(Please note that it is the responsibility of individual members to declare an interest prior to the item if they arrive late for the meeting)

To agree the accuracy of the minutes of the budget council meeting held on 17 February 2015.

(A printed copy of the questions and replies will be available at the meeting)

Purpose - To inform council of the significant progress achieved via the City Deal for the Greater Norwich area in 2014/15.

Purpose - To consider changes to the council’s constitution to revise Appendix 9, Statutory and proper officers to reflect changes within the organisation and current legislation; and Appendix 4, Terms of reference of committees, to clarify the terms of reference for the planning applications committee in relation to the confirmation and revocation of tree preservation orders.

Purpose - To consider and agree the pay policy statement for 2015-16.

Councillor Arthur to move and Councillor Waters to second the following motion:

This council has already reduced its costs by more than a third over the past five years by finding recurring savings of approximately £24 million. This amounts to total cumulative savings of more than £79 million over the period.

Future anticipated funding cuts will heighten the risk of damaging the capacity of this council to deliver high quality public services to the citizens of Norwich, and could deepen already increasing inequality.

Council, therefore, RESOLVES to ask the leader of the council to write to the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition requesting: -

1) an ending of the bias against areas with the greatest needs by ensuring that the funding provided is distributed more fairly.

2) provision of longer term sustainable funding settlements so that local authorities can better plan ahead and deliver savings, shifting away from high cost reactive approaches, towards investment in preventing problems before they occur or get worse.

3) devolution of powers to democratically elected bodies, so local authorities can deliver economic growth and push down resources from Whitehall so that communities can spend money more effectively.

4) empowerment of areas to bring services together, pool budgets and cut costly duplication; building services around people to meet needs in a more effective and connected way.

Councillor Galvin to move and Councillor Henderson to second the following motion:

Norwich is seeing a widening gap between the effects of being rich and poor and the way austerity is being applied is making this worse. Yet evidence shows that the more equal society, the more everyone benefits. Norwich City Council has a commitment to reduce inequalities and live up to the priority of a fair city.

Council, therefore, RESOLVES to ask cabinet to work actively to address the city’s growing inequality crisis, for the benefit of all, by enabling the foundation, with citizens and partners, of a People’s Commission for Justice and Equality. The commission would be co-produced. Detailed terms and conditions would be decided by those involved, but in broad terms the commission would:
1) be citizen-led, giving power to citizens; independently chaired; and council supported. It would take account of all sectors of the community as well as including key relevant local groups (from public, community and voluntary sectors, as well as faith groups and representatives of groups of people disproportionately affected by austerity) in active roles.

2) have the broad aim of monitoring and recording the effects of cuts and suggest alternatives; and achieve this by setting specific objectives and by being actively, openly, evidence-based, for instance holding public hearings.

3) be time-limited but take a long-term approach, building on best practice and engaging with other councils who have undertaken similar work, such as Fairness Commissions.

4) be based on a clear undertaking that the council would consider and where possible take forward its findings, and use them to inform all relevant aspects of its work, including the corporate priority ‘a fair city’, and be synchronised with budget setting timelines.

5) publish its findings in full, and campaign on them, taking an adversarial approach where necessary. These findings will include recommendations to national and local government, as well as other organisations as appropriate.