including so much of the behavior change actions
Which were be largely stripped out of the previous policy that’s that’s fantastic news um I think my main issue is it’s very difficult to keep track of where this policy is going um it’s not only it’s important to see where we’re going in the future but learn from where
We’ve gone in the past of what’s been completed um what is ongoing and also what might be have to be dropped due to changes in priorities um or the fact that you know some things are just not possible to achieve in the in these on these periods
For example there 13 um actions in the previous Net Zero policy which are not marked as complete in the progress report which are not included in this in this current one so it’s always useful to have a narrative about why those were dropped what were the issues around
Those and again to have an idea about what the progress over time so I just highlight just one of those um from the progress report uh BHP 10e uh which is I thought was a particularly interesting uh initiative which is working with the private sector explore wider roll out of heat networks
In particular linking energy from waste plants and other sources of renewable and waste heat so that’s marked as being in progress but that action is not not in the new action plan can you tell me something about why that’s no longer an action for the Net Zero policy thank you
Yes of course so so that commitment hasn’t been dropped is just a change of wording um there there are various examples where um the previous action we’ve we’ve added in a placement that goes further than that um so the heat networks one is one that’s progressed a huge amount since those initial items
Were were drafted um and so it’s not a matter of quietly dropping ones it’s a matter of adding in new ambitious ones that are more relevant um to technology change and and to the the work that the those departments have done since then um to give another example of that for
Instance on carbon literacy um so that the organization that was um previously delivering carbon literacy that was originally a free service um it was one that that gave quite long um periods of training which wasn’t necessarily relevant to to all officers to do in quite that same way um and so as opposed
To dropping that commitment um what we’ve done is is revise it and we’ve added in a new one which increases the number of or the percentage of staff that will get some form of carbon literacy training um we’ve we’ve suggested that we’ll give a more flexible approach that’s more relevant
To the teams we’re giving it to which might be slightly different to to Cabinet m members to you know a certain team working in a more um public facing Frontline delivery path Council for instance um and so so there are some changes like that that have been made um
In terms of the progress side of it um we’ve tried to be really clear with um appendix a where new things have been added in so all of those are highlighted in light green um and there’s also some details in appendix B um of those ones that have been particularly challenging
So um Fleet decarbonization for instance um you know really respected the ambition of the The Pledge um that the previous um Administration made but there have been some really real challenges to delivering that including um in some of the sectors of the fleet um the the appropriate electric vehicles
Don’t yet exist um and so so in that case we haven’t been able to meet that within the timeline offered so um you know I’d be very happy Jeremy to go through at a more individual basis with you on why some of those changes have been made but we’ve tried to be
Transparent on that within the reports thank you yeah um thank thank you very much for your response um can I ask a recommendation that we include in this document a list of changes from the previous document um just to make it more transparent about where you are re
Reprioritizing and changing some of the previous actions from the previous action plan and and the progress around that and specifically could you tell me which of the new actions from the new action plan replaces bhp1 not off the the top of my head i’ have to come back to unless Manu I would
Like to BH nicely worded aren know bhp1 C has been expanded to include what was previously in um 10e okay thank you uh right on my list I have mlay Stoneman and Gilmore so next Laura mcle thank you thank you chair and like I have three questions um whoever
You want to hand going through those um so firstly I want to really thank the officers cabinet members and cross part Representatives that F into this plan so far I know obviously we’re really Limited in terms of budget commitments and strategy filtering down from a national level I think this document is
A Real Testament to the good things that we can achieve locally when we work collaboratively so my first question is around it infrastructure um so I really welcome action GD 5D namely that’s supporting Del and achieving BC Corp status yeah so my question is twofold on whether we can
Expand on this so there was a saying a few years ago that data is the new oil the cloud is a big hidden concern when it comes to carbon emissions so we the council currently operate on Microsoft but other digital infrastructure providers such as Google have done more in terms of Energy Efficiency
Technological innovation transparency the renewable energy portfolio and general overall greenness would we consider investigating moved to another provider in order to a our Net Zero transition and complementary to that is the issue with email So currently they account for not. 3% of our Global carbon footprint I
Know that seems like a small thing but I’m a big believer in tiny changes causing um big outcomes so an easy but measurable action might be to encourage staff to consider their inbox and attachment practices has this been considered thank you Council M um really important Point um and you know there
Are various examples of way we can be more efficient with this um I’ve had specific meetings um with teams working around um it and that was where um this this wider commitment um to achieving that level of accreditation within that particular industry came from so so that
Will involve um various kind of its own end up and its own right essentially various commitments um around um the decarbonization of the it related sector um so be really interested to see um where that comes that falls under um Sudan’s um portfolio um working specifically with doubt on that um I
Haven’t specifically talked to them about Microsoft versus Google but I’ll be happy to to take that away and um to you know ask them to consider um that particular suggestion um you mentioned about um data and emails as well I think it’s really interesting isn’t it that
One of the the outcomes of covid was that transition to more online forms of working and and sometimes people do mistakenly talk about that as if it’s a zero emissions form of activ ity as opposed to to traveling in and obviously um it would be you know more preferable
Than than using a combustion vehicle to go to inperson meeting um but there is still an impact of that and and I agree with you there’s still ways in terms of our our day-to-day working where where that could be improved um so I I’ll certainly share that feedback with a
Relevant portfolio area and just see um whether some of that would be picked up in that particular status already thank you supplementary yeah go on then um so supplementary to that I I really enjoyed that you picked up on the advantages of working from home in your response uh
And it’s great to see the impact that that’s had on our carbon emissions with a travel T down 51.8% since 2019 um what are we doing to ensure that a hybrid approach continues to work for staff and deliver for the climate I know how beneficial it’s been uh from a
Mental and physical health perspective and for climate what commitments do we have in supporting staff and a hybrid working model going forward um so the one document I’d encourage everyone to have a look at around this is the the go green travel plan um that
Was put into place um a few years ago now I’m assuming in your time James um and and essentially it was a way of of outlining an ambition um to to think around um how people get to work and and when it might not be necessary to to go
To work in person and um there’s various things that need balancing around that including the well-being side of it um which can actually work in both ways can’t it you know some people would rather be working more flexibly from home um some people would prefer to have
That kind of cohesion within um their their working teams um so that that is something that we that we repeatedly consider you know as part of this um but um it is something that that hits on other priorities of the the council as well Council stonan thank you chair and I will say
It’s quite strange on the other side of the table this year because I know how you felt this time when I was sat there um in terms uh of the document itself I think it is very good and it’s expanded on the work that we did last year um and
I’m really pleased to see that in the um in the review over 80% of them have been completed I think that’s really really good to see as you did highlight as well the fact strategic nature would mean that you wouldn’t expect you wouldn’t want to see them all completed um I I’m
Happy with the uh with the document I think it’s is great I like the fact that you’ve been able to go into more detail building on the work that we did last year because last year was uh a a step in the door of forming the Strategic
Review or strategic Way Forward and I think it’s really really good to see that built on and some of the points that have been changed and altered to highlight where we are now and to acknowledge that some of the um actions that we put in last year aren’t maybe
Feasible like you’ve mentioned the vehicles and things like that so it’s really good to see that come out of this document to see that to be a more rounded and more uh um well a more aspirational approach maybe now we’ve got the knowledge behind us of of the previous
Year uh one thing I will say is that I am not disappointed but there are quite a few in here um continuations or some of the new points one of them I can’t remember which one it was that have already been said that’s going to be delivered I can’t remember which one it
Was off talk head you mentioned it in your opening statement and I don’t know whether it’s transparency or if it’s trying to add another one that you can say you’ve achieved quite early on by you saying that we’ve already in the process of delivering it but putting in the action
Plan for next year now I don’t know whether that’s me being negative and you could be seen as put on the wall over your eyes or if it’s just a genuine thing that you want to achieve um although it’s already in the process of being done could you just clarify which one
You’re talking about it’s hard to to answer I’m just trying to find it if you want to come back me at the end that’s fine I have a look through we can return to that once you get the data in place uh I had councelor Gore next chair um I’ve got two questions
Again as with councilor clay I’ll let you decide but um so first up I wanted to talk about the behavior changes that you’re hoping to encourage so I think um every counselor at the table is going to recognize what I’m about to talk about um we’ve got issues with uh public
Transport I think in Plymouth um the the the bus routs are almost all um uh uh going from the city center outwards I know that there’s a short circular bus route planned in the Improvement plan but I don’t know how far down the road that is and bus stops
Uh are being removed and are being replaced um but again it’s it’s been a long and rainy winter for standing at an open bus stop waiting for a bus that that may or may not come um so in terms of behavior change when we talk about the bus Improvement plan and the length
Of time that’s going to come in and the length of time in here 2427 I just feel that by the time the fleet is modernized the routs are more um useful for wider travel rather than just going into town and coming back out again um and the bus stops are in place
So that people feel ready to stand and wait for a bus Behavior will have changed and it’ll have changed into cars and it’s well known it’s difficult to get people out of their cars once they’re into them so can you address that concern mind please that the
Behavior change might be heading in the wrong direction so specifically on on buses you know I think you’re exactly right that that we need to be doing everything we can to en encourage um public transport and um active travel more widely um as opposed to to people being
Um exclusively reliant on on combustion Vehicles there are huge challenges to it and obviously um city bus is um a a private company um we’ve got councelor Koka and um councelor sproston in the room who do a huge amount of important work um listening to communities on um
The challenges that the bus travel faces and and lobbying um P city bus and other providers um to make improvements where possible um some of the work that P city council does um around subsidized routs um helps to make sure that communities um that were disconnected um are
Encouraged to to use that um where possible we also use promotion um to encourage people to use um the buses as well so promotion are able to give out free day Riders um they give out um barel um bike tokens as well um and and give various advice around ways of doing
That it’s been a really successful um project in the last few months with promotion where they’ve gone door too in in Stoke and in devonport um making sure that individual households have those conversations about ways to do that um but um some of the wider issues that
That you’re talking about you know I agree are major but um but there is certainly stuff in place about trying to encourage that on the bike side of it as well um I was really pleased to see that that Plymouth was um I believe the most successful city in the country um for
Bike ability um which is the scheme that involves um people going in to encourage um young people to train and um use bikes to get to um school as well and I was pleased to go to one of the local schools um in Stonehouse to to celebrate the work they’d particularly done around
