Agenda item

Report of the Chief Executive Officer

The Cabinet considered a report of the Chief Executive which presented an overview of progress towards delivery of the key priorities contained within the Council Plan 2023-27 in line with the Council’s corporate performance framework in and to the end of quarter one, 2023/24, April to June 2023 (for copy of report see file of minutes).

The Leader of the Council informed Cabinet that the enhancements to the report via the inclusion of a range of dashboards for key services was an important addition and the improved transparency relating to how well services were being delivered for the people of County Durham was something that the joint administration were championing.

Notably, the Council was continuing to deliver strong performance alongside a sharp delivery focus for service users, communities and partners. This was despite the headwinds created by the impact of the current cost of living squeeze.

The Leader of the Council highlighted some areas of the stated ambitions which were performing well. This included:

·      continuation in promoting the county as a year-round tourist destination through both national and international marketing campaigns. The latest data showed tourism contributed more than £1 billion to our local economy for the first time, above the target of just over £760 million. There were almost 18 million visitors, a million above target, resulting in nearly 12,000 people employed in tourism across the county.

·      investment in cultural events programme;

·      determination of 91.2% of major planning applications within the 13 week deadline, exceeding the target (90%) and this placing the Council in the top quartile nationally;

·      acquisition of twenty electric midi vans which would each save 3 tonnes of carbon emissions per year and would reduce carbon emissions within the council’s operations;

·      improving caseloads with targeted recruitment activity over the spring being particularly successful;

·      stronger Families programme continuing to exceed expectations with 80% of the annual target for families to achieve significant and sustained outcomes completed by quarter one;

·      rate of adult admissions to permanent residential and nursing care for adults aged 65+ was better than the Better Care Fund target and numbers entering permanent care continued to be lower than pre-pandemic levels. The percentage of older people still at home 91 days after discharge from hospital also continued to be high. Combined, these indicators demonstrated progress to meet the aim of maintaining the independence of people for longer;

·      final figures for net homes completions reported in the financial year 2022/23 had been updated to reflect a number of sites that had completed but had not yet been recorded. This brought the final year-end total for homes completed for 2022/23 to 1,551. This was 19% (243 homes) above the target of 1,308 included in the Local Plan and Housing Strategy. Additionally, a number of large, recently commenced schemes were expected to complete later in the year, making even further progress in this important area.

·      the first quarter of this year saw 64 empty homes brought back into use as a result of local authority intervention at the year end, exceeding the profiled target of 50;

·      As well as being better than target the 12 months rate of resolved flytipping incidents has seen improvement on both the last reporting period, the previous 12 months and is better than national, regional and our statistical neighbour averages;

·      Third party expenditure reached £701 million during 2022/23, £57 million more than the previous year. In line with our commitments to grow local job and support the local economy, a significant proportion of that spend was put into local businesses - 46% was spent across the county and a further 24% across the wider North East region. Importantly, £551 million was private sector spend relating to our major capital programmes which are delivering economic growth and better services for local people, including The Story at Mount Oswald,  and internally delivered projects that require significant private sector spend, such as Durham Bus Station, Plot C at Aykley Heads, the Leisure Transformation Programme;

·      Quarter one collection rates for business rates and council tax were consistent with previous years, with almost £1 million of additional business rate payments, compared to last year. However, there were indications that more residents and businesses are struggling due to the cost-of-living crisis: business rates summonses are 12% higher and 10,640 council tax accounts are now subject to recovery action (2,896 more than last year).

Councillor Hopgood explained that the report also highlighted a number of areas requiring attention, where for a range of issues, performance had not been what Cabinet would have liked it to be. In terms of those areas requiring attention, where action was and would continue to be taken, included:

·      the number of children in care;

·      continued increase for requests for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) alongside the shortage of educational psychologists was a national problem; and

·      the timeliness of the completion of Care Act assessments for adult social care service users continues to be low in comparison to levels seen prior to the pandemic.

Councillor M Wilkes, Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Neighbourhoods and Climate Change highlighted that the fly tipping rate was the lowest in the region, compared to it being 40% higher under the previous Labour administration. Reforming Council polices to the Neighbourhood Warden service and getting tougher on criminals was having a positive impact. The Council were scrapping 50% discount on fines and would monitor this impact together with a change in policy by the Government which would allow for the council to increase its fines further. This was proof that the Joint Administration was making a huge difference.

Resolved:

That the report be noted.