Key roles and responsibilities

The Joint Committee is the only strategic public sector partnership covering the HotSW area. Working together with the HotSW Local Enterprise Partnership it will provide cohesive, coherent leadership which will deliver the Productivity Strategy for the HotSW area it was established 2018. The Joint Committee objectives are to:

  • Improve the economy and the prospects for the region by bringing together the public, private and education sectors;
  • Increase our understanding of the economy and what needs to be done to make it stronger;
  • Improve the efficiency and productivity of the public sector;
  • Identify and remove barriers to progress and maximise the opportunities /benefits available to the area from current and future government policy.

Joint Committee Functions
The Joint Committee has authority to approve the HotSW Productivity Strategy and to oversee its delivery. In addition it has authority to progress discussions with Government for help to deliver its objectives. With the agreement of the Constituent Authorities, additional delegated or referred functions may be given to the Joint Committee in the future.

In detail, the Joint Committee shall:

  1. Develop and agree the HotSW Productivity Strategy in collaboration with the LEP.
  2. Ensure delivery of the HotSW Productivity Strategy in collaboration with the LEP and the Constituent Authorities.
  3. Continue discussions /negotiations with the Government on the possibility of achieving devolved responsibilities, funding and related governance amendments to assist with the delivery of the Productivity Plan. Any proposals made by the Joint Committee which arise from these discussions and negotiations will require the formal approval of the Constituent Authorities.
  4.  Continue discussions /negotiations with the Government / relevant agencies to secure delivery of the Government’s strategic infrastructure commitments, eg, strategic road and rail transport improvements
  5. Work with the LEP to identify and deliver adjustments to the LEP’s democratic accountability and to assist the organisation to comply with the revised (November 2016) LEP Assurance Framework. This includes endorsing the LEP’s assurance framework on behalf of the Constituent Authorities as and when required. However, this is subject to the Framework being formally approved by the LEP’s Administering Authority (currently Somerset County Council).
  6. Ensure that adequate resources (including staff and funding) are allocated by the Constituent Authorities to enable the objectives in (1) to (5) above to be delivered.

HotSW Joint Committee support arrangements.

The Joint Committee has a leadership and management structure supporting its work.  This is below

The key groups are the:

Member Authorities