That um and also on on pedestrian cycling routes as well which is there’s work that continues to happen around that a lot of the the public real works that are going on um including under the transforming cities program um include um opportunities for improved um transport links too so um there’s a
Whole wide range of holistic approaches that are linked to public transport um but sadly no quick simple or in expensive solutions to to that whole crisis um so well supplementally obviously I recognize the work that the that the bus champion and the um Cabinet member are doing for the bus routes I am
Just suggesting that the bus companies be made strongly aware from your perspective too that what they’re doing uh is not just providing a transport solution but they’re also providing something that’s contributing unless I’ve misread this about 28% of our carbon footprint and that they’ve got strong responsibilities to
Help get people no they are not contributing sorry I’ve Mis phrased that that the driving is contributing that they’ve got a strong responsibility to help get people out of their cars um yes so councelor I very much agree with you but just to to stress the point that the
CEO of um City BS um Richard um is is very very interested in this particular area if you watch the recent video that the climate connections website put out um that included him personally encouraging people to go to the climate connections website and and and play
Their part um it’s in his interest and City bus’s interest um to get more more bums on seats on on buses and using it and um you know he would very much see the environment as as a co- beneficiary so I don’t think he needs convin or the organization needs convincing of that
Point um I think we just need to continue um to to encourage the public to to make the most of those Services too thank you po um Paul you’re on um yeah Paul Berard you had your hand up you wan to come yes thank you chair I
Just wanted to build upon the comment that uh uh councelor Bri delve just made um city bus are obviously a co- sponsor of the um of the of the zebra bid um zero carbon buses uh submission that we’ve made um which would in one Fell Swoop see half the fleet become electric
Buses and so that is a 30 OD million pound um uh potential project upon which we’re waiting um for a decision which is undoubtedly uh one of the most transformational things we could do in terms of delivering um uh reductions in emissions from buses um in addition
To that there is the Plymouth um enhanced bus partnership which provides a coordinating mechanism and greater control that the government has given us the power to uh to instigate uh to oversee uh improvements to Services frequency infrastructure for buses uh but also uh service enhancements and on
The um on the point about um carbon emissions the uh the bus services Improvement plan is not just of course a long-term aspiration although uh as was referenced um uh there are a number of long-term Ambitions in that plan but of course we have received significant funding that councilor Coker has
Deployed um to enhance the bus provision within the uh the city um through the bus the funding we’ve secured through the bus services Improvement plan and then lastly and very quickly obviously the bus shelters um uh program uh remember the bus shelter are not our assets they’re not city council assets
They’re the assets of the uh company we’ve got a new company installing those at the moment Clear Channel many of those have green roofs and solar panels um and so there’s um those are being rolled out um in accordance with that um contractual Arrangement so I think our
Partners are looking to engage in what they can do working with us on carbon emissions around the whole transport genda thanks thanks Paul right okay in terms of questions there are a couple of people sort of intimated they had more than one so can I ask councilor mlay
First to then come back to Gil Mo and Council s if if you’re ready we can come back to you yeah thank you thank you chair so I wanted to pick up next on carbon literacy so I’m a bit all too familiar to be honest with the threat
The climate emergency poses and I found the training deliberately wondered by Emanuel um and the team to be hugely insightful into the position influence we play as a local Authority I thought it was fantastic so how are we progressing in terms of creditation takeup among staff and counselors I was
Wondering if we make it part of the council induction program so any new counselors that come in from May are just automatically picked up into that pipeline um I also know B2 sorry BCB in relation to the local climate change training course for Community groups um this action is March completed
Which I think is fantastic I’m just wondering if it’ll be returning because I know there’s an appetite for Community groups I’m a part of and obviously the more Community buying we get the more effective our influence will be I’ll pass on to Emanuel very quickly because this very much is is her baby
And and the work she’s done on this has been amazing so um there’s there’s a few different areas um to that and so um we’ve um been unusual as local Authority and that we’ve gone through three of the separate programs that the carbon litery organization um have organized and we
Were part of the the pilot for the Community side of that so we’re one of the first local authorities in the country to to support that um on the staff side of it one of the challenges um was around um the the level of of depth and the relevance and making sure
That’s that’s appropriate um and transformative um you know for for different groups um and so that the way that we’re going will be will be more flexible than than if we were solely um making use of the resources by that particular um organization um but I I
Agree with your aspiration um to get more counselors um behind this you know tried very hard encouraging counselors in and for Council to sign up um emails have gone round um we’re also looking at um on further sessions with that too um obviously there are the capacity issues
As well that um the previous model um was about eight hours of training um and so if if you only have a few people in the room having that um individual Staffing um is an issue um but one of the things I’m pleased with in in this
Um change to the ends up was around increasing the the percent of stuff that will go through that as well man I’m sure we’ve got loads more to add so pass up to you thank you thanks for the question Lauren um so yeah that we we’re slightly
Changing the approach I think to General carbon carbon literacy climate engagement away from the the accredited carbon literacy course on account of two main changes that have happened recently so one of them is the course is very very prescriptive and sometimes these eight hours can be a barrier to access
The course is not necessary necessarily well adapted to the needs of everyone W I felt it was very very strong when it came to counselor engagement it is less it is less so for different public so what we want to do is offer much more flexibility in the type of carbon
Literacy that we offer so that is that could be done via e-learning that could be done via short face-to-face sessions and one of the issues is carbon literacy are now introducing a pricing mechanism that did not exist until recently charging us a a specific amount per
Course now so far we have implemented Ed four of the different courses and so the price tag is is going up in uh you know alongside that so the solution is to develop more of the courses in house and so that takes a lot of time but we know
With a background that we have and a little bit of of of time I think we can we can achieve that bringing in other forms of Engagement with colleagues that may be more suitable uh we did a bit of uh work with street services for example
At pool Farm which was you know a better way to engage with with a Horticultural team than asking them to come spend eight hours in an office you know to to to to get the carbon literacy course so different different uh types of Engagement I guess um in terms of the
Work with the community we’ll be working more closely with the climate ambassadors to deliver some of this engagement and also we’re starting to work more closely with the university who are delivering some you know other forms of carbon engagement supplementary to that so if I had a community group that wanted to go
Through some form of training with the climate ambassadors would I reach out to you to arrange that um I think uh yes i’ be very very happy to deliver some training what we would probably not do at this stage is is get get it go put it through formal
Carbon literacy accreditation where we could certainly engage in some form of training with a with a community group for sure thanks councilor M um Council Gilmore I think probably that’s we go back to council stman I think that’s probably it we’ve got for the schedule Jeremy okay that’s on on the list thank
You thank you very much um so I’m on page 34 the key priorities for Net Zero so cut our emissions from Construction and building so my question is um about planning permission and um awarding of contracts um to what extent um is the ability to demonstrate Net Zero
Considerations going to be factored in to awarding planning permission for let’s say just for talking s it’s a large project and also to what extent is the ability to demonstrate thinking about Net Zero going to be taken into account when we’re awarding tenders do you still have to come in with the
Lowest price or could you have the second lowest price but the best climate plan uh so planning permission and tenders thank you thank you councelor it would be remiss of me to not make use of the specialism of of Paul Barnard on a planning related question so I’m sure
He’ll be very excited to come in on on that one Paul over to you yes Jonathan might want to add something around um the uh the policy background for this but um on on planning applications clearly there are Provisions that allow us to uh improve the um Energy Efficiency of buildings
And I’ll pass over to Jonathan in a second to just flesh out the the The Joint local plan policies and the recent climate emergency statement that supplements the uh the provisions in relation to determining planning applications um clearly the determination of a planning application is separate from the letting of a
Contract those are completely separate things and in relation to the setting of contracts we are working with um uh colleagues in procurement to uh make provision for a waiting factor in uh the letting of contract s that takes fully into account the revision of um uh um outcomes that relate to climate uh
Emission reductions so there is a social value provision but we’re also looking at um making provision around how we let contract so that again working with like-minded Partners um they can uh uh help us achieve uh carbon emissions from our projects as opposed to necessarily through planning applications I know if
Jonathan wants to add the planning observations I’ve made uh yes certainly um the um just check on on screen that yeah the the um climate emergency planning statement was something that the council adopted I think it was in the early part of last year as a as a direct response to um the
Very question that councelor Gilmore raised really which is kind of making sure that we integrate climate emergency considerations into the consideration the planning applications it really builds upon what’s in the joint local plan so there’s policy Deb 32 I think it is which is about low carbon
Development uh but we felt that it didn’t quite go far enough in terms of having a systematic approach to going through lots of different ways in which a development can be designed and implemented to address climate emergency consideration so that’s really what the climate emergency planning statement was
Intended to do um it’s it’s really an interim policy P pending the the next version of the local plan uh so it goes further than the current joint local plan and it will be an input to the next local plan uh it it includes at the very outset when a planning application is
Received uh the the application has to come by complete with completing a checklist of how it complies with the policy um so it covers a range of mitigation measures and also climate adaptation measures and if the um if the the form isn’t filled in the application doesn’t get registered
Uh if the uh it’s you know an applicant could still say that they can’t meet all of the requirements but then they would have to justify and then that that would be a matter that would be considered by the case officer and then potentially the planning committee if it goes to
Planning committee as to whether in that circumstance planning permission should be refused or not so that there is a sort of much more rigorous approach now to how we deal with this through the planning process uh and so I hope that’s helpful to the to the committee thanks
Jonathan thanks Paul right did you have a quick supplementary um I’d like to thank Jonathan that’s a really really encouraging answer thank you very much and also say um to Paul thank you very much but once that waiting is decided could it be brought back to us is could
We make sure it’s in here so we know about it please that’s sure yes okay councel play very very briefly thank you thank you chair so picking up on C w4b in relation to behavior change for residents so it was great to hear the Christmas campaign garnered 8,000
Impressions I think it was a really clear and clever bit com so I want to say hats off to that team um I want to ensure that while we’re encouraging good habits at home we’re kind of upad upholding our end of the bargain when residents are out and about in the city
Um are we moving towards mixed waste and recycling facilities as standard across the city um also it kind of pains me that in some of our own C buildings like Council house we don’t have recycling facilities available across all rooms at nor to the Christmas Market or Lio when
