A lot to talk about this week, I’ve got a couple of items related to health before some business matters, some things we are doing as a council to make your lives easier across early help, council tax and recycling as well as a report from the excellent Surreal Solihull Exhibition.
Earlier this week I attended the official opening of the new surgical elective hub at Solihull Hospital. It is a fantastic facility to have in our community and really improves access to healthcare for so many of our residents. Over 1,500 operations have already been performed since it started operating (pun intended) in November, but the official opening was an opportunity to tour the site and see everything it has to offer. The hub is part of an NHS-wide drive to cut waiting times for surgeries like cancer interventions and knee and hip replacements. The new hub and the urgent treatment centre on the site, which opened a few years ago, have provided a real boost to our hospital and I’m delighted to see this kind of investment in Solihull. The most important part of the visit was the chance to meet some patients who have benefitted from the state-of-the-art facilities and hear how their lives have been improved and their waits shortened by this welcome new healthcare centre.
Staying with health for now, the ambitious plans for a world-class HealthTech Campus as part of the development at Arden Cross were discussed in further detail at an event I attended this week. The Campus, which brings together Warwick University, industry, clinicians, the NHS, Government, and leading researchers, forms a major part of the Arden Cross development proposals, which take advantage of the significant public investment already being made in HS2. We already host a growing HealthTech cluster, and this Campus has the potential to really boost this already thriving sector, leveraging our strategic location, high quality infrastructure, and broad skills base to create opportunities for our communities and drive economic growth. You can read more about it here.
Arden Cross marks an important investment in Solihull and the wider west midlands, and whilst we’re always looking for more opportunities to draw in more money from outside, we’re also proud of our support for local businesses to grow themselves. The West Midlands Business Festival started on Monday this week and will continue until next Friday, featuring a wide range of events to promote growth, collaboration and skills development. There are still a number of events coming up in Solihull, with topics as varied as International Women’s Day, SMART tech in construction and social responsibility. You can see details of the festival and all the events, even the ones not taking place in Solihull if you are so minded, on this website.
We have launched a new family helpline, available to anyone in Solihull Monday to Friday. The helpline will provide immediate information including parenting guidance and advice on child development, as well as signposting to other services including our excellent Family Hubs and referring to family support workers when needed.
Some good news to share from our fantastic employment & skills team, as over 700 people accessed the variety of support they offer last year. One of those was Nathan, a young man who completed a supported internship with the council and secured paid employment soon after, you can read all about his story and more on the work of that team here.
One thing that caught my eye in the news this week was this piece about the government’s move to ban new leasehold flats. I welcome the willingness to tackle this issue, it is one of those things that has spent far too long being kicked down the road by different administrations. I have no small amount of professional experience in this field, and whilst I will not go into too much detail, I will say that leasehold arrangements often create very complex and sometimes expensive obligations for the owners of flats. Ours is one of the few countries in the world that has not dealt with this already, and I would be happy to see it resolved as soon as possible. The more complex second part of this plan will be to convert existing properties from leasehold to the new system as well as taking action to address the unfair and antiquated situation regarding ground rents and I hope the government does not stop at the easy win. We need a fairer and more comprehensible system for everyone involved.
Speaking of making things easier for people, our new Council Tax Reduction Scheme for working-age households will come in to force on April 1. It replaces the old means-tested model with an easy to understand grid, making it more straightforward for people to apply for council tax reductions of up to 85%. You can read all about it here.
Last week I talked about the Surreal Solihull exhibition, well yesterday I went along to have a proper look for myself (see photo) and it was fantastic. There was some really interesting and thought-provoking work on show. I need to mention that a lot of people put a lot of time and effort in to bring this festival of culture to us and I’m really grateful that they did. I have always been a big supporter (and enjoyer) of the arts, and I really do want to see more of this kind of thing in our town and across our borough. There are more events this weekend, and the exhibition on the high street will be there for all to see until the end of May.
Last but by very no means least I want to flag some positive news for recycling-conscious Silhillians, as you can now put soft plastics into your recycling bin thanks to the new start of the art facility Coventry. Soft plastics includes plastic bags, lots of different food wrappers and things like film. You can read all about the change here.
Thanks for reading, enjoy your weekend.
Councillor Ian Courts, Leader of Solihull Council.