Oxford City Council Leader announces 2020/21 Cabinet

Councillor Brown was re-elected as Leader of the Council, with Councillor Ed Turner elected as the Statutory Deputy Leader, and Councillor Tom Hayes elected into the other Deputy Leader role. The overall membership of the Cabinet remains unchanged following the election, however the Leader has made adjustments to individual portfolios.

The Cabinet was announced at today’s Annual Council (20 May 2020).

Members of the Cabinet are:

Councillor Susan Brown - Leader, and Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Partnerships

Her responsibilities include:

• Leader of the Council
• Council strategy and partnership lead
• Business and economic lead
• Leads on work to restart Oxford’s business economy
• Leads on work to ensure an inclusive economy
• Leads on democratic services and emergency planning
• Council nominee on partnership bodies including the Oxfordshire Growth Board, Oxford Strategic Partnership, Oxford Local Economic Partnership, Fast Growth Cities and the Ox-Cam Arc
• Leads on Economic Development issues supporting clean growth and promoting an Oxford Living Wage
• Works with partners to build an inclusive economy in Oxford, to protect and grow job opportunities and skills training
• Supports the development of Oxford’s co-operative sector and community wealth building.

Councillor Ed Turner - Deputy Leader (Statutory), and Cabinet Member for Finance and Asset Management 

His responsibilities include:

• Oversees Oxford City Council’s finances and investments, ensuring a balanced budget that delivers the council’s priorities
• Ensures that Oxford City Council is able to continue to operate through a period of extreme financial change and challenge
• Oversees the council’s investment and management of land and property
• Leads on the ‘Oxford model’ of generating income to provide services for the people of Oxford
• Responsible for the delivery of the council’s capital programme of investment and maintenance of the council’s assets
• Oversees re-evaluation of the council’s priorities to focus on the need to provide basic services and help for the vulnerable
• Ensures that money that comes to Oxford City Council to help support businesses and individuals is pass ported to them as quickly as possible
• Works to ensure that Oxford City Council is reimbursed for the work undertaken to support local communities during this period
• Deputises for the Leader as required.

Councillor Tom Hayes - Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Green Transport and Zero Carbon Oxford

His responsibilities include:

• Works with partners (including bus companies, the taxi trade, Oxfordshire County and district councils, and the Universities) to deliver Oxford’s Zero Emission Zone, and zero emission transport and the necessary infrastructure as part of our public health and climate action.
• Coordinates action in the council’s own practice to create a Zero Carbon Council by 2030 at the latest
• Works with partners and emitters as part of Zero Carbon Oxford to create a Zero Carbon City
•  Delivers the outcomes of the Oxford Citizens Assembly on Climate Change
• Takes forward  road reprioritisation for pedestrians, cyclists and public transport once social isolation measures end to ensure improved air quality continues
• Leads on car parking policy
• Leads on sustainability policy
• Works with the Cabinet member for a Safer, Healthy Oxford on Air Quality
• Deputises for the Leader as required.

Councillor Nigel Chapman - Cabinet Member for Customer Focused Services

His responsibilities include:

• Ensures the efficient and effective delivery of council services to residents and businesses by improving services according to customer feedback
• Oversees the continued success of the wholly-owned Oxford Direct Services Ltd as a means of income generation to invest in council services
• Ensures that the council’s own services are on a trajectory to meet our ambitions for a zero carbon Oxford by 2030
• Promotes  reuse, reduce, and recycling campaigns to help deliver the waste management outcomes of Oxford Citizens’ Assembly on Climate Change
• Oversees the reprioritisation of essential council services delivered by Oxford Direct Services as necessary during the pandemic
• Oversees the work of the Customer Contact Centre to deliver vital advice and support to local residents and businesses at this difficult time
• Responsible for the support of Oxford City Council staff through a period of change and home-working on an unprecedented scale 
• Council nominee on the Oxfordshire Environment Partnership.

Councillor Mary Clarkson - Cabinet Member for the City Centre, Covered Market and Culture

Her responsibilities include:

• Works with partners to reopen city centre businesses and ensure the safe return of employees and visitors to our city centre
• Works with Oxford’s Covered Market to reopen safely
• Works to support Oxford’s cultural sector through this period, and prepare for re-opening
• Ensures licensing policy supports safe working and use of public space during the recovery period
• Ensures Oxford’s cultural offer is as varied as possible and inclusive to all of our citizens
• Ensures a vibrant city centre, attractive to all residents and visitors
• Works with partners (Experience Oxfordshire, local businesses and others) to promote sustainable tourism
• Continues to promote the Covered Market as a retail destination for local residents and visitors
• Promotes social distancing on our city centre streets and works with cabinet colleagues to ensure visitors, residents and workers in the city centre can enjoy cleaner air and safe streets.