I visited last year are these being addressed um really good question um simplest one on on your list is you know if there are group rooms in the in the council house that don’t have it um please um let me know in an email and and I’ll make sure that’s done very
Swiftly and I know some of the rooms do um there’s recycling bin in the the corner there and there’s there’s certainly recycling bin in the labor group room I think there is in the main opposition room from memory last year but um very happy to make sure they’re
There in the council house and we should certainly be leading by example um in terms of roll out across the city um obviously there there a cost implication to that um with new schemes um that I’m involved with that’s something that I’ve um I’ve I’ve put in as as suggestion and
I certainly think that if we’re installing um new bins in a new scheme that um you know mixed bins um should be there where possible um and that there are other examples of of the city where we’ve been doing that that um on that particular campaign soag 8, 80,000
Within two months so you know quite a significant um you know number in terms of our population um and that’s just the start of that campaign so there’s going to be um stuff that is widespread across the city um which will be in terms of the hundreds of thousands um seeing the
Next bit um so we know we’ve got a long way to go on encouraging that recycling engagement some of that will come through Partners as well um there’s some important work done at the n and waste facility in terms of getting School groups in talking about recycling um and
There’s certainly a lot more that we need to be doing around reuse and reduce as well which I know that you know your colleague counil PO is very passionate about too so um you know we’ve got a long way to go to to increase that but it’s certainly a priority for me thank
You coun stonan thank you chair the point in question was TF t5f established an electric vehicle car for plth in your opening you said that that had already been done um so the the time frame of this document has been worked on for the last six months um the contract um was only
Recently signed um and the initial kind of draft of this document was was done just before Christmas so um at the time of writing this document um that hadn’t yet been been done and you know as I’m sure you’ll you’ll recall from when you were were sitting in this seat that um
You know that’s something that that takes a bit of time um so the contract work um for that is very recently been signed um it’s not yet operational um and so it’s it’s in there as a new thing which is is yet to be delivered um as we
Saw with the the previous company you know there are um issues that these kind of companies can face the previous company went into Administration so I do still think it’s accurate for us to say that in the next year we’ll be delivering a new car company at the
Moment um that isn’t isn’t there in p and it will be um in the near New near future cast statement just very quick so in order for it to be completely transparent I would suggest that the word new is put in there rather than leaving it is just to show that there
Has been one in the past and you want to bring a new one back just to make it very very clear very happy with that change um Emanuel can you note that down and we’ll make sure that’s updated in the draft that goes to for Council thank
You thank you everybody right um before we move to the recommendation there was there’s obviously a couple of things that have sort shown out to us been requested by members particular importance the first one was um making explicit the list of changes from the prior documentation ah from Council of golin
And I wanted to include that in um did you have a final question that’s sorry coun I mean if it’s very quickly go ahead we’re just moving over time now um so this is just a question on on food waste recycling which has been an important sort of in the
Armor of our recycling policy um just to say thank you for progressing food waste recycling to Commitment in 2026 I just wondered very quickly how we how are you going to overcome the issues you you state in the progress report and also what happened to the c3d which is support food waste reduction
Um with regards to the food waste recycling so um yes that’s something that about half of the local authorities up and down the country um offer um we’ve recently had confirmation over um the amount of new burdens um funding that be available from national government um suffice to say that is not
Sufficient to the overall Capital cost of um the vehicles and bins involved um so there’s significant um project of work at the moment looking at um cost implications and funding opportunities for that um we have a commitment to do that um in in the next couple of years
Um a lot of the freear targets um are ones that that um will be done by the end of that process um but if they could be done delivered sooner then they can um on the specific one that you indicating I’m just finding it here in the
Nzap um so that particular one um is now related to a behavior change aspect um so if you turn to BC 20 um the spirit of that is contained um within that particular aspect there thank you thank thank you okay right um we’re going to move to uh
The recommendation which is to support an indor spim city council Net Zero action plan 2024 to 2027 before we do I just just one suggestion that came out uh I think a few of us would support is just making even more clarification around some of the changes that have been made through
Different document versions you know from the last one to this I think you’ve kind of heard the tone of some members of committee uh I won’t ask that we tangibly sort of do an explicit publication of the differences because I understand there’s so many nuances to each change and I think there’s a
Massive that would create a massive job of work on an already very good document so uh but thanks so much for for your time and attendance so we just with colleagues moved to uh the one recommendation which is to support and endorse the Plymouth city council Net
Zero action plan 2024 to 2027 all those in favor excellent thank you right agenda item six um plan for homes for so we welcome councilor Chris pemby the cabinet member for housing Cooperative development and community is and uh ask him to introduce the report in a
Minute thank you chair and um just so you know um Paul Barnard is joining us online today um Nick Carter for health reasons has had to send apologies but I’m joined here by Neil morson um from housing delivery team and uh Matt Garrett who’s the director of community
Connections on the other side of housing um rather than me do an introduction then officers talk through the slideshow I’m going to give a sort of overarching thing on the whole of it um and if you then want us we can run through the slideshow but as we’ve given it to you
In advance we’re we’re not planning to do that specifically um but thank you for your time today it’s now almost 10 years since we first established the plan for homes in Plymouth a program which has provided a focus for Council action and Leadership working in Partnership to deliver a step
Change in the number quality and pace of delivery of a range of homes today I want to highlight some of its achievements and the work undertaken to help meet the the city’s urgent housing needs however despite our strong track record of delivery we need to do
More Plymouth is in the midst of an unprecedented housing crisis our housing needs are increasing and there are many factors impacting on people’s ability to meet their day-to-day needs including housing resulting in a significant increase in both housing and the use of temporary accommodation in Plymouth in addition the housing
Delivery landscape ape has changed and in recent years levels of new and affordable housing built in Plymouth have reduced to record low levels due to macroeconomic and local challenges affecting house building in particular the viability challenges of higher build costs and lower housing values which makes it much more difficult to deliver
Complex of ground field schemes in the city the scrutiny paperwork you have had sets a lot of this out it demonstrates our strong track record of achievement and Innovation but it also sets out the increasingly challenging housing delivery landscape and our pressing housing needs we need a credible
Response for all ten years and at all price points that’s why I’m de developing and launching plan for homes for as our next stage of delivery to accelerate existing activity as well as bring forward new initiatives to focus action on achieving our overall ambition to deliver a minimum of 5,000 new homes
In the city over the next 5 years plan for homes for will be a more holistic plan which will need to address the impacts of homelessness how we can improve overall housing conditions of existing homes take action to reduce carbon emissions and deliver more car low carbon homes the need to maximize
Inward investment and ensure we have the Partnerships to deliver maybe fortuitously given your previous discussion I want climate action to be a crosscutting theme of plan for homes for to ensure it contributes towards the delivery of the council’s Net Zero action plan to reduce carbon emissions and help tackle fuel poverty in the
City and today I’d like to hear your thoughts to help shape plan for homes for actions to help achieve that but I just quickly want to talk about our track record of achievement because while we’re focusing on the responses to the unprecedent levels of need that we are experiencing we have an award-winning
Plan for homes program and substantial partnership working to give you a flavor we’ve delivered 7,581 new homes over 9 years of which 1,980 26% were affordable in The Last 5 Years how many other cities can demonstrate that level of affording affordable housing delivery hardly any we’ve released 48 Council owned
Sites that are planned to deliver 1,550 new homes of which 12,22 are going to be affordable that’s 66% of the ones where we have intervened through our land of those 28 sites have been completely delivered Ed 1,45 homes of which 627 are affordable that’s 60% and I Hast to say those figures
Exclude the land at West Park Hill which we haven’t currently released but that will provide a further 450 homes as we bring that project forward we have secured 2.4856 from government to help drisk and GAP fund 15 of those councel Lo sites we’ve identified a further four sites
For Housing Development and will again bid against those to the next round and those bids should be going in this week we have bought 385 long-term empty properties back into occupation using enforcement action as well as providing financial assistance we’ve supported the estate regeneration of priority neighborhoods in partnership with our Housing
Association partners with a combined investment of over 400 million and the delivery of 2,924 new homes at devonport North Prospect and barn Barton and there’s more estate regeneration going on and planned at the moment we have delivered 24 train and build service vetrans homes as part of two schemes delivering 48
Affordable homes at Nelson project those are all occupied and doing really well at Sterling they’re beginning to be occupied as the Sterling project comes to a completion we’ve provided 33 wheelchair homes completed across various sites to meet High demands for accessible homes and we’ve supported innovation of 72 affordable passive
House low carbon Homes at the point that was completed it was the largest affordable passive house scheme in the country we’re further innovating and planning for 40 energy sprong Net Zero carbon Homes at King tamam with PEC homes and Liv West which would be the first new build energy sprong homes in
England we support the acquisition of 86 vacant family homes for affordable housing at Social rent and shared ownership which will make a significant contribution to meeting the needs of many families in housing need in the city and we’re building again as a council for the first time in 40 years
Well-designed high quality homes that we hope will raise the bar in overall standard of new sustainable private sector owned homes in the city and I’m really pleased to say that at this point we’ve sold half of the development while we’re still several months of completion in this housing market that is a substantial
Achievement um and talks to the the quality that we have a vision for in terms of all housing in Plymouth so despite our strong track record and I don’t think anyone can say that that isn’t a strong track record our housing needs have increased significantly and the housing delivery landscape has become increasingly
Challenging in recent years levels of new and affordable housing delivery in Plymouth have reduced to record low levels in particular we Face development viability challenges um due to the high building costs and relatively low housing values in the city basically it costs as much to build a house in
Plymouth as it does in London or Swindon or Bristol or exitor but our land values are substantially lower and a lot of the land we have left isn’t easy to build on because that’s all been built on already and we’re not about to start infringing on the easy
Build green land to build new houses and so we are looking at Brownfield and complex sites that have been dedicated for housing and allocated to housing for a long time which which haven’t been brought forward so we’re working hard to rebuild a pipeline of delivery in a difficult viability situation on very
Complex sites um but we will deliver and we are looking at affordable housing completions beginning to recover now and we’re looking to them coming back to where they were recently our housing needs are increasing at the same point of difficulty in housing completions as a result of a number of challenges fac bed
In recent times Rising inflation cost of living crisis the lack of affordable housing options which have significantly impacted on people’s ability to meet their day-to-day needs including their housing needs and there are specific issues around the private rented sector and changes in uh National approaches to investment and Taxation for private
