Question One

From Cllr Jordan Meade, Leader of the Opposition – to Cllr John Burden, Leader of the Executive

Today marks nearly a year since this Council unanimously committed to signing the Social Mobility Pledge and entwining the theme of social mobility throughout everything that we do. Due to the pandemic, unemployment is now at a three-year high and redundancies are all too commonplace, especially amongst young people. 

Could the Leader of the Executive therefore provide us with an update on the progress that this authority has made in encouraging social mobility, with particular reference to apprenticeships, work placements and the Kickstart Scheme.

Question Two

From Cllr Steve Thompson – to Cllr John Burden, Leader of the Executive

It is welcome news that Highways England have withdrawn their application for the Lower Thames Crossing.  This Council has worked hard to get the scheme cancelled, or at least significantly changed to remove the damage to the environment but has this view been supported by the other Councils in Kent and who originally promoted this location?

Question One

The following question had been submitted by Cllr Jordan Meade, Leader of the Opposition and a response was given by Cllr John Burden, Leader of the Council.

Question:

Today marks nearly a year since this Council unanimously committed to signing the Social Mobility Pledge and entwining the theme of social mobility throughout everything that we do. Due to the pandemic, unemployment is now at a three-year high and redundancies are all too commonplace, especially amongst young people.

Could the Leader of the Executive therefore provide us with an update on the progress that this authority has made in encouraging social mobility, with particular reference to apprenticeships, work placements and the Kickstart Scheme.

Response:

Cllr John Burden, Leader of the Council, highlighted the following points in his response:-

·         Apprentices - The Council currently employed 19 apprentices across a range of services and currently had 2 vacant posts, which will be recruited to. The Council had huge success with apprenticeships over the years and many had gone on to achieve permanent employment with the Council, many achieving management positions.

The Council had a long history of trade apprenticeships and some of its best employers to date started life as an apprentice at Brookvale.

The Council was currently reviewing apprenticeships within the Borough to ensure that it prioritised placements for young people living within the Borough and to ensure distribution across the organisation.

·         Work Experience – The Council was currently reviewing the scheme and will be advertising work experience placements for student residents in Gravesham at the beginning of each year so that they can be planned more effectively. These could comprise of project focused placements, designed to give students a specific outcome as well as making a positive contribution to the work of the Council. Placements at the present time may need to be carried out remotely given current Covid-19 restrictions.

The Council’s Youth Democracy Scheme also made a positive contribution to students in the preparations of CV’s and UCAS applications. 9 young people took part in 2019/20 with the outcome of the scheme being reported to the Community and Leisure Cabinet Committee earlier this month.

·         Kickstart Scheme - Of particular concern was the number of young people (18-24 years old) claiming benefits. 965 young people in the Borough were currently unemployed. A rate of 12.7% which was higher than Kent (9.9% and UK 9.2%) averages.

This was against a backdrop whereby the numbers of unemployed may continue to increase. The Government had extended the Job Retention Scheme until March 2021, deferring redundancies for the time being and there will be further cohorts of young people leaving school, college and university next year.

Some sectors had been particularly hard hit by the pandemic, notably within the hospitality, leisure and retail sectors where young people had traditionally found it easier to access work.

Competition for jobs was fierce. Vacancies had declined by 34% nationally, with decline across all industrial sectors, except for utilities and construction. Again, the largest decline had been seen in retail, hospitality and leisure sectors (-50%) and the number of vacancies per 100 jobs nationally had declined from 2.6 to 1.7 over the year.

As part of the Governments ‘Plans for Jobs’ announced in July, it established the Kickstart Scheme - a £2 billion fund to create high quality 6-month work placement for young people (16-24 years old).

Council officers had been tasked with identifying where there would be capacity to provide work placements within their service areas and to date in excess of 30 positions had been identified, with the potential to create a variety of opportunities.

The Council had also expressed an interest in acting as a gateway to partner with other local businesses. Economic Development had sought expressions of interest from local employers and had identified an additional 30 plus placements. This was likely to expand as the scheme will be promoted further to businesses.

·         The Council will offer in 2021/22:-

o   21 apprenticeship positions within the Council;

o   48 work experience placements within the Council;

o   30 plus Kickstart Placements within the Council;

o   30 plus Kickstart Placements outside of the Council, with the Council acting as a gateway; and

o   additional career graded positions were currently being explored.

·         The Council will be working in partnership with local job centres, North Kent College, local businesses, DWP, Council contractors, Kent Employment Taskforce, The South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP) as a 4th pilot area for a Digital Development Team.

Question Two

The following question had been submitted by Cllr Steve Thompson and a response was given by Cllr John Burden, Leader of the Council.

Question:

It is welcome news that Highways England have withdrawn their application for the Lower Thames Crossing. This Council has worked hard to get the scheme cancelled, or at least significantly changed to remove the damage to the environment but has this view been supported by the other Councils in Kent and who originally promoted this location?

Response:

Cllr John Burden, Leader of the Council, highlighted the following points in his response:-

·         the application for development consent had now been withdrawn by Highways England due to early feedback that had been received from the Planning Inspectorate. Some of the specific points raised by the Planning Inspectorate reflected those concerns raised by the Council;

·         disappointment was expressed that Option C (East of Gravesend) continued to be supported by the Government (excluding Adam Holloway, MP for Gravesham), Kent County Council (KCC), Medway Council and Dartford Borough Council. It was highlighted that KCC had originally indicated its support for Option C in documents which were released in 2010/2011 and were proposed, at that time, by the Leader of KCC, Mr Paul Carter and seconded, at that time,  by the Transport Cabinet Member for KCC and County Cllr for Gravesham Rural, Mr Bryan Sweetland (Mr Sweetland subsequently resigned from his Cabinet post in 2016 due to his opposition of the Lower Thames Crossing); and

·         the view of Adam Holloway, MP for Gravesham, be supported in that consideration should be given to a tunnel running between the M25 in Kent and M25 in Essex - this proposal would alleviate some of the concerns raised such as the environmental impact, destruction of greenbelt, congestion etc.