Agenda item

4.1       RESOLVED: That a referral as follows be made to Mayor and Cabinet:

1.    The Committee requests in the strongest possible terms that the wording in the corporate strategy reflects exactly the wording in the Lewisham Labour Party manifesto in relation to the need to divest the pension fund from fossil fuels. Therefore it should read:

“We will support moving the Council’s Pension Fund away from fossil fuels linked investments in response to climate change and to protect our investments from volatile energy markets”.

We would encourage Mayor and Cabinet to add a line stating that we will do this “in line with our fiduciary duty”, as many other boroughs have, and we expect this to be completed within the next 5 years.

2.    The Committee requests that a wider range of diversity strands/the protected characteristics are reflected in the diversity profile in the corporate strategy.

4.1       The Mayor introduced the new Corporate Strategy which set out the Council’s future direction. It was noted that the Sustainable Community Strategy had been written in 2007 and published in 2008, so a new up-to-date strategy was very much required. A new performance monitoring tool and a communications strategy would also be developed. Janet Senior highlighted that the new strategy had been written and designed with accessibility in mind and reported that the strategy was due to go to Mayor and Cabinet on 13 February and Council on 27 February. There would be a launch event for senior and middle managers who would then be encouraged to meet with their teams to discuss the strategy and its implications for their work.

4.3         The Committee discussed the strategy and Councillor Ingleby proposed additional text to be added to the introductions to chapters 2 and 5 and it was agreed that abridged versions of his suggestions would be added.

4.4         There was a lengthy discussion on the importance of taking action in relation to climate change and the wording in the corporate strategy around the need to move the pension fund away from investments linked to fossil fuels. It was noted that other boroughs, including Southwark, had taken similar decisions, in part driven by ethical concerns, but primarily because they felt significant investments in fossil fuels presented a long term financial risk to their fund. It was agreed that a referral to Mayor and Cabinet would be made on this issue.

4.5         The following comments were also made or noted:

·           Any references to BME in the document would be changed to BAME to ensure consistency.

·           The Council should broaden the focus of the Lewisham Secondary Challenge and Lewisham Learning in light of proposed changes to the criteria upon which schools are judged good or outstanding by Ofsted. A shift towards looking more closely at what is taught and how it is taught (a ‘quality of education’ judgement) and loosening the focus on test and exam outcomes was likely.

·           The demographic section of the strategy should be expanded to reflect a wider range of diversity strands/protected characteristics than currently included.

·           Race should be more explicitly referred to in the document and not just unconscious bias.

·           The wording around the proposed borough wide landlord licensing scheme should be looked at again to make sure it is completely accurate.

·           50% affordable housing in developer-led housing schemes might be the target but it is not necessarily achievable and might raise expectations that cannot be met. However, it was suggested that a stretching target was needed to encourage developers to be more ambitious in their affordable housing projections.

·           The new performance monitoring tool would be a lot more accessible with infographics and diagrams.

4.6       RESOLVED: That a referral as follows be made to Mayor and Cabinet:

1.    The Committee requests in the strongest possible terms that the wording in the corporate strategy reflects exactly the wording in the Lewisham Labour Party manifesto in relation to the need to divest the pension fund from fossil fuels. Therefore it should read:

“We will support moving the Council’s Pension Fund away from fossil fuels linked investments in response to climate change and to protect our investments from volatile energy markets”.

We would encourage Mayor and Cabinet to add a line stating that we will do this “in line with our fiduciary duty”, as many other boroughs have.

2.    The Committee requests that a wider range of diversity strands/ protected characteristics are reflected in the diversity profile in the corporate strategy.