Landlords which is significantly hindering that sector at the moment that has resulted together in a significant increase in both homelessness and the use of temporary accommodation in Plymouth to give you some idea of the housing need and challenge we face um as of January 24 we have 8,597 households on the Devon Home
Choice register of which 1,351 are in high banding priority need the number of housing lets in the social housing sector has declined reducing by 36% in the past 5 years 874 social housing units were let in 2022 23 that’s 4.6% of the total stock and demonstrates the current static
Nature of the social housing stock but if you were to compare 874 housing units L against a waiting list of 8,597 households you’ll see the sort of pressure that affordable housing is under I’m sure it’s something that many of us see in our casework as people ask for us to
Intervene in 2022 23 the number of households in significant need of an affordable home that’s bands B and C outstripped Supply by 2575 households approaches by households concerned about their housing has increased by 42% over the past three years and is projected to increase 79% in this financial year alone in the
Past nine months we’ve had an average of 173 homeless applications every month that’s a 30% increase on 201920 we currently have 342 households in temporary accommodation of which 167 are families in addition there are a further one 181 households in bed and breakfast of which 29 are families as
The existing temporary accommodation is clogged up because there is no affordable or private rented sector accommodation for people to move on to this has increased our in-year service budget pressures and this year those are at 2.4 million pounds as we have reported at every single opportunity and talked about um there are
1,365 Plymouth households on the Devon Home Choice register with accessibility needs and Beyond this there are over 600 people waiting for disabled facilities grants adaptations to be completed in their homes so it is clear we need a plan for homes 4 to move us into the next stage of delivery to accelerate existing
Activity as well as identify and bring forward new initiatives to respond to the challenges and the need for new homes that I’ve just set out in our initial planning for plan for homes for we have identified six housing themes for Action to address these challenges one affordable housing two
Market housing three private rented housing four Partnerships five supported and specialist housing and six a crosscutting theme of climate action plan for homes 4 is due to go to Cabinet on March the 11th so we’re asking you today to help us think through exactly what that looks like
Which is why you don’t have a draft because we’re still working on it and so this is an opportunity for scrutiny to inform what happens in plan for homes 4 um in order that we can with our partners deliver towards the housing needs in Plymouth in the next five years thank
You thanks Council bathy are we are we likely to get a draft is that the idea we well I think before it goes to I think at the moment it’s going to be really difficult on timetabling because we have to get the draft get it through
All the processes um and get it to publication date on I think the 28th of February um and we’ve been working on this since last summer when we spent the first six months concentrating on homelessness so it’s a fairly concentrated timetable but we know that with our work with homes England and
Partners they’re desperate for us to get this to set the next five years for their strategic plans as well so we’re just trying to get in as fast as we can to maximize inward investment to the city so um so we’re at that please tell us your thoughts and we’ll take those
Away and try and meld them into everything else that’s going on so there’s more more consultation okay great right questions members colleagues uh councelor car and then we’ve got Noble thank you chair thank you very much for the very comprehensive report it’s interesting interesting to find out
What’s happened over the last 10 years one of the things I’m really is about empty homes and actually utilizing empty homes and I see from here that in the last nine years you’ve managed to utilize 385 long-term empty properties do we know how many properties we’ve got empty currently in
Plymouth and what are the plans in place to sort of turn that over to get them used again I’ll pass on to Neil for exact numbers in Plymouth empty homes is not the problem it is anywhere else and uh we need empty homes so a landlord will have an empty home while they
Refurbish it between tenants um if you move house and you haven’t sold at the point you move your house will be empty if granny dies and it’s going through probate your house will be empty so there is a degree of where the market needs some empty housing so we tend not
To talk about those when we’re talking about it in terms of long-term empties they tend to be problem cases so a case where someone dies there’s no prob beta and three or four people can’t agree what to do with the estate and the house will sit there some people just move
Away away and leave them um some people die in testate with no legats and that takes time there are other buildings like pot black in devonport which have been a continual problem and they’re put on our empty homes list purely because there it’s one of the ways to keep them
On the boil so we are we’re coming up with things but those are all different situations so for every empty home our empty homes team work on a specific action plan that might be about lending some money to get it brought into use it might be about um taking enforcement
Action it might be about mediations um it can be about all sorts of things so rather than saying here is our one plan we actually have a plan which is tailored to every single individual circumstance so I can’t give you a here is the Quick Tick box it’s more that we
Take every single one into use and we work really closely with revs and Bs and we do an annual sweep of empty homes to make sure that they are actually empty and that they’re paying a cancel taxes so they either get the premiums or we make sure that registered as in use and
That has generated as a whole load of canel tax over the last few years as well but in terms of numbers Neil that’s in your team you’ve probably got a better sense for long-term entities yes okay so longterm EMP is over six months um they’re just over 800
I mean the number obviously varies week to week um but as as Council pen bery says we do that annual check over the summer to make sure those records are correct so um the 800 are the uh the properties that we focus on in terms of
Our actions as a team and um primarily those are around financial assistance so that’s providing loans to bring properties back into use um for uh empty homeowners where where that’s required and um in addition to that we use legal Powers so particularly compulsory purchase and for sale and a number um
Empty dwelling management orders when necessary to um to encourage owners to bring their properties back into use and as as Council penury says the reasons for empty properties are many and various and um often complex family situations sit behind them but where necessary we will use legal powers and
Um in fact there are two CPO cases coming to Cabinet in March um which are properties that have been empty more than 10 years and we’ve tried everything over that period of time had no um no engagement from the owners and in those cases we will you know use the
Powers um such as compulsory purchase okay and just quickly chair in terms of the overall housing numbers in Plymouth that’s well under 1% of homes in terms of over six Monon empty so it’s it’s not like some places which have got thousands and thousands um and so we
Really working at nitpicking and that’s how desperate we are to get hous impl we are nitpicking at small things and lots of small sites and lots of small bits there’s not big tranches let’s build 2,000 homes there unless it sherford or warwell or those massive sites identified in the joint medcal
Plan um yeah thank you just that’s really interesting it’s just for clarity I wasn’t talking about sort of moving into Granny’s home straight after she died because it’s in Probate or someone who’s like it open you know not there for two months because they’ve gone off in the sabatical it was the long-term
Ones I think as counselors and as Plymouth residents I think we can all identify ones on our street even or ones in our wards that have been left abandoned for several like years and sort of and they they do become into absolute disrepair and you do always
Look at it when you’re going past and you think my goodness you know that could been posing has in a family that could have been converted into flat so it’s good to hear of what the team are doing are looking down as you say it might be only 0.1% but if that could
House another you know 100 families that’s going to be a huge mass of benefit for us all thank you just just to add that um we also work with organizations like Plymouth homes fet and path to um bring empty properties back into use at local housing allowance and make financial assistance available
To to them to encourage them to make more rented property available in the city which is uh is short supply thank you okay thank thank you councilor Noble um most of my ward was um built about the same in about the same time between about 1965 and
1980 um and people moved in they’ve made their family now they’re um getting to an age where really they ought to down size but most of the houses that are living in a a family houses um you could have a family in but people in a number
Of cases are stuck to living in one or two rooms of the downstairs because that’s all they can access um as their age and illness um comes in what of the plan for homes how are we going to um build people’s life cycling and perhaps could we use um you know what we’re
Going to build in the future to help move people from um underutilizing family houses to um you know accommodation that’s more suitable for them when you look at some of the Census Data um you know wards that have um the highest rented um accommod percentage of rented households
Um they have the lowest number of houses with one or more spare rooms um or spare bedrooms so how could we um you know Capac increase the capacity utilization of our housing um perhaps by having a ventable um accommodation um for people to move on once they’ve you know you finished with
Their not needing a larger family home um downsizing is always a really big issue because I see a lot of people no matter how difficult don’t want to leave their family home um and when they do they want to Bungalow and if we’re looking at housing delivery at the
Moment we’re looking at maximizing delivery on sites because Bungalows are land heavy for very few outputs what we have done as we’ve done plan for homes is we’ve identified the sites that we own where we have asked for Bungalow provision as part of it um and so we’ve
Done some little lville sites around the city with some Bungalows um and we’ve got some down in clemton um behind the brook uh that are being developed for on that purpose we did some in North Prospect um in your own Ward counselor the windmill car park development to improv parking facilities includes
Bungalows and there we’ve asked for first Let to people in the local community who want to downsize so that first option being given I’m sure it’ll be a popular option it’s really difficult because to do that means more subsidy is needed because there are expensive options to build forward um
And we’re looking at it um we’ve had some really successful um supported housing schemes so out in ER settle we did a really nice one that’s been very very popular um to give people that extra bit of move on um but it’s difficult to get um registered providers
Now to take on supported housing schemes because the complexity of them is a lot harder than managing your General stock um so that’s something that we are beginning to look at further um but um as we can all see with Abby field it’s not an easy fix um and you know that’s
One where we that was our land we put lots of effort as have homes England and others into it and now we’re we’re sort of caught in a trap of trying to bring it forward so it is something we’re looking at we’re aware that people want to down size where they live not
Somewhere else and that means in some of those communities we’re going to have to have some tough conversations about well you want downsizing but does that mean that this little bit of car park goes or we you know this little bit of green we we take
A nibble off the end to put some extra housing on and those are some of the really complicated questions about providing as you know windmill car park very few accommodation units to support something that is extremely controversial in the community yet it’s being done to meet the needs that
Community has asked for so we are doing it and we’re continually looking at it and we will be going forward I think some of the interesting perspective um given that the joint local plan identifies the city center as a Housing Development site basically um uh we’re
Talking now about um how we create a town in the city center um what options there might be for older people to choose to downsize into some of those um mixed tenure um opportunities in the city center um rather than necessarily staying where they are because it puts
Them into the heart of things so we are continually thinking and when we develop a scheme it’s what can we do as a mix so let’s not develop 300 Bungalows here for older people because then you have a community that isn’t particular sustainable let’s actually find how we
Put some family housing and some Bungalows and some some other single people Flats in so that there are older people and younger people and single people all together close to amenity um which isn’t I hasten to say a 15minute town or city approach it’s actually approach about sustainable communities
And people having neighbors and places they want to live um so each scheme we are looking at like that and Matt and his team on each of the sites we do say can we meet some of this particular housing need on these sites and we do site planning statements to bring those
