The six councils in Berkshire are set to create a role for a new top official with a £130k per year salary.
The Berkshire Prosperity Board was created in June last year to drive economic prosperity across the county and coordinate strategies on a Berkshire-wide level.
The board is attended by the leaders and chief executives of the six councils and is hosted at Bracknell Forest Council.
The leaders are seeking to create a ‘Programme Director for Devolution’ who will focus on strategic planning and policies for the region.
It comes as the Labour government is making changes to how local governments function.
County councils are in the process of being abolished, and councils are being told to unite to create ‘strategic authorities’ to tackle regional challenges and devise policies for housing, planning and transport.
The government has justified this by arguing that these authorities will be more accountable to communities by moving decisions away from London.
The programme director for devolution would be responsible for advocating for the interests of Berkshire as plans for the strategic authority take shape.
The director would be appointed on a one-year contract and work three to four days a week.
The job description shows that the director’s time would mainly be divided between the Reading Borough Council offices in Bridge Street and the Wokingham Borough Council offices in Shute End.
The planned role would see the director be involved in the creation of the ‘Thames Valley’ strategic authority.
But the borders of the strategic authority are unclear, as councils are currently in discussions over which authority they wish to be in.
An early proposal would see the authority cover Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and even Swindon, and would be led by an elected mayor.
The job advert states: “The role will be hybrid in nature. It will require in-person attendance at some meetings and travel across the Thames Valley area, including but not limited to Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Bucks and Swindon.”
Furthermore, a report by Jackie Yates, the chief executive of Reading Borough Council states: “Collaborative working with upper and lower tier Councils from Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Swindon commenced earlier in the year and subsequent work has led to the development of a draft vision and progression of an economic case for a potential future ‘Thames Valley’ Mayoral Strategic Authority (MSA), albeit the exact geography is still to be determined.”
The programme director for devolution advert has not been published yet, as the role would need to be created by the Berkshire Prosperity Board.
The board is due to make a decision on whether to create the role when it meets at Time Square in Bracknell at 12pm on Monday, August 18.
The leaders are being asked to approve funding of £165,000 from the Prosperity Board budget for the director role.
