Agenda item

To consider a presentation from Bev Hindle, Growth Board Director on the Oxford to Cambridge Arc. 

The Growth Board received a presentation from Bev Hindle, Director Oxford to Cambridge Arc Leaders and Chief Executive Groups and Director Oxfordshire Growth Board, which provided an update on the Oxford to Cambridge Arc. Key aspects from the presentation were in summary that:

·           The Arc was in the early stages of its development and the role of Director of the Oxford to Cambridge Arc Leaders Group was being defined. At this stage it was principally to help organise what was a coalition of willing participants to explore and understand what might be meant by the Arc, what its geographical area might be and why it was needed.

·           The rationale and ideas for coordination and grouping of the area between Oxford to Cambridge to realise its potential had evolved over time, but the genesis of the current initiatives related to the work of the National Infrastructure Commission and efforts to understand more about the economic potential of the region. HM Government’s response to the NIC’s work at that time was that it wanted to investigate the potential further with the support of local authorities, local enterprise partnerships and universities. However, it had been difficult to agree a shared vision for the project and unfortunately some unhelpful headlines had emerged around housing numbers and the public’s perception of the Arc had been coloured by this.

·           An objective of the Arc Leaders Group was to seek to rebalance this conversation

·           The Arc area encompassed 30 local authorities including county, district and unitary authorities, 4 local economic partnerships, 10 universities, many diverse business interests.

·           HM Government in its 2019 Spring Statement set out that the Arc was an area of economic importance for the country, that it was a Government priority and that ministerial and civil servant resourcing should be coordinated and allocated to it.

·           Local Enterprise Partnerships had done significant work to map significant clusters of economic activity across the Arc area. The challenge was to do more by linking the areas up. Such linkages did not, however, necessarily imply the provision of an expressway or railway line, as it might be possible to achieve the same result through other means e.g. digital connectivity.

·           The challenge and opportunity for the Arc was to achieve more in collaboration than would have otherwise been possible through the sum of the actions of individual organisations or which would have happened anyway to plan for growth and economic area. 

·           The Arc Leaders Group does not currently have any decision making or formal board governance structures. It is a grouping of local authorities, local enterprise partnerships and universities working collaboratively and was not intended to reinstate a version of a regional assembly.

·           Although sub-national structures and groupings had been created in other areas of the country, for instance London and the Northern Powerhouse, no such group had existed for the area of the country covered by the Arc - even though this area had been the most successful economic area of the country apart from London

·           The different strands of the Arc activity fed into the Oxford to Cambridge Arc Leaders Group of local authorities and Arc as a whole. The Arc also had links to other regional strategic grounds such as England’s Economic Heartland, (EEH).

·           The workstreams of the Arc related to productivity, place and connectivity would be very important in pulling the work of the Arc together. Future potential workstreams included the environment and greater work with the health sector.

·           The Joint Declaration with HM Government set out a shared ambition for the Arc up to 2050 and represented a general commitment to seek to work together without specific commitments that might have been problematic. It did not represent a commitment towards joint governance or joint planning within the Arc area at that stage. 

·           It was fundamental to explore the potential for tangible benefits for Oxfordshire coming out of engagement in the Arc whilst still taking account of the impact of events outside of the Arc area.

·           Next steps include a genuine process by local authority leaders, local enterprise partnerships and universities to engage with the public and reframe and restart the conversations about the Arc, its value, its purpose and programme. It was intended to take a report to the Arc Leaders Group meeting on 21 June regarding this.

·           In addition, further HM Government commitment to the Arc would be sought through the Autumn Statement/Comprehensive Spending Review and discussions about a spatial framework and implications for Oxfordshire would continue. His recommendation to the Growth Board and its constituent authorities was that they should consider engaging in that process.

·           The Arc was not about the Expressway or about an East West rail. It was recognised both were relevant to and happening in parallel to the Arc’s own work, but that they were following distinct and separate statutory processes. 

As Chairman of the Oxford to Cambridge Arc Leaders Group, Councillor Barry Wood added the following points in summary:

·           He wished to reinforce the point that the Arc represented a coalition of the willing and that it was open to local authorities who did not wish to collaborate to leave if they choose to.

·           In his view it was important that all councils recognised the potential value of collaborating in this area with HM Government in addition to greater coordination and collaboration within central government itself. It was also important to join up local aspirations and aims with HM Government and its next step agencies such as Homes England, Environment Agency etc.

·           It was recognised that regional planning agencies and plans had not been popular prior to their abolition, but there was the prospect of the potential for collaboratively achieved sub-regional planning and that there could potentially be benefits to Oxfordshire of that work.

·           Working collaboratively opened the potential of not just achieving more than would otherwise be the case, but also achieving better outcomes.

·           An environmental workstream within the Arc’s work would be an important part of the Arc’s work.

·           The emphasis within the Joint Declaration of the value of the natural environment and the aim of realising housing and growth ambitions without degradation of the environment was highlighted along the link to HM Government’s 25-year environmental plan and importance of innovative housing design.

·           There was much to be gained and achieved through joint working and collaboration by Oxfordshire in the Arc.

In discussion, Louise Patten on behalf of the Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group commented that recognition of the importance of health and healthy placemaking was welcome. It was important that a networked approach was taken across the potential geographical area of the Arc to understand emergent thinking and for the health sector to be part of building the infrastructure that would be needed. Health leaders were already working together across the area and it was suggested it would be possible to report back to the Growth Board on emerging health thinking and how it linked back to the Growth Board and the development of the Arc.

Councillor Hudspeth commented that all Leaders were part of the Leaders Group, but that Councillor Wood had been elected to be Chair and paid tribute to his role. He outlined some of the issues with the previous regional planning authorities but commented that in his view it was now important to engage with Arc so that Oxfordshire authorities were represented.

Councillor Mills referred to his appointment as the Growth Board’s representative to the Oxford to Cambridge Arc Executive Committee at the previous meeting. When the Executive Committee met he would report back to the Growth Board

Lesley Tims on behalf of the Environment Agency commented that the Environment Agency and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs bodies would be leading work around a natural capital plan across the Arc and that she would be happy to report back to the Growth Board at a future meeting.

RESOLVED That the update report be noted.