Forward so it’s not once again it’s not an easy fix but it’s something that’s we’re really conscious about um and we know that we want to support older people to live in their homes or in their communities as long as possible rather than ending up in residential
Care which isn’t good for them and isn’t good for us and our budgets and actually that’s not the real reason to do it it’s not good for them it’s for the real reason okay councilor pen Roes thank you my my question was about the city center and because it’s it’s
Mentioned there in in paragraph 34 and it’s mentioned as a challenge and um it was interesting and your just the answer you’ve just given to hear you elaborating about that so my question was really in the in the plan is there going to be more about precisely what
We’re aiming to do in the city center who we would be partnering with and just in bratic has the local has the recent government announcement made any difference to that to um I’ll deal with the first the last Point first before I come on to the city
Center um I think in terms of housing over the last 12 years on All Points of housing there’s probably been an announcement a week as a minimum on housing um it’s great to get government announcements what we’re not seeing come through is actually deliverers at a
Local level um and that’s not a party political process it’s nice to make an announcement with Laura curg but actually that announcements law of cburg doesn’t necessarily reflect the legislative changes or the practicalities of delivering on the ground so whoever’s making those announcements that’s great give us the
Money give us the power and give us the ability to do it rather than just getting your sand bite on a TV program it doesn’t help us and that’s not me being party political it’s me being a frustrated um Cabinet member for housing um in terms of the city center that’s
Actually a really important issue we don’t want to build up to 5,000 new homes on sites in the city that would inevitably have to be predominantly green we do believe that by intensifying population in the city center which is a direction of travel we’ve been taking
For quite a long time I know it’s my ward I represent about 13,000 electors now rather than the just 8 and a half or so it was when the ward was first boundaries um because we are intensifying we know we can do more that means we need more
Height um and we’ll be looking at more height we’ll be looking at the Joint local plan allocations um and there are a number of those I don’t think we can talk about specifics of who we’re talking to because that’s still early stages or still in commercial sort of
Discussions um but it is known that there are sites at uh Mayflower Road East so around the Mayflower house Citadel that area where they’ve been planning permissions and their stall what can we do to bring those forward um Colin Campbell Court in that bottom end of town is no secret that that’s another
Area that we wish to look at B Street on the town fringes will come forward St John’s on the east of Sutton Harbor Town Center fringes how can we bring those forward it begins to stack up but there’s are lots and lots of players in
There um it will be of no surprise to those of you who are geeky enough to watch the homes Inland Twitter stream to know that those are very senior level discussions which is why the chief executive of holes England was down with his senior team very recently and met a
Number of us to talk about our Ambitions for a town in City Center specifically so we are progressing very substantive discussions and seeing what we can do to bring forward quickly some of those those in include enabling things and if you go to sford they’ll say sort the
Transport links sort the public realm um sort the problems around the edge and actually the private sector will move in and do the other bits for you so there’s a whole load of work that are those sorts of projects going on at the moment some of them are extremely controversial
Some of them are stored because of Partners but those are all things we are working on because we see that as a in terms of housing a quick win housing is never a tomorrow or next year win but it’s all that and Paul’s got his hand up
And Paul you can fill in anything I’ve I’ve missed but I think what I have tried to do is not go and say anything I shouldn’t have said indeed I was just going to build upon that that eloquent description of what the scale of the ambition is working with um Partners uh homes
England historic England and others um uh in terms of the scale of opportunity that uh that we’re seeking to to bring forward in the city center but I was just going to um emphasize the point that that are current policies in the joint local plans support that already so strategic objective number three
Talks about delivering growth in the city center and the Waterfront area and creating a destination um for the city center and talks about mixed uses we know that we have a city center whose footprint is bigger than Manchester but is clearly um uh nowhere near the intensity of development that that one
Sees in some other English cities and of course that will create footfall for businesses but open up new opportunities for affordable housing and other forms of tenure and then uh there’s a specific policy pl6 uh which is entitled improving the city center uh and that specifically talks about uh supporting the
Intensification and diversification of uses through the Redevelopment of City Center blocks with specific sites identified where tour buildings may be appropriate so I think this is an evolution of the current policy working through for example through detailed Master planning exercises engaging the community uh through that process um to
Realize that uh incredibly exciting Vision but there’s no doubt that when we come to review the local plan um the role of the city center is going to um be uh very significant indeed thanks Paul right um I’ve got councelor spr and then Council mcleay okay thank you um I think
Councilor penber you kind of alluded to what my question was going to be um when talking about the sensitivities of community um what I have noticed is when traveling other parts of the Southwest is when it comes to significant builds um in Social and private housing there
Tends to be a kind of Inc with natural increases in population uh comes increases in antisocial behavior and and further issues um my question kind of alludes to what steps are we doing to um integrate these large housing projects into the community while whil ensuring we don’t destabilize the existing
Community’s feelings in relation to crime and antisocial Behavior thanks I think if we were to talk about large housing developments in Plymouth at the moment we’re talking about shefford and we’re talking about warwell because those are the ones that are at scale um and in those those are
Whole Master planning issues that come forward with that take a lot of time a lot of consultation in Plymouth we’re actually doing a lot of relativ small scale builds so from five to 30 or 40 homes which don’t ever quite count as as massive um in some areas that’s actually
Really positive because a street that hasn’t quite been completed gets completed with the last one two or three houses and when you think of a lot of the post builds that cancor Noble was talking about there tended to be a site that was the bit that was the the store
Site the recreation site the everything else the offices and the porter cabins and when they moved off that with the last few houses that weren’t built on a street or whatever we’ve been doing some of the infills there because actually it’s not putting large numbers of people
Into a new area it’s it’s filling a gap we’ve looked at some school sites where those have been the big ones have already gone but those were like the passive house site which was 70 OD homes clth community homes already had housing in that area it’s in your ward um and
And actually worked on that others are areas that were major problems another one in your ward um is the old Whitley Community Center site that was a hub for antisocial behavior um and where we’re bringing housing forward actually bringing people living into an area where there’s antisocial behavior and
You bring in families in a different Community mix begins to mean you’ve got oversight and changes so we’ve looked at each one separately and looked at what are the appropriate mitigations we’ve worked really closely because a lot of the sites we’ve brought forward have been with Partners we’ve been putting
Them with site planning St statements they’ve got large numbers of affordable so people like Plymouth Community homes and live West and others want to make sure that they they’re building in places where they’ve got other stock they want to build that cohesion they’re also putting their own support in
Through their housing offices and development teams so you get some additional stock going in to areas not less we don’t have at the moment another North Prospect or devonport bar Barton’s going on and the two associations there have been working really closely with the community long before the demolition started
Talking about what the community Ambitions were in order that the new schemes met those and tackle some of the issues that the community’s already faced so we take it almost on a one by one um and that comes through consultation and careful thinking um once sites begin to be identified and
Begin to be known I do try and work really hard with Ward counselors um broadland Gardens is a fine example of that I worked really closely with Vivian she said we need to to do something with an antisocial site together we came up with a solution with the community and
Maybe that’s why we’re selling so successfully um but you know it’s those sorts of bits similarly in efford we had some real oh you shouldn’t be building on that site and now it’s really well established and and part of community because we’ve turned a problem site into
A positive site and I think that’s probably the nature of a lot of the housing sites we’ve been doing they’re not the big ones um the obviously the the really big one I said we weren’t putting in the number at the moment is the land at West Park which is actually
In s hams not Plymouth anyway it’s in the joint local plan and we’re looking very sensitively at how we do that in a way that enhances um what we’ve got that is currently not available to the community but actually enhances a Riverside walk that or Streamside walk that doesn’t
Exist because there’s lots of field boundaries and we can actually do some stuff that actually makes it better for the local community at the same point as meeting housing need and bring forward low carbon and do other things because those are Community aspirations we know it’ll be controversial but we know that
By working we can begin to cut some of those fine example was run Plus at manam Center which was outright opposed at day one by the time it came to planning all the loc Community was saying we want this build because it’ll be good for us
Not bad for us and those are what we try and Achieve thank you councelor mlay thank you chair um I just want to say how firstly how much I appreciate how complex multifaceted the issues around um housing are um I’m going to pick up a little bit on the private rental sector
So like many young people I I am a renter it’s really hard to find good quality um rental accommodation in Plymouth it’s hard to come by substandard and it’s it’s expensive really do we have an issue in Plymouth with holiday lets like Airbnb taking housing stock away from residents when
That they could be better service by an enhanced Hotel offering and I’m also wondering how we use our influence as a local authority to work with landlords and letting agencies to Advocate um the benefits of say adding uh insulation to improve conditions for renters cheaping bills and help achieve our Net Zero
Aims councel have you got your microphone on sorry um so as we said private V sector is one of our six it is really important and yesterday I was with the Southwest landlords Association I meet with them very frequently to talk about big issues in the sector um Airbnb
Is a problem it’s not as much a problem here as it is in other communities I was talking to councelor ett Who’s the co-chair of the M edum committee and represents the other side she’s got villages in her Wards which have 60 70 80% airbnbs and second homes and
Basically it’s meaning shops are closing schools are closing everything’s disappearing and the there’s no one there to work it’s actually totally changing we don’t have quite that level across the city as a whole we do know that some of the new builds have been B bought by Airbnb people um which is not
What we built them for but that’s what happens um and we do know around the ho some of the areas there we’re seeing accommodation turned into other things Airbnb needs national government to take some action on licensing the Airbnb website was set up for people to let their spare room for people on
Occasional use almost a theater Geeks type you know here’s someone coming in that’s not what it is anymore it’s become an industry and it needs regulating and I think that regul would be very helpful to us and to everyone else it would mean that businesses weren’t using domestic waste to get rid
Of their business waste they weren’t using domestic car parking permits to parking places and they would have to make sure they met the same criteria as hotels and bed and breakfast because airbnbs are actually helping push some of those out of business so I’m not an
Airbnb fan I can see a place for it um and it is having some impact I think the bigger impacts on the private rented sector relate to a whole sthe of different changes that have been influenced by government either directly or indirectly um it used to be that if you did improvements to
Your home or to your rented properties you could get better tax deductibility on it without that tax deductibility it becomes very difficult um especially if you’re having to borrow money and if you’re doing long-term um retrofit type things the payback time is 25 years if you’ve got no tax deduction
Actually it goes beyond the length of any borrowing you might do by remortgaging your property and even if you do do that and the interest rates are high what does that mean to you in Plymouth a lot of our landlords own relatively few probably less than 10
Properties um and a lot of our landlords do that because it is their pension fund and their pension fund is been whittel down by that they’ve lost their capital gains exemption so now effectively a landlord pays higher tax than um the basic rate taxpayer which was never the intention so I think we
Need to have a look and I agree with the the national landlords Association on this that some of the Taxation and regulation around the private rented sector that means that landlords aren’t being chased out not because they want to leave but because of anything else we want to support good landlords and we’re
Working really hard and most of our landlords are while we’re doing that we’re looking at how we can improve the way we do enforcement but enforcement can also take time and we need some of that process spread up but we’re looking at our systems and underneath that we
Are currently exploring what some of that might look like within the resource window we have to enable it what that looks like for HMO licensing and everything else because private rented sector accounts for disproportionate or rented sector as a whole accounts for disproportionate property portfolio in
Plymouth and we need to make sure that that substantial amount about 45% more of our population are well housed so we we’re we’re on it we know it needs more work at the moment the market is driving rents up because people are leaving it and there’s too much demand for the
Supply um and so some of that’s beyond our control but we can work with the land offord to try and make it better that’s fine okay thank you thank you colleagues right uh thanks Council empathy and team I thought that’s a very good strategic presentation and it the
Plan looks good we look forward to reading it when it when it’s public I hope those comments were useful from the committee and and thanks for bringing that forth to us and good luck with it so excited I mean you know this but but I think for many years many of us have
Talked about this sort of inner city Urban Development and how although we’ve had many successes as a city we are behind the curve on this compared to many of the other 55 cities in England and it’s really good that you’re continuing this and developing new new
Work in the area so good luck and we will we will particularly look at empty homes downsizing in the private rent sector um the city center and how we do community consultation so formally though we need to move forward and uh we need to just approve the report that’s
Been presented so is recommended that the growth infrastructure overview and scrutiny committee uh one note the report that we’ve just heard is that okay thank you thanks colleagues right excuse me okayed um we’re now moving on to agenda item seven and um I think half the
Council have come into the room or about to come into but um so yes yes so we’ll just let them get settled and that’s for the next item but just very briefly now uh agenda item s economic intelligence and insight I think hopefully we’ got
Toby Hall yeah in the room is he y Toby when you’re ready over over to you welcome okay fine yeah y who whoever is just just if you can uh begin soon but but just introduce yourself that would be really helpful thank you there you
Go we’re on agenda it of seven so that’s the one just proceeding you leader I think so uh economic intelligence and insight we’re just going to cover off first hello very briefly um I’m Lauren pton I’m one of the economic development officers from theate Council um I’m just
Here to talk briefly um following the um scrutiny in in nov remember sorry we did um an economic intelligence briefing and just thought that we would um update you on some of the similar statistics but also working in some new ones under the same headings um just to give you a good
Idea about um the position of Plymouth in terms of the statistics nationally and things um can I have the next slide please oh perfect um so to begin with we’re just going to look at the business economy um so looking at the births of new Enterprises um there’s been a rise of
Almost 25% between 2017 and 2020 um with a peak of over 1,000 in 2021 Plymouth has consistently seen higher and uh new Enterprise birth in England over the past 5 years um with a gap of 35% growth growth in 2021 for Plymouth um the 2022 data shows that Plymouth increased new Enterprise Birth
By almost 25% compared to the 2017 numbers um whereas England was significantly less um and this shows that plymouth’s enter News Enterprise births has continued uh positive um positive sustainment over the past five years whereas England has declined um so next looking at the labor market and job vacancies and
Unemployment um this graph we showed you last time but we thought we would update it um but just to go over it again the unique job postings have been steadily increasing and have in fact almost doubled since the 2018 data um the dip in the recent data in December 20123 is
Likely due to the seasonal variation and not um doesn’t change the trend of the upward W slope um so that’s expected um and then in terms of the claim and count that remains low and under the UK average um at 3.4% for Plymouth okay the next slide
Please um so looking at productivity in November we spoke to you about gva which is a measure of um like total output for the economy so we thought we would look at productivity which is GV per hour or per FTE which is like per job
Um and so looking at the data from 20 from 2004 to 2016 we saw an increase um however this is relatively Flatline since the 2017 data at around 45,000 and that’s in terms of gva per FTE um looking differently at the index which uses the UK average as are
100% um the pattern follows that between 2004 and 2016 gva per hour was increasing and we were working to close the gap with the UK average um however since 2017 um likely due to the effects of covid and brexit um gva per hour in Plymouth has fallen um and the 2021 data
Which is the most recent one is 81.5% of the UK average however this it is worth noting that in this index London is included so that quite heavily skews productivity um for obvious reasons um next slide please um and then finally just briefly we thought we would go into the key
Sectors um you’ve seen this pie chart before which shows the key sector split of ftz FTE sorry um around Plymouth but again just to reiterate that’s only 40% of the total economy so this pie chart is in all of the jobs andth just the top 40 within the key sectors um we thought
We would go briefly into the advanced manufacturing and Engineering sector um which is over 4,000 FTE and over 300 million gva and is the third largest key sector within Plymouth um and interestingly over the last 10 years so that’s from 2011 to 2021 um Plymouth has seen significant
Higher growth rates than the UK average so for FTE jobs it’s over 25% um in Plymouth whereas over that same time period which again is 2011 to 2021 um the UK saw less than 1% um FTE growth and then similarly looking at gva Plymouth saw over 78% growth um whereas
The UK saw just over 4% so um Plymouth is grown quite significantly especially when considering the UK average within that sector um that’s everything that we have so far but is that any questions thank you no no it’s exactly why we asked for this a few months ago I just
Think that’s a really good synopsis and dashboard of of of what we’re responsible for here here in Plymouth and there’s some heartening things in there I have to say there’s disappointing growth figures in there for the United Kingdom as well and and um you know we can discuss s of reasons
For that in our private channels and things but it’s at least good to hear uh what’s going on uh across the city now any questions on the data or the issues related to the data councelor gosin councelor well thank you much chair um I suppose the most striking graph from the
Um yeah really good report is the gva current price index in continual declines in uh effectively productivity from 20 17 on and this doesn’t seem to be stopping what causing this is it a change in the mixx of of jobs in Plymouth that we’re seeing fewer High skilled jobs and therefore less
Productivity or are the jobs or current manufacturers or um I suppose employees in pouth become becoming less productive um do you want me to take it um so we actually had did have a quick look at this um but quite happy to go into more detail about it like and send
Your half page report or something but um it’s important to notice that in that data the most recent data is the 2021 data which is obviously Peak Co and productivity for obvious reasons did go down in that period across the across the UK um that coupled with the effects
Of brexit which line up quite nicely with the 2017 beginning of the decline um and the just the makeup of the economy within Plymouth with with a heavy manufacturing and Industry heavy um makeup those um that sector sorry was quite significantly hit and disproportionately hit due to those effects of covid and
Brexit um so I think a combination of that did mean that Plymouth unfortunately um suffered because of those things but it is again important to notice that that is 2021 data and we’re not sure how that is affected in 2022 in 2023 coming out of covid and
After kind of uh trade um things were more streamlined or sorted thank you just add to that jerem sorry chair the other thing to just say is that you’ve got to remember that we were narrowing the Gap incredibly well from 2012 to that point uh you can’t get
To 100% of GBA it’s just weth saying because the Distortion effects of London so you know clearly what we’re not looking at is that we haven’t had Pros over 10 years what we’re saying is from 2012 to 2017 we were really really narrowing the Gap and then we’ve
Plateaued and then and then it’s sort of dropped off in the last two years so I think that point around you know the success of the manufacturing and just to draw out the figure that you know Lauren said you know 707 78% increase in GBA for the City compared to 4% National is
Probably a reflection of the impact of covid so so that the recovery is exceptionally strong because the hit was exceptionally poor and if you just remember all the manufacturing plants closed down for covid and then and then in restarting the the issues of production line that that’s why we were
Vulnerable but that’s also why recover so I think m m I think L you said it brilliantly but I think we’ really got to watch what what we have now in the next year and see if that was a cured recovery Trend or there’s something more
Baked in because it’s it’s it is a sticky problem and that’s of course I me the other thing if you look at the 100 million pounds of grant funding that we’ve currently secured every penny of that is driven around productivity increases and sector increases so in one sense if we weren’t having productivity
Issues then our job would be done and that’s that’s kind of why we just got to keep going at it I think counc thanks very much for the for the clarity there I mean this is indexed onto the UK so all of UK was affected by
Covid um so I think yeah it would be really interesting to see some more detail on this especially next year if any new data comes out and bring coming back to this uh this committee because yes I understand that you that Plymouth has increased and did and increased but
The decline in recent years is much more dramatic than those increases and it is something we need to be need to be watching because this is this is probably the key index for how well pth is doing as the city thank you thank you you just very briefly com in we just
Running a little um just interestingly on that point um obviously I spoke about earlier that London is included in that index um and just the impact of Co because London’s economy can be more um work remotely and it’s less like industry that is in Plymouth it will
Have been affected slightly less due to the lockdowns and covid um which might um add add to that kind of increasing Gap in Plymouth purely because Plymouth might have had further closures people might not have gone into work because they had to be there in person to do
Their jobs versus London which would have been able to shift more remotely quite easier and quicker than in p so it’s just worth noting that sorry thank you Council Gilmore I think you had your hand up thank you chair thank you Lauren um I had a kind of related question about
This data on um page 133 the 69% and 78.4 6% they’re so different that I just wondered um if that’s a real signal in the data or if the if it’s to do with very small sample size or something they’re so different I just wonder if there’s another reason
Rather than just you know wonderfulness that’s my question I think I think Lauren the questions about productivity doesn’t have a single measure does it it might just worth explaining the different measures because clearly on some measures we look better and some we look wor might you just explain the difference between the
Measures yeah so um obviously I said before that gva’s um gva is an output of the total economy and the value added um within that the different measures one of which or the two that we went into was gva per hour um and then the other
One was GV GV per FTE so obviously more productive um some sectors sorry are more productive in in certain aspects um and advanced manufacturing and Engineering varies quite a lot um but it’s may be worth mentioning as well that in that in some of the analysis that we’ve done um marine and defense
Have been taken out in Plymouth as a separate key sector just because of how we wanted to highlight that previously um and so um it’s worth noting that like marine and defense are separate and advanced manufacturing things count as Aviation AGR Tech and things like that which haven’t necessarily been included in
That measure in Plymouth so it would be worth us maybe looking a bit deeper into what exactly they look into for each one can I just also as if you look at the gva per job that’s obviously a very specific measure of what’s happening in
The city it’s the output of a job I know gva is technical but the way to think about it is the value that’s added to the economy through each process and I was the way it’s done for for economists when you’re learning about it is the
