Consideration was given to the report of the Head of Service  Acquisitions, Transformation and Regeneration on the Performance Report of the Fourth Quarter 2020/21.  Members were given the opportunity to scrutinise progress towards the Council’s stated aims, outcomes and actions in the Corporate Plan and make any necessary recommendations to Cabinet for future service delivery.

Members were led through a summary of the Council’s performance against the selected indicators across four key areas (Housing and Homelessness, Waste and Recycling, Asset Income and Other Income), giving the position at the end of the fourth financial quarter (1 January to 31 March 2021) for 2020/21.  Performance was compared to the previous four quarters and the previous quarter result.

March 2020 saw the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This had adversely affected performance levels in quarter one for all Key Performance Indicators (KPI) reported.  The KPIs remained the same to provide a baseline for the overall impact of COVID-19 in the current financial year as agreed by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 14 September 2020.

Housing and Homelessness:  During quarter four, all seven measures had not met their target (Affordable Homes Built (gross) Supply target, (Affordable Homes Built (gross) Local Plan target, New Homes Built (net) Supply Target, New Homes Built (net) Local Plan Target, Homelessness Prevention Cases per 1,000 homes, Number of all Households in Temporary Accommodation [TA] and Average Weeks in Temporary Accommodation). 

Waste and Recycling:  One of the indicators had not met its target (Re-use, Recycling, Composting: Contractor), one was flagged as a warning (Re-use, Recycling, Composting: East Sussex County Council) and one had met its target (Missed Bins per 100,000 Collections).

Asset Income: Given the overall impact of COVID-19 on employers throughout the district, the final outturn for the return-on-investment assets was positive.  It was initially anticipated that £120,000 would be lost in rent arrears and the realised position was slightly under this.  No additional purchases were made in the last financial year as focus was placed upon the delivery of projects already in the programme.  

Other Income:  All three indicators had not met their targets (Car Park Income, Garden Waste Income and Planning Income) due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The car park budget for 2020/2021 was set prior to COVID-19 outbreak at £1,600,000 and achieved £1,278,708.10, a deficit of £321,000. Following a successful campaign during December 2020 through to March 2021 to increase the number of garden waste subscribers, the number had increased to just under 20,500 customers, up from a previous high of approx.19,600 in July 2020.  This not only meant increased revenue, but that the service was delivered by the contractor at a more cost-effective rate to the Council.  Planning income in real terms had held up reasonably well at £775,917.33 compared with £798,702.41 the previous year, which was very positive taking into consideration all the issues surrounding COVID-19 in the previous 12 months.  Looking forward, there were signs of further recovery as the Council was receiving higher numbers of planning applications since the turn of the year, which would increase income.

Members raised concerns about high housing targets set by Central Government that did not consider the amount of protected land across districts that could not be built on.  It was proposed and agreed by Members to request that Cabinet consider working with other local authorities with an 80% or higher level of protected land, to put forward a case to Central Government for a national abatement formula to calculate housing targets.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic had adversely affected performance levels in quarter one for all KPIs reported. The Committee had previously agreed that the KPIs should remain the same to provide a baseline for the overall impact of COVID-19 in the current financial year. 

RESOLVED: That Cabinet be requested to consider working with other local authorities with an 80% or higher level of protected land, to put forward a case to Central Government for a national abatement formula to calculate housing targets.