Agenda item

The Committee received a report of the Chief Executive that presented an overview of progress towards delivery of the key priorities within the Council Plan 2023-27 in line with the council’s corporate performance framework and covered performance in and to the end of quarter three, 2023/24, October to December 2023 (for copy see file of minutes).

The Corporate Policy and Performance Manager reviewed the key highlights of the report.  He noted that 43% of properties had been identified to be licensed under the Selective Licensing Programme. The increase had been helped by the Council pursuing legal action against those who had not taken out a licence. There were 142 enforcement cases started to be processed for action.  Road safety fatalities had risen in quarter three with 21 fatalities this year that had been the highest in seven years.  This figure may increase in quarter four.  Road safety partners continued to engineer where accidents took place and analysed the area looking at the roads, signage, road markings, provided education to young drivers and carried out enforcement where necessary. Crime figures had been covered under agenda item 6 that were lower regionally but higher than England.  The chart showed County Durham as being the 4^th lowest in the northeast compared to the eleven local authorities. Theft offences had risen that included theft of a motor vehicle.  This was on the increase due to the rise in inflation by 30% and the items being attractive for thieves to steal.  Shoplifting was also on the rise.

He added that protection of vulnerable people had three elements i) fewer domestic abuse incidents were reported but more victims were referred to Harbour Support Services, ii) status satisfactory with Harbour had improved since using it; iii) clients felt safe and children and young people report felt safe following intervention.  Historically figures for ASB had decreased but in Quarter three there had been a slight uptake. Environmental ASB that had been far higher in volume had come down mainly due to the way in which the police recorded incidents as some incidents were no long categorised as crime.  In the national survey for England and Wales a quarter of responses stated that they were satisfied on how police dealt with matters but the survey could be subject to sampling error as it has not changed in the last three years.  The main areas of concern were speeding, ASB, negative police behaviour and off-road bikes.  He noted that the report included information of the CAT team in the Head of Community Protection Services team and Horden together.

Councillor R Crute was aware that he had raised his concerns with the slow up take on the licences through the Selective Licensing Programme.  He noted that the scheme had only increased by 6% and it was now halfway through the scheme and there would not be sufficient premises licensed within the time left.  He raised concerns regarding the ceasing of prosecution of landlords and the instatement of financial penalties instead.  He had one prosecution in his area that had been a £7023 deterrent. 

The Corporate Policy and Performance Manager responded that things were decided on a case by case basis.  The use of financial penalties sped up the process for landlords to apply for a licence as if they paid early they got a discount. However this seemed to only work with responsible landlords especially those with fewer properties in their portfolios who would feel the financial pinch of a penalty compared to larger companies who would not feel the affect.  There was also the disadvantage for absentee landlords. He added that it was a slow and frustrating process but the scheme was not designed to make money but carried out to improve the standard of properties.

Councillor R Crute suspected it was difficult to get in contact with absentee landlord.  He asked if the financial penalties came back into the service.

The Principal Overview and Scrutiny Officer noted that there was to be a bespoke Economy and Enterprise Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 22 April 2024 where the Selective Licensing Programme was the first agenda item. This would be an opportunity for members to take part in the discussion and ask questions of the officers who ran the scheme.

The Head of Community Protection Services responded to Councillor R Crute that the income obtained from civil penalties went to further finance the same activities.  She used civil penalties in other services within her remit like Houses of multiply Occupancy (HMO) as an alternative to prosecution in court as this tied up a lot of time and penalties in court went to a tribunal.  It was a useful tool to use.  She added that her report had included the work undertaken with HMO licences and other housing interested legislation.

Councillor J Quinn shared Councillor R Crute’s concerns with the Selective Licensing programme issues.  He thought it was good that more landlords had signed up but it was a long process and the scheme was nearly at the end with some landlords having had to pay up which no doubt these costs had been passed on to the tenants.  He asked if ASB recording continued to cause issues.

The Corporate Policy and Performance Manager noted that the selective licensing programme had invested in an IT system that had the ability to record ASB issues.  It was found to be difficult to generalise as there had been a glitch in the system that prohibited gaining any measures as to how well things were being reported.  This had been raised with internal audit but it was frustrating as there would be no way to prove or disprove if selective licensing had been successful until after it had finished when the system was run at the end.

Councillor J Quinn queried how much the IT system had cost to install, why it was not operating efficiently and who had commissioned it.

The Corporate Policy and Performance Manager was unsure but agreed to feedback to the committee.

Councillor D Nicholls thanked the Corporate Policy and Performance Manager for the report.  He felt that it was significantly important to regard suicide rates. He noticed that had been a rise since 2018 but stated that people were not statistics.  It was reported that Durham was 6% higher than the national average and 3% higher than compared to other areas in the Northeast which was a problem that may appear not to being tackled.  He felt that the system was stagnant and that this area should be flagged as potentially figures would increase in the quarter four report that was still to come.  He stated that the Public Health Committee should be mindful on what was going on to make every effort to reduce these figures. He suggested that the Council could sign up to the MIND employability charter.

Councillor L Brown referred to the approximate figure of 29,000 properties within selective licensing programme and was concerned that the Council did not know exactly how many rented properties there were in these areas.

The Corporate Policy and Performance Manager responded that the report stated that the number of properties was an approximation as there was a lot of different data that was analysed that ranged from council tax, benefits and estate agents to establish the number of landlords there were in these areas which fluctuated. He added that landlords might not have been identified yet so the figures were as accurate as they could be.

Councillor D Sutton-Lloyd hoped that the scrutiny meeting on 22 April 2024 would provide Members with further details on the selection licensing scheme that was long overdue.

Councillor R Crute understood the use of ballpark performance figures as it was unclear what exemptions may come to light within the system that would result in landlords not falling in with the criteria of the scheme.

Resolved:

That the overall position and direction of travel in relation to quarter three performance, and the actions being taken to address areas of challenge be noted.