A COUNCIL leader has promised a newly-established fairness commission in Brighton and Hove will not be “an expensive talking shop” but will deliver real benefits for the whole city.

Warren Morgan has said the newly-established commission will draw on a varied group of experts to help solve the city’s inequality and poverty issues.

He said councillors will be effectively dipping into their own pockets to fund the project with £50,000 of funding originally earmarked for increased councillor expenses set aside for the project.

The new council leader said he would learn lessons from the 25 other fairness commissions held across the country since 2010 as well as a comprehensive Parliamentary report into their achievements.

He said it will operate like a scrutiny committee or public enquiry with up to five hearings over the next 12 months taking evidence from residents, businesses and members of partner agencies before compiling a report.

The commission is set to have ten members made up of a mixture of experts in the field from the voluntary sector, police, NHS and academics, with its head to be announced within the next four weeks.

The East Brighton councillor said he hoped to leave “a good deal” of how the commission operates to its members’ discretion.

He said he hoped that the city’s three MPs would also embrace the commission’s work and take up its findings in Westminster to help shape national policy.

Coun Morgan said: “The Fairness Commission is really the glue that holds our manifesto together.

“It’s not just something that affects people using food banks or the one in six of children living in poverty, it affects everybody because if everybody is not sharing in our economic success we all suffer.

“The commission report will feed back into all areas of our policy from health to housing to economic development.”

Coun Morgan said he wanted to avoid packing the commission with councillors and council officers and so only Labour councillor Emma Daniel will be a member.

He said: “People are being selected on the basis of their expertise, not on party political lines.”

The commission will look to accept evidence submitted online to make it more accessible to those most affected by its finding.

Coun Morgan said: “We need to hear from people who are hard to reach, people who are struggling with three or four jobs on minimum wage.

“They might struggle to find the time to give evidence but we really want them to contribute.”

The establishment of the fairness commission will be discussed at Thursday’s policy and resources committee.