Councillor Alex Hollingsworth - Cabinet Member for Planning and Housing Delivery

His responsibilities include:

• Delivery of Oxford’s Local Plan 2036 for more housing and sustainable development
• Delivers housing against our housing delivery test
• Improves the private rented sector in Oxford through working with landlords and tenants and through regulation
• Oversees the development of the wholly-owned Oxford City Housing Ltd as a means to building better homes in Oxford
• Ensures necessary infrastructure is in place to support the building of much needed housing
• Delivery of the outcomes of the Oxford Citizens’ Assembly on Climate Change through planning policy
• Ensures planning permissions continue to be granted through this period so that work can start once social isolation ends
• Works to get support for tenants in the private sector during the coronavirus crisis
• Ensures tenants in the private rented sector have access to advice and support
• Works with landlords to ensure good quality housing.

Councillor Mike Rowley - Cabinet Member for Affordable Housing and Housing the Homeless

His responsibilities include:

• Oversees the management and policies associated with running our council owned housing
• Support for vulnerable tenants in city council and housing association properties, particularly in our sheltered blocks during this period  
• Works to get every homeless person who wants accommodation off the streets
• Delivery of the outcomes of the Oxford Citizens’ Assembly on Climate Change in relation to the council’s housing
• Focus on health of homeless people, a particularly vulnerable group
• Works with partners in the voluntary, charitable, public and private sector to bring funding and joint working to house homeless people in Oxford
• Works to improve tenant involvement in the running of council housing.

Councillor Linda Smith - Cabinet Member for Leisure and Parks

Her responsibilities include:

• Works to enhance the quality of life of residents, workers and visitors to Oxford through the provision of excellent parks and open spaces
• Works to reopen the council’s leisure provision when it is safe and possible to do so
• Manages our parks, allotments and open spaces to encourage wide community participation and healthy lifestyles
• Promotes biodiversity in the Council’s green spaces to deliver the outcomes of Oxford’s Citizens’ Assembly
• Oversees the City’s leisure provision through monitoring of the City Council’s contract with Fusion Lifestyle to manage Oxford’s leisure centres, pools and ice rink
• Encourages participation in sports and active lifestyles across all ages and communities
• Council nominee on Oxfordshire Sport Partnership
• Oversees cemetery provision.

Councillor Marie Tidball - Cabinet Member for Supporting Local Communities

Her responsibilities include:

• Champions community cohesion and celebrating diversity
• Supports social and financial inclusion
• Supports the work of the Locality Response Hubs including the delivery of food and prescription drugs to vulnerable households
• Works with neighbourhoods on the provision of community meeting spaces
• Works to tackle loneliness and isolation
• Builds on the locality working to support vulnerable individuals and communities
• Works with partners to ensure all families have access to healthy food
• Works with partners to ensure that young people in particular have access to the skills training they need to fully participate in our society and the local economy
• Works with local communities to involve them in delivering Zero Carbon Communities in line with the outcomes of Oxford’s Citzens’ Assembly
• Oversees management of the Council Tax Reduction Scheme, Discretionary Housing Payments and Welfare Reform
• Works to ensure that Oxford citizens who are impacted financially by the coronavirus get the help they are entitled to
• Council nominee on the Youth Partnership Board.

Councillor Louise Upton - Cabinet Member for a Safer, Healthier Oxford

Her responsibilities include:

• Promotes cycling and e-Bike use and walking as key modes of transport
• Promotes public health including improved air quality and planning of active communities
• Plans for road reprioritisation for pedestrians, cyclists and public transport once social isolation measures end to ensure improved air quality continues
• Works to address Health Inequalities
• Works with TVP and others to promote safe communities and neighbourhoods, including protecting businesses
• In particular working to tackle domestic violence
• Works to address vulnerability which can lead to criminality such as modern-day slavery and entrapment in the drugs supply
• Works to create a city free of hate crime and discrimination
• Works to improve the mental health of Oxford’s citizens
• Council nominee on Oxfordshire Health and Wellbeing Board and Health Improvement Board
• Council nominee on Oxford Safer Communities Partnership and Safer Oxford Partnership
• Leads on Public Health promotion including No Smoking Oxfordshire
• Leads on policy for Oxford’s Waterways
• Works with health partners to ensure that mental health support is reaching people in self-isolation.

“Today I am announcing the updated roles and responsibilities for the Cabinet. These reflect both our immediate priority of continuing to lead the Council’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as our ongoing aims to build a more inclusive, more sustainable future for our city.

“The impact of the current health crisis on our city, and in particular our most vulnerable citizens is likely to be further compounded by the economic crisis that is expected to follow. Our Council is committed to doing everything we can to rebuild our local economy but in so doing, make sure that our most vulnerable citizens stay safe and that we improve the inclusivity of our city rather than entrench divides.

“Oxford’s local communities have responded fantastically to the current situation, with thousands of people looking out for their neighbours. We will work to sustain that community strength into the future. We will also continue our work to deliver the additional affordable housing that is so desperately needed. We will work with businesses, residents and partners to revitalise our city centre and local neighbourhoods. That includes sustaining the cleaner air and focus on cycling and walking that has been one of the few positives that we have seen as a result of lockdown. We must ensure that we continue to promote these healthy and safe ways of getting around, which also form part of our commitment to reducing Oxford’s carbon footprint. We will continue to deliver the outcomes of the Oxford Citizen’s Assembly on Climate Change.”

Councillor Susan Brown, Leader of Oxford City Council