Agenda item

Presented by Graham Tebbutt, Customer and Services Intelligence Manager – Report of the Assistant Chief Executive.

The Chair introduced the Customer and Services Intelligence Manager, Graham Tebbutt who was in attendance to speak to Members in relation to the Quarter 1, 2011/12 Performance Management Report (for copy, see file of minutes).

The Customer and Services Intelligence Manager explained that whilst now within Quarter 2, the deadline for those figures was not until the following week.  Members were reminded of the changes in performance reporting and noted the actions from the Regeneration and Economic Development (RED) Service Plan, information regarding benchmarking and areas of improvements such as progress on delivering Equality and Diversity, Carbon Reduction, Investors in People and in response to external inspections.

The Committee learned that the loss of the Area Based Grant (ABG) funding was significant and that the imminent completion of funding initiatives such as Local Enterprise Growth Initiative (LEGI) would further impact upon performance in the next quarter.  Councillors noted the reduction in the number of 18-24 year olds in receipt of JobSeekers Allowance (JSA) and also in the number of total JSA claimants for the County.  Members noted that the County Durham Economic Assessment (CDEA) had noted a JSA increase, however, this could be linked to seasonality, some forms of summer employment coming to an end.  The Customer and Services Intelligence Manager added that the employment rate of the working age population had steadily reduced over the last 12 months, with the County Durham Economic Partnership (CDEP) noting this as a critical economic indicator.  Members also noted that the total number of homelessness presentations had risen significantly in comparison to the same period last year and Members may wish to look at this issue in more detail in the future.

The Customer and Services Intelligence Manager gave Members an overview of the good figures in relation to user perception of cultural events and Local Authority Tenant satisfaction with landlord services. 

The Committee noted the improvements in private sector rented properties as a result of intervention by the Council and that the occupancy levels of council owned business support centres was approaching its target of 74%, being at 73%.  Members were informed that the target for achievement rate for people enrolled on accredited courses supported by the Council’s Adult Learning Service was at 81.2%, very close to achieving the target of 82% with finalised data being due to be published in December 2011.

The Customer and Services Intelligence Manager explained that three key performance issues going forward were:

·        Only 75% of major planning applications being processed within the 13 week timescale, below the target of 79.9%, due to several reasons including IT issues, the recent staffing restructure and associated relocations.

·        The percentage of bus services running on time, 89.9% with the target being 95%.  It was explained that it was thought that there may have been issues on the survey day at two particular bus stations and number of surveys at each location will be increased to improve data quality, notwithstanding if a pattern is established further investigations would be undertaken.

·        The number of empty properties being brought back into use through council intervention was 11 over the last period, against a target of 20.  Members noted that it was felt that a new approach being taken by the Housing Renewals and Improvement Team which came into effect at the end of July 2011 would begin to impact positively on performance in due course.

In relation to the Actions against the Council Plan, Members noted that 48 of the 49 actions in relation to the Altogether Wealthier theme were either on track on had been achieved.  The outstanding action, infrastructure and public transport improvements on the Priority 4 corridor along the A690 was proposed to be deleted from the Council Plan due to funding restrictions.  Councillors noted the key updates from the RED Service Plan in relation to the Altogether Wealthier theme and the progress on the Stock Options Appraisal, Members having been made aware of details at the Special Meeting of the Committee.  The Committee noted that performance information in relation to the In-house Management Organisation, Durham City Homes and the two Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs), Dale and Valley Homes (DVH) and East Durham Homes (EDH) would be reported to Committee from Quarter 2 onward after checks on data quality had been made.  The Customer and Services Intelligence Manager concluded by explaining that the key risk to the delivery of the objectives of the Altogether Wealthier theme was the loss of the ABG and other significant risks included the worsening condition of the private housing stock, reduced allocations of grants based on the Council’s new deprivation status and diminishing capital resources based upon depressed land values and slow growth in the private sector.

The Chair thanked the Customer and Services Intelligence Manager and asked Members for their questions. 

