Agenda item

The Cabinet Member for Corporate Governance and Licensing presented the year end Quarter 4 Key Performance Indicators in respect of performance against the Corporate Plan 2024-2027 for the period 2025/26. 

The Committee received regular reports during the year in respect of the KPI’s.  Currently there were nine metrics/targets that the Committee had set in March 2024, seven of the current actions were rated green, one action was amber and none were red. The Committee were reminded that these were the Committee’s targets and if they were no longer appropriate it was for the Committee to change them.  The amber action was for a target that was off by 10% or where milestone achievement had been delayed but a resolution was in place to achieve the target within a reasonable timeframe.  One action was rated as not applicable as work had not commenced to give a meaningful target or data was unavailable, the metric was currently under review.

The Cabinet Member for Corporate Governance and Licensing thanked the Policy Officer, Charles James for the work carried out in respect of the report.  Reference was made to the recent Cabinet meeting which had discussed  Local Government Reorganisation and the potential for LGR to impact some services across the Council, some more than others in respect of the Corporate Plan.  

The Cabinet Member for Corporate Governance and Licensing then made reference to investment day which would coincide with the expiration of the Corporate Plan 2024-27.  It was expected that during 2027/28 the Council would be under a Section 24 Directive which would require the Council to seek and gain consent from the Shadow Authority for all financial transactions over a defined threshold.  It was noted that this could significantly impact delivery of the Council’s business and may risk any meaningful delivery of the Corporate Plan during that final year 2027/28.  During previous reorganisations a scheme of general consent had been introduced to effectively balance the need to prevent financial impacts that would unfairly burden the new unitary authority whilst enabling the current authority to deliver their services.  The key test to utilise the general consent was whether the expenditure was to fulfil the approved actions of the Council’s Corporate Plan in delivering the set revenue budget.  If a similar consent was given during the upcoming LGR the Council may well be able to meaningfully deliver on the Corporate Plan in total during 2027/28.  The 24 Direction for the current reorganisation that was currently being undertaken nationally for Surrey would come in to effect in June 2026 and was being closely monitored to see if a scheme of general consent was to be implemented. The Cabinet Member for Corporate Governance and Licensing stated that this was something that the Committee had to be mindful of as it was likely that changes may have to be carried out in respect of the achievements of the Corporate Plan.

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet Member for highlighting this to the Committee.

A question relating to the KPI on homelessness was referenced and whether the target was relevant to which the Head of Housing stated that this was being reviewed as the target given was not achievable and work was going on to refresh the metric going forward.

An adjournment took place between 15:26 and 15:39