Issue - meetings

(a)       That the Committee supports levels of progress and confidence in the achievement of priorities within 2021/22 Council Plan;

(b)       That the Committee supports overall performance against 2021/22 Council Plan performance indicators; and

(c)       That the Committee is assured by explanations given for those areas of underperformance.

The Chief Executive presented the monitoring report to review year-end progress against Council Plan priorities identified for 2021/22.  Overall this was a positive report given the challenges from the emergency situation, with 73% of performance indicators (PIs) relevant to the Committee having met or exceeded their targets (green) and none showing under-performance against target (red).

In referring to red PIs outside the remit of this Committee, Councillor Alasdair Ibbotson queried progress with social housing completion.  On private rented sector actions, he suggested that delays in recruiting to the team to support private sector tenants should have a red status and that options to involve the third sector or tenant representative bodies could be explored.  Under Environment, he observed that the amount of red PIs compared to green appeared to be misleading as there was evidence of good progress.

The Chairman suggested that the 11 red PIs under the remit of other Overview & Scrutiny committees be referred appropriately.

In responding to the points raised by Councillor Ibbotson, the Chief Executive confirmed that the Community, Housing and Assets Overview & Scrutiny Committee had recently considered the housing PIs and he agreed to provide a separate update on the current position with recruitment to the private sector team.

The Chairman suggested a review of targets on some measures to ensure they were both challenging and achievable, for example the average days to process change in circumstances for housing benefit and Council Tax reduction (Income Poverty) and usage statistics of online resources for children and young people (Child Poverty).  He queