Members received the report of the Executive Director which presented a draft Corporate Plan 2020-2027 for a 12-week period of consultation.  The aim of the consultation was to ensure residents, statutory partners, voluntary partners and interested parties had an opportunity to comment on whether the Council had identified the correct vision for the district and to give a wide audience the opportunity to forward their views on what the priorities for the district should be.

Since the Corporate Plan (2014-21) was agreed there had been a number of changes; political, social and economic, which together, with increasing demand for Council services, had proved challenging and would require a change in priorities.  A State of The District report had been produced which summarised data into the areas of: Population; Health & Wellbeing; the Local Economy; Housing; and the Environment. This report enabled the Council to ensure decisions about what the Corporate Plan priorities should be were based on evidence of need.

The Council met for a series of presentations and workshops in November 2019; discussions from these sessions had been summarised into action plans set out to compliment the Corporate Plan and designed to deliver on the visions and four priority areas identified, namely; Growing People; Growing Prosperity; Growing Places; and Growing Performance.

The new administration had since provided further direction in the form of a set of 10 strategic objectives which had also been included within the draft Corporate Plan.  To ensure these objectives were given a higher priority, they had been included within the action plans as overall ‘priority targets’.

The consultation exercise would last 12 weeks and then a period of analysis of the results would be required to prepare a final draft Plan for Cabinet to consider on 2 November 2020.  External consultation was to consist of an on-line survey (back up postal survey).  Internal consultation would focus on developing the delivery programme. 

Members discussed the four action plans in turn and the following points were noted during the discussion:

Growing People

·       not necessary to use the word ‘continue’ throughout;

·       rented housing had been identified in the actions points as residents using the private rented sector had little choice themselves in how to improve accommodation.  The Council would look to work with landlords;

·       the Anti-Poverty Task and Finish Group would be considering the Council Tax Reduction Scheme.  Members suggested changing priority target 1 to read ‘Enact the agreed outcome from the recommendations of the Anti-Poverty Task and Finish Group concerning the Council Tax Reduction Scheme’; and

·       action point ‘Review the council tax reduction scheme to support the most vulnerable residents’ implied that support was not already being provided through the scheme.  It was suggested and agreed that the wording be changed to ‘Review the council tax reduction scheme to ensure it supports the most vulnerable residents’.

Growing Prosperity

·       the suggested priority target would mean achieving a 16% increase in the average wage by end of 2023.  Members suggested amending the target to ‘…National league table…’ from ‘…East Sussex  ...  view the full minutes text for item 60