Fact that the farmer adds gva to the land Miller adds it to the flour and and the retailer adds it to the process so in each process the value that’s added to the economy is measured but if you look at the actual increase of gva contribution per job it’s gone from 30,000 to
45,000 during the last during that period That’s reported to what’s what’s clearly changed is the index which is our performance against percentage of the national average so so it’s they’re just different measures to look look at they’re you’re looking at different things the real terms our productivity
Our output is increasing but our output as an index of the whole of the country compared to London so so we can’t get to 100% because London’s output just distorts it’s so vast it’s a global City but clearly something’s happening in the trend line that we need to get to the
Bottom of and I think I think we just don’t quite know yet we need do have the years of data okay Council again okay right uh we’re running slightly behind so I’m going to uh ask the committee just to note that report with we’re happy with the report that’s been presented and
Thank you team for presenting that and compiling it I know lots of hard work goes on behind the scenes uh uh we move to agenda item eight which I think now you’ll get questions around economic growth so uh welcome to the leader of the council Judah Evans and his team and
Uh we’ll hand over to you in terms of presenting your uh plan for economic growth thank you um thank you chair um we have got uh Stella team uh out today plus myself and um so hopefully we’ll um we we’ll give a good account of ourselves uh we’re we’re about to refresh the
Economic uh plan for the city uh the last plan was developed way back before some of you were born in 2014 um we refreshed it a little bit in 20 as well just in time for Co um it’s probably worth spending a moment since it’s 10 years since we
Published to reflect what we’ve achieved in the last decade um we’ve delivered a 365 million pound Capital program which has brought in600 million pounds of match funding we have developed a 1 billion pound development pipeline we have secured a rolling average of 30 million worth of grant funding per year
And I think I might have mentioned this once or twice in recent Council meetings uh but um we currently have a 100 million pound to invest in economic devel development initiatives over the next two years um we have transformed the skyline of the city with major Redevelopment of Royal William
Yard uh the dord district Center and of course the Waterfront and we’ve develop delivered major inward investment including the Rangers International head office um the land registry HQ barcode and cine world with the third largest um H Mar Cinema in the UK uh We’ve secured Bon’s future uh and they
Are forever grateful to us for the work that our team did on that um we’ve become nationally recognized for our cultural placak and one of the reasons we won uh Cil the year was the culture driven Place making that we did as a local Authority so
We’re very proud of that um but of course as well as the box which we all know about there’s ocean Studios and the uh increasingly renowned devonport Market Hall project with their immersive Dome uh We’ve chumped and inclusive growth uh created a New Economic Development trust in in Whitley um on
Inclusive growth by the way um again uh regarded as I think the fifth uh best in the country for in inclusive growth um and that sprung out of our uh resurgen program that we developed in response to to covid uh We’ve championed tourism with the launch of uh Britain’s Ocean City
Mlow 400 and the development of Cru line of businesses um we are seeing I think 20 this year coming in double what happened this year last year uh that’s going very well and we’ve become nationally recognized for our work on the Marine sector um you talked about uh
Manufacturing I mean we are you know we have 17% or something of the country’s uh Marine uh manufacturing capacity here in Plymouth it’s really important that what’s really important now is the trail that’s been blazed uh in terms of uh Advanced uh Manufacturing in that space so we’ve got these assets which we’re
Helping uh to drive our uh Marine clusters at Ocean Gate Marine Enterprise Zone of course uh that’s what it’s called um to use its proper name uh We’ve also got the free port and uh recently uh Marina marit time launch pad uh the uh first in the country so we’re
Excited about that and we’ve developed more employment land than ever before with 11 direct developments and we’re getting to the point with those direct developments that we’re they’ve been fully let before we’ve actually had the keys off the builders um so there’s high demand for this kind of quality that
We’re developing so anyway it’s time not to look at the past although I do quite enjoy looking at the past because there’s quite a a lot to celebrate but in the light of the changes um that we’ve been talking about the demise of the laps um it’s time for us to um
Refresh refresh our plan again we don’t think we need to radically change course um I think some of the numbers that Lauren sort of picked out for us show that we’re you know we’re making progress in many uh many areas um but what we must do now really is to respond
To emerging National Trends and opportunities so the Net Zero stuff which I know uh most people understand is something we have to do there’s one or two people uh who who want to see the planet burn but that’s the their issue uh We’ve also got the growth in defense
Spending um you know we know now that we’ve got perhaps a 50y year Tam raising for the dockyard and and again rather than what we’ve been used to over the last couple of Decades of stock start will they won’t they you know we now know that there’s going to be some um a
Need for our Naval base and doyard for decades to come um and of course we’ve got the opportunity for the growth ports not a lot of people know but actually uh those big cargo ships I know everybody thinks they’re um you know I polluting but actually the cost of
Transporting goods by those ships is actually lower than any other form of transporting goods so they’re a good thing and what is also a good thing in Plymouth is that we have uh in cden for example um a port that’s capable of development and expansion um we also at
Mil Bay have a company uh ABP who want to invest in strengthening the dock side so that we can take more cargo and and move more Goods so these are really good and of course we’re going to continue to build on our strengths uh in the Marine
Sector so um we’re going to do the work chair in two stages um a review of The Evidence base and identification of our priorities priority areas we’ll do that before a April but because it’s a pre-election period we won’t be able to tell anybody about it um and then we’ll work with the
Growth board um and with yourselves please uh at scrutiny to develop four delivery plans um and they’ll be coming through in the course of the next year we’re going to take our time get it right so um we’ve appointed people in the cabinet to be the political leads and we’ve got
Business people that are willing to put their time in to be the business leads uh for these um priority areas but we’re looking at productivity in our Valley jobs for the first one inclusive growth second one and then we’ve got sustainable growth and finally civic pride and regeneration um
So there’s a lot to be excited about and Amanda uh who’s been working on this is going to give you detail if detail is what you would like thank you councelor EV um right CH suggestion if you want to go straight to the question I was going to suggest that
And then maybe the detail gets flushed out the details in the questions unless you had something really specific burning issue to say no very happy didn’t think you right okay um right members uh question please councilor stowman it’s just one very minor thing but this agenda item the one4 have two
Different figures for the unemployment rate one says 3.8 and one says 3.4 is there a reason for that difference probably just to do with what as we were writing doing it different times so thank you we’ll pick that up and yeah it’s a it’s an error thank you uh Council go
I touched upon my previous question to the report looking at this this plan for growth there’s a number of challenges here for Plymouth um just highlighting we’ve got we’re a city of low growth in population but high employment but relatively low wages on the other hand we’ve we’ve got lots of vacancies
Especially for skilled positions that’s quite an unusual position for a city to be in um so what what is the cause of this is it that we have become a bit parochial and that we’re not offering high enough wages to attract those skilled people to come to Plymouth is
That one of the main issues that we’ve got that we need to address so there’s a positive story in that the wage rates are going up particularly in full-time work and that is probably driven by some of the high value sectors so health health Tech the Bedrock sectors of defense and advanced manufacturing
That’s where we’ve got the the sort of real real growth in terms of um full-time roles the issue that you have sort of picked out is we haven’t as as the the population hasn’t grown and I think this comes back to when you look at some of
The actions and the the areas identified in the civic pride pride and regeneration is that we are going to need more housing we need to look at regenerating the city center and we need to have homes for people to work in in the city and um you it’s a it’s a it’s
An ecosystem and you can only get high value jobs if you’ve got an attractive place to live work and study so you got to you got to look at that whole ecosystem and the city center and the housing and the transport and how it all interlinks so you’re right there are
Some issues but you don’t you can’t look at it just in isolation you’ve got to look at it as the whole ecosystem we just start counter to this if you look at areas of rapid development uh across the country then tends to go the other way around the
High value jobs and money bring the high value homes and so on because that’s what attracts the investment to build those homes if you look at you know London docklands and other aspects of development in the 80s and other cities in around Manchester it’s it’s the money which drives investment which which
Gives you the uh the housing you don’t usually build the housing and expect hopefully the jobs to arrive at the other end we got the jobs yeah so um I think I don’t think that’s what Amanda said if I’m honest I think I think what um Amanda’s saying is that
The growth is going to happen so the Babcock growth is baked in so we know uh linked to the uh the defense Investments that very very old public around the submarine program that there will be a secured Pipeline and we also know there’s jobs will happen and they will
They they will they will they won’t the defense will happen the issue is are those opportunities going to be available for our local people are they going to see the benefit or as as happened in the 90s that on a Monday morning there was a huge influx of
Workforce and then on a Friday night there was a huge outflux of the worst Force up and down there’s there’s a it’s a mythology and not true but you’ll speak to people who were in babock at the time they said there were more accidents on the M5 and the M4 commuting
And ever in the dockyard which just gives a sense of so I think what Amanda’s saying is that we have to do a bunch of stuff we have to make sure that our kids get the opportunities to have those jobs that’s absolutely essential you speak to any industrialist in this
City and they will tell you that in recruiting some of the most talented people you want them to go away and come back you want them to go and have experience of the life in the world but when they come back and they’re going to take a risk of moving their career from
The West Midlands where there are 15 towns in a connation or cities into into the peninsula you have to create a holistic offer and part of that as amandas articulated is is the cultural placemaking it’s the it’s the housing and the residential so I I don’t think
We’re saying we’ll build the houses and they’ll come I we couldn’t be saying anything less than that I think we’re saying if you don’t have the hous if you don’t have the cultural offer those jobs will happen the growth will happen but actually we’ll be importing labor down
The M4 and the M5 to the detriment of our young people and our young kids so part of is you’ve got to skill the young people part of it you’ve got a lot of people who are a long way from the labor market who who’ got to be brought back
Into the labor market uh so I just I just think it isn’t you you know this J we’ve discussed it before there isn’t a single uh answer to it but this this economic plan has got to get fundamentally to grips with that and one of the things we we’ve done this time is
Instead of having a separate skills strand there skills is going to be a chapter of each of those four so the skills response won’t be like oh well here’s four growth plans and over here there’s a skills plan we’re going to integrate in Sally we should have should
We say Sally is going to I think be the sponsor for that J from right as well from the cabinet so it’s it’s a in a funny way we had we had the chief executive and major government agency down and he said you’ve got the demand
What you’ve got to do is realize the leveling up opportunity and that’s that’s both an opportunity for us and the challenge back to government to come alongside okay right uh councelor Noble and um I think we’ve got another council penro did you have your hand up essentially the same
Question yes if you go ahead and then Council Noble sorry I got the order wrong yeah I think um I was going to ask it before in the last section and my I was assuming that lots of the things you’ve said under pillar two were sort of trying to
Address that you know there these sort of quite worrying things you write in pillar two about ingrained issues and things so I I think you’ve just answered my question which was how these how having done the analysis how are you going to deal with it so so there’s a
