Agenda item

Consideration was given to the report of the Director – Place and Climate Change on the Performance Report of the Second Quarter 2021/22.  Members were given the opportunity to scrutinise the 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. 

A summary of the Council’s performance against the selected Key Performance Indicators (KPI) areas (Housing and Communities, Economic Development and Poverty, Waste Collection, Additional Income and Planning Processing) at the end of the second financial quarter (1 July 2021 to 30 September 2021) was set out in the report.  Performance was compared to the previous quarter result and to the same quarter the previous year.

Housing and Communities:  During quarter two, one measure had been flagged as a warning (Number of Affordable Homes Delivered (gross) Supply target) and four did not meet their target (Number of all Households in Temporary Accommodation (TA), Average Weeks in TA, Number of Households on the Housing Register and Net Additional Homes Provided Supply target). 

Economic Development and Poverty: During quarter two, all three measures met their target (Number of Council Tax Reduction Claimants, Council Tax Collection Rates and Business Rates Collection Rates).

Waste Collection:  During quarter two, this measure (East Sussex County Council (ESCC) Waste re-used, composted and recycled) did not meet its target, largely due to contamination at bring-sites.  ESCC had advised that the recycling rates for the districts and boroughs were under review due to discrepancies between ESCC figures and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ for some authorities and were subject to change.

Additional Income:  During quarter two, both measures did not meet their targets (Net Income from all Investment Assets and Additional Income Generation).  The property team was actively looking to improve revenues from existing assets, primarily through scheduled rent reviews as well as ensuring any outstanding arrears were collected.

Planning Processing: During quarter two, both measures did not meet their targets (Major Applications days to process and Minor Applications days to process).  This centred around limited capacity in the service due to vacant posts, long-term sickness, significant upturn in workload and challenges faced with COVID which had impacted on officers’ ability to deal with all applications in a timely fashion.

Members had the opportunity to ask questions and the following points were noted during the discussion:

•           time taken to validate planning applications had decreased from an average of 12 weeks to two weeks, which would eventually filter through to the processing time of applications;

•           Members requested that officers ensure that acknowledgement of receipt of a planning application also be sent to the applicant when using an agent;

•           the recent backlog of approximately 800 planning applications had been reduced by 135 in the previous eight weeks.  By the Quarter 4 progress update, the impact of the Capita contract to assist with processing would be evident;

•           the use of pre-fabricated buildings for TA was within the Strategy; and

•           the improved quality and reduced cost of TA was not reflected in the KPI set.

RESOLVED: That:

1)         the report be noted; and

2)         Cabinet be requested to recommend that suitable Council-owned sites to accommodate pre-fabricated buildings to be used as temporary accommodation, be further explored.