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Members’ Update August 2023

  • 28th Jul 2023

We’ve had a very successful first half of 2023 and have seen a surge of new Members following our attendance at the Coop Party Local Government Conference and the LGA Conference and Exhibition. This month we welcome Darlington Borough Council, Swansea Council and Westminster City Council as Full Members. We also welcome Crystalisr as an Affiliate Member. The total number of members and supporters is 137.

One of the key actions a council can take to promote Community Wealth Building is to have ‘insourcing Council Services as an objective’.  In this edition Mark Cook, Partner at Anthony Collins LLP, looks at the critical role of lawyers in establishing the proper governance framework when creating companies and other vehicles (e.g. limited liability partnerships) for projects and services, whether wholly owned by councils, jointly with other contracting authorities or the private sector.
 
As reported in last month’s edition, Members will receive FREE places at this year’s Annual Conference in Sunderland in November.  We’ve had a superb response so far.  We are delighted to announce that Alex Norris, MP Shadow Minister for Levelling Up, has already confirmed his attendance to give a Keynote presentation on 2 November.  And, earlier this week, we asked Members to run Workshops and/or suggest Speakers.  This is a great way to profile the work of your Council to other members of the Network, and we’ll be sharing the details of these sessions soon. 
 
Also, in this edition, we have an exciting update from James Moore at North West Mutual, who shares the results of a YouGov Survey they have commissioned in their journey to establish a locally owned bank for the North West.
 
Finally, we would like to thank Cllr Steve Darling, former Liberal Democrat Leader of Torbay Council, who has stepped down from our Executive Oversight Committee this month.  The Lib Dem Independent Alliance lost control of Torbay in May’s elections, and the new Administration has decided not to renew their membership.  We wish Steve and his colleagues good luck in the future. 

We now have a vacancy on our Executive Oversight Committee for a Leader/Mayor/Portfolio Holder at a Full Member Council and an Associate Member vacancy for an Opposition Group Leader or a Leader from a Town, Parish or Community Council on the Values & Principles Board.  Voting papers for both vacancies will go out this month.
 
The next Newsletter will be out at the end of September as we take a break over the Summer.  I hope that you enjoy this issue of Update.

Best wishes

Louise

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