Big debate in Economic Development nationally and there isn’t a right answer whether if you just do enough good things that trickles down to everyone or you actually have to to do some interventions to help and clearly it’s both if you don’t create the opportunities and the investment then
There’s no point in helping people step up because the opportunities aren’t there so you have to do both and I think some some cities get really excised about this and they chase one thing or the other you have to do both so what what what I think proudly this economic
Plan up until this point and going forward and you chuda might may want to say more because it was absolutely political interven and led was that we don’t believe here it’s enough just to do the really big things we also want to make sure that everyone gets the
Opportunities and if we did our leveling up bid which goes alongside the Free Port uh currently was awarded to us the 19.9 million based on that that narrative which is that we need to make sure that the education the young people that the SP are ready for those opportunities that
We know are already coming because otherwise it’s just going to happen to us and that’s kind of the worst of all world so so so that’s in a nutshell what what that is about so you once that you’ve you’ve answered your question correctly you’re right thank you counselor
Brost thank you it’s kind of um I was interested in essentially when we’re talking about attractive areas attractive jobs given the fact that we’re looking at Freeport um devonport ward has come second on the census for one of the most deprived areas for some time with um Kum for example has a
Nuclear base nearby an incinerator and a sewage treatment plan these aren’t necessarily the kind of most attractive kind of um facilities that people flock to come by um and when we talk about free Port this will in of course bring increase parking and um noise and lightning pollution and I’m
Really interested in the understanding of civic pride and regeneration so how are we going to be upscaling devonport essentially um when it’s going to have these kind of further issues with what I alluded to in regards to parking noise and lighting I can answer a technical question but I think sh might
Be better to to answer the the kind of the the political answer so there are some opportunities here which is that um the investment where it happens IE Babcock and then na you have an obligation to work with us to ensure that those local communities uh benefit
From them and they have been told that in no uncertain terms by government local authorities know that and have been told that too so I think the starting point is your point is understood and that’s where we start so I don’t think no one’s going to push
Back and say yes but you know so the first thing is we absolutely need to make sure and the operational issues referred to and then there’s some of those bigger employment issues there is some opportunity which is the Navy uh through statute has to describe uh on its contracts and don’t forget we’re
Talking billions of pounds social value so it’s a different way way of thinking about it so in the past you know a leveling up intervention in the city was here’s a grant here’s some money for you but actually if you’re spending two and a half billion pounds You Can level up
If you spend that money the right way so if you make sure that money provides opportunities for local residents it provides opportunities in the schools it provides opportunities for friendships it gives people that step up so we’ve got a huge opportunity in making sure that when major procurement is done for
Those huge huge projects that that social value is narrated in opport unities for the community and Amanda May CH may want to add something but what we have the opportunity to do is articulate a menu of things that would be uh the things that would score good for the
Procurement exercises so when when a contract comes forward and says this is how we’ll do social value in devonport instead of a list of things that we don’t want as being doing to us it’s a list we’ve crafted and we’ve co-created that the community wants and that’s
That’s a massive opportunity to do that and the thing that’s changed here is we’re not dealing with like feast and family in the capital program for for defense this is going to be a sustained investment over 50 years so we don’t have to get this right this
Year because it stops next year we can plan on a 10 20 year basis and I think that’s unique for us so I mean I mean sh if you want to you want to add anything to that I mean one of the things that I
Get to hear when I go around knocking on doors you probably hear this as well is that everybody says oh you’ll spend all your money in dport there’s never anything spent over here and the the part of the matter is we can never spend enough money in dport could we um but I
Think it’s important to remember what’s happened in the ward right in the last 20 years is had one of the most significant bits of regeneration of any part of the country um if you look at the U dockyard wall coming down and the complete transformation of uh C Cur stre and all
That Deca Access housing and all the terrible housing that was there before Canon and cor Street and how that’s been completely transformed so that’s investment in uh in the area I think we continue to strive for excellence in all our schools to give young people the flying start they need there’s going to
Be a requirement every of the next 10 years of another 250 skilled jobs in the dockyard I don’t believe that the those jobs are out of reach of the people who live in demort Kim I believe what we should be doing is striving to make sure that they have got
The chance to take those jobs if they if they want to that’s what we should be doing and that’s what I believe we are doing and that’s why the the the the skill strand to this which is going to underpin all four of these pillars is so important um it’s about giving people
Hope yeah just a supplementary on that um that’s really good to hear because um deprivation gets measured in lots of different ways from how many people smoke and pregnancies Etc um but the lowest wages per capita per household is in Kum um and there’s also some kind of
Social issues with that but it’s not one of the most deprived areas if you’re breaking it up by the wards it’s like 15th I think but it would be really good to get that investment and training for those people around the dockyard to have that I think I think we’ve it’ be a
Great use of resource and I think the people there would really appreciate that okay just before we bring in Council the noble think the remaining question just uh I I have feedback it’s more the more you know it’s not a question it’s more sort of feedback but
If you go to page 147 um where you got your SWAT analysis and maybe David put that in but thanks of putting that in uh I think it’s it’s really good analysis it’s sort of on the money in many ways where you mentioned weaknesses and threats you D dve you mentioned the word
Peninsula whether we like it or not it’s it’s a peninsular economy in many ways and and particularly since sort of home workking and hybrid working our resilience is tested by company’s abilities to put their staff online you know many companies um I I do have to
Come back uh and I’m not going to mention any platform but but we’ve had quite a dismal run of connectivity issues around public transportation and private transportation in the last few years we’ve had work done on the roads often the roads shut quite late at night if you’re sort of driving backwards and
Forwards from different parts of the country uh we we don’t have an airport at the moment and um I don’t want to get into that sort of now that’s not not the reason for this question we we’ve struggled with the trains over the last couple of years uh because of industrial
Action and other just other things going on so we I I feel PL particularly exposed in terms of Transport connectivity and and when I think you as leader as well you you’ve been up to these sort Great Western uh of meetings up up in Parliament youve everything every time
We go up there we talk about connectivity particularly sort of Transport connectivity and the other leaders as well do and and um I I you know it’s a private thing really I I just feel not enough has been done politically nationally to to address sort of this Region’s trans
Infrastructure but maybe I’m missing the small print here but I see the four pill I completely agree with everything that’s in there but are we missing out on transport connectiv or where is it I’ve missed it it was also picked up by the CBI and
Some of the feedback so yeah it it needs to go in there yeah okay uh councelor Noble I just wanted to go back and comment on the previous comments about um skills and Workforce Development and when I was at school you had the careers people in about 20 years ago and they
Said there wasn’t engineering opportunities Implement that was what these companies 20 years ago didn’t want to take the local people on now they perhaps not got people in senior positions to do the work to take the business on um so you know there’s far people came down the M5 or flew in or
Whatever people were doing but you had people you got schools um CV College universities here you know the University was up and running so was Maron so was you know the other institutions around and plenty of plenty of intelligent people in Plymouth but they imported the staff rather than
Investing and you’re at the position now where it’s limited you you’ve tied people’s hands lots of people up myself I I can’t say I do a job that’s adding lots of value to our economy necessarily um not to talk myself down but you’ve got lots and lots of people throughout
The city um you know this is this is where that very bad attitude 20 years ago they came in they come into my school there isn’t engineering opportunities in Plymouth that’s what we were told as um school children school leevers or they would they would mention that you could go to
Timb two and do it well you know a 15 or 16 year old hasn’t got any transport to go to you know Birmingham or Liverpool or wherever they were mentioning um you know when all of your family and Plymouth is a very local place people everyone lives in Plymouth all their
Family lives here so just an observation but pleased to see that you know perhaps a different attitude is advocated here in a sentence what is incredible I can’t comment on that you speak very eloquently about that personal experience you really do uh but what I
Can say is that that’s not where all the manufacturer are now in fact they’re the opposite they got an arms race competing for the local kids and the local that’s that’s actually the opposite problem now so so so I think um they’re all creaming off the very best and trying to keep
Them here and develop them so if I took you to any of those manufacturers now that culture you wouldn’t recognize it but I it’s a really it’s a really in and the other thing is the skills are changing massively thank you uh any further questions I think we’re just running out
Of time anyway but um right okay uh the committee has asked to do do two things one is to endorse the approach on the economic strategy including the production for delivery plans and governance Arrangements which I assume will come back to this committee every year hopefully that’s David I might have um
Got that wrong is is there and I think we’ve also asked if if the four sorry apologies yes yeah and secondly to add the four delivery plans to the scrutiny work program y happy I thought you oh there questions I missed there we’re all happy well well
Done team I think it’s really good to see this strategy come forward uh it’s eminently sensible isn’t it and it just shows the investment that everybody’s putting in to make this city the best city in England to live in my view so great well done and um that’s it free to
Go uh we’re almost there so should we just plow on through or do you need a comfort break for five minutes now on through okay uh agenda item nine track tracking decisions uh the committee will be asked to note its tracking decisions has anyone got any issues or things that they think
We’ve missed out we’re all tracking we’re all on track everything’s on track everything have been completed I think we informed you of the letter last time um and yet the other two actions from the last meeting have been completed Before Christmas okay okay sorry question on
The letter that was sent on V6 November did we receive a response to that all we did not thank you oh councelor M what letter uh sorry chair it was uh under the resolution the committee agreed to write to the relevant minister to ask for more support for organizations in
The cultural sector following significant increases in utility cost we we written that we sent it many weeks ago we sent a reminder I is it the same Minister I suspect not will it be after tomorrow uh right if we could send a reminder let is that if that’s protocol
Because it’s if you would like to rud not to respond to a formal elective committee Council in the city I can I can certainly do that thank you um thank you right uh agenda item 10 work program uh the committee will be asked to consider its work program and that is uh
In your papers right at the back can’t remember the P 171 some of us are remating next week aren’t we for the select committee um is everyone happy with the work programers question Council M please right thank you um I was under the impression that the review of a
Public toilets might come under this scrutiny committee is that due to be added or is it not sitting under this committee don’t believe it’s this committee I think it’s going to come under performance but it’s it has been discussed so it will be going on one of
The work programs um but I also believe that the um the papers were being published as that happen to it might not quite get on the work program next week but thank you right colleagues uh thanks for your time and questions this afternoon it’s been a very productive meeting uh that’s
The first for the last formal one that I’m chairing here clma city council because I’m standing down in a few weeks time so it’s been lovely working with with you all and good luck in the future