Leadership blog - 16.03.20

In recent blogs I've been talking about the City Plan 2019-30 and the fact that having approved it in November, we are already delivering it with some major plans and projects taking shape on the ground and across Sunderland's skyline.

Despite the fact that, in reality, austerity continues (there is no doubt councils continue to be faced with some incredibly difficult choices and challenges in terms of Government funding), the Council once again agreed a balanced budget last week that enables and leverages continued investment in our city with a capital programme of £155 million in 2020/21.

We were able to do this because of our prudent financial management and because of the decisions we've taken in previous years - to invest where it has made sense in order to take the city forward and enable it and its residents to realise their full potential, whilst protecting vital, frontline services and our most vulnerable residents, as much as we could.

Going forward this year, we will continue in this vein with over £12m of additional funding in the budget for Children's and Adult Services. And in response to what residents have told us through the recent Let's Talk Sunderland conversations and other mechanisms, the budget also includes ongoing provision to boost the cleanliness of the city, to reduce the cost of bulky waste collections, to address anti-social behaviour and a whole range of other measures to help improve the environment and quality of life in neighbourhoods throughout the city.

We are also investing in tackling the climate emergency and, building on the city's strengths and successes across a range of sectors, Sunderland is well placed to be at the forefront of the low-carbon, high-tech, industrial revolution.

Because of this, and the confidence we are able to instil in investors and businesses, on the back of other, recent significant investments and developments that I've talked about here, we welcomed the news in the past week that Nissan have invested £52 million in order to build the new Qashqai at the Sunderland plant.

There has naturally been a lot of speculation around the future of the manufacturing industry in a post Brexit UK, and many investors are understandably watching and waiting for the outcome of the Government's trade deal negotiations. This investment therefore signals that there is very much an automotive and advanced manufacturing future in the UK, with its very heart remaining here in the North East, in Sunderland!

Cllr Graeme Miller
Leader