Mr T Batson asked whether training for businesses in relation to “buy local” would include information to help in relation to Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) being able to take on apprentices.  The Economic Regeneration Manager, Graham Wood explained that as part of sustainable procurement, apprentices were encouraged, noting a recent ICT Tender that had secured two apprenticeships within the contract.

Councillor P Stradling asked whether there could be an example given of how the Council’s change in deprivation status had prevented the Council from accessing or being awarded funding. 

The Head of Planning, Policy and Performance, RED, Andy Palmer reminded Members of the reasons behind the change in the deprivations status, the amalgamations of the 7 former District Authorities under the Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) for County Durham, and noted that the largest risk was the loss of ABG, not the change in deprivation status.

Councillor M Wilkes noted the figures within the report referring to the number of homes still not at the decent homes standard, and indeed that there had been an increase from 36% to 37%.  The Customer and Services Intelligence Manager explained that naturally as properties went through their improvement “life-cycle” they would eventually return to a non-decent standard and require some capital investment and that whilst there had been a slight slippage in respect of the percentage figure, the capital programme for RED included works in order to address those issues.  The Manager, Durham City Homes (DCH), Simon Bartlett explained that the way in which statistics were gathered meant that at the end of the financial year, a number of properties would automatically fall into the non-decent category and then an inspection would take place to ascertain if that were in fact the case and accordingly, Quarter 1 always recorded a large number of properties becoming non-decent.  Councillor M Wilkes asked what the targets were for non-decent homes across the 2 ALMOs and DCH.  The Manager, DCH noted that for DCH and DVH the target was 0%, and for EDH it was higher, with the percentage being around 35% non-decency for EDH currently.

Councillor C Carr asked whether changes in European Grant Funding would affect County Durham and which projects would be affected.  The Head of Planning, Policy and Performance, RED explained that there was a series of Masterplans related to Town Centres across the County, with the regeneration of Consett having been considered by Cabinet last month.  Members were made aware of pressure to relax funding criteria across the European Union due to the Eurozone crisis and that this would need to monitored against how funding would be allocated for the RED Capital Programme.  The Committee noted that in the slightly longer term, it would be possible for the Council to lobby together with neighbouring Local Authorities for an “intermediary region” post 2013 or for a “Nutt2” region together with Tees Valley and that both these proposals may enable greater access to funding streams.  The Economic Regeneration Manager explained that as the land and property market was depressed, capital receipts for the Authority were diminished, meaning less money for capital programmes, although this was true of the private sector and not just for Local Authorities and the public sector, with only food retail seeming to have any growth.  Accordingly, Members noted that this was why Masterplans included several types of development in order to include element to ensure medium and long term sustainability.  Councillors noted that by the end of the financial year, it was planned for several more Masterplans to be submitted for consideration by Cabinet including ones for Bishop Auckland, Stanley, Seaham and Murton.

Mr D Lavin noted there was an indicator in relation to the percentage of occupation of Council controlled factory unit and asked for more information regarding this.  The Customer and Services Intelligence Manager explained that they were not factories, rather council owned units, for office space, retail opportunities and so on.

Councillor B Graham asked if it was possible to have figures relating to the number of local people employed as a result of the DurhamGate project.  The Economic Regeneration Manager noted he could look into the figures in that regard.  The Head of Planning, Policy and Performance, RED added that at DurhamGate there was a desire to work with the Developer in relation to Targeted Recruitment in order to not only provide jobs in the short term, also in the longer term with a few thousand over the next 10 years.

Councillor C Carr asked whether SMEs were taking on apprentices, as Beamish Museum had, or whether they were finding it too difficult in the current economic climate.  The Economic Regeneration Manager noted that this was an element of the Working Group set up by the Committee looking at Increasing the Employment Opportunities for Young People. In addition the CDEP had established a task and finish group looking at how to promote apprenticeships within County Durham including engaging with SME’s highlighting the advantages to both the company and the young persons of offering apprenticeships.  and that one of several priorities was the roles of brokering and ambassadors for SMEs in order to match young people to opportunities. 

Resolved:    

That the report be noted.