Agenda item

This Mid-Year update report outlines South Kesteven District Councils performance against the Corporate Plan Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the year of 2022/23.

The Deputy Leader of the Council presented the report.

The South Kesteven Corporate Plan 2020-23 was approved by Council on 1 October 2020. It was agreed by Council that actions, key performance indicators (KPIs) and targets were to be developed by the relevant overview and scrutiny committee.

The report provided an update on performance to the mid-year point of the 2022/23 financial year and incorporated the changes recommended by the last KPI review to 3 outline areas of the council’s performance which were successful and to advise where challenges may lay.

The report summary was as follows:

8 of the actions were rated Green. These were actions above target as planned.

2 actions were rated as Amber. These are those off target by less than 10% or where milestone achievement is delayed but with resolution in place to be achieved within a reasonable timeframe.

2 actions were rated Red. These are those falling significantly below target or overdue with no specific resolution date planned.

One Member raised a query on the action relating to CCTV and number of incidents where offenders were arrested as the percentage seemed low. It was queried how many arrests CCTV resulted in prosecution.

ACTION: For the Assistant Director for Operations and Public Protection to provide statistics around the number of arrests that resulted in prosecutions within the District.

One Member had previously attended the meeting of Bourne, Stamford and Deeping Neighbourhood Policing priorities, where SKDC CCTV colleagues were praised for their contribution into assisting Police with target criminals and suspected crime.

One Member made the following comments around the housing actions:

·       Why the affordable housing target was rated green, when the target had not been met.

·       That the action relating to ‘housing that meets the needs of all residents’ had not met the target of building 650 properties and 244 properties had been built. It was queried as to whether any measures were in place to include background information on latest housing supply.

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Property notified the Committee that planning permission criteria made the delivery of affordable housing schemes more difficult.

Concern was raised over the action rated red regarding proportion of prevention cases successfully resolved of homelessness. It was suggested that a percentage only measure should be reported and related to the size of the population in question.

The Acting Director of Housing highlighted that there were seasonal factors to the action regarding homelessness. 39.06% of prevention cases resolved was the current percentage achieved and the 50% target was a stretched target and could not easily be reached. It was confirmed that figures would be included in future commentary to assist in the understanding of the percentages.

One Member raised concern over the Council the green rated action which outlined the Council embracing the ‘National mental health challenge’ given the recent decision on the Deepings Leisure Centre which had caused mental distress of the residents.

It was queried as to whether action 9 ‘making best use of different funding sources to support the voluntary and cultural sector within the district’ would include leisure and whether the Council would support any community applications for funding to reopen Deepings Leisure Centre without being directly involved.

The Director of Growth and Culture confirmed that she would provide an update to the Member in question following the meeting.

ACTION: For the Director of Growth and Culture to provide an update to the Member in question on whether the Council would support any community applications for funding to reopen Deepings Leisure Centre without being directly involved.

One Member queried as to whether any progress had been made on the Spittlegate Heath garden village and the time frame of work commencing.

It was further queried as to how many houses had been built since 2019.

Clarification was pursued over Larch Close and Uplands Drive as the report stated that planning permission was being sought and that public consultation was being launched in Autumn.

The Acting Director of Housing confirmed that minor amendments were being made to plans for Larch Close before permissions were submitted for planning permission. The public consultation for Uplands Drive was being launched in Autumn 2023. 

The Director of Growth and Culture highlighted that the Spittlegate Heath garden village had made good progress with the respective developers and the Planning Committee had previously received an update on the Council’s land supply.

It was queried as to whether there was any tangible evidence of progress being made on the projects. It was confirmed that footings had not yet been laid on the Spittlegate Heath garden village at present.

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Property confirmed that 14 properties were delivered in 2021, 42 properties in 2022 and 51 properties were due to be delivered in 2023. The Council had been using investment funds that had gone into reserves to fund programmes that had been delivered.

It was suggested that the Council spends reserves as a fundamental deposit on securing a larger amount of money by way of loan deposit for a larger delivery. Borrowing money from the Housing Revenue Account stock could assist in delivering more homes. Thoughts from the Committee were welcomed to drive the initiative forward.

The Deputy Leader of the Council confirmed that financial modelling would need to be undertaken prior to any financial suggestion being brought forward.

Further clarification was sought on the amount of money in the HRA account, which had previously been earmarked for new houses, and whether it would be used for new houses.

It was clarified that the Council could use some reserves funding as a deposit and to borrow money on the capital investment to provide a larger yield.

The Deputy Leader of the Council noted that the Council were reluctant to go ahead with new builds until the stock condition survey was completed, due to a possible risk of overstretching finances.  

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Property informed the Committee that investment could be spent over the next 3 years in delivering improvements to the Council’s current stock. A workshop was welcomed to be created to further discuss this topic.

AGREED:

1. Note the contents of the 2022/23 Mid-Year performance report.

2. Members to consider if any concerns highlighted by the report require additional investigation to be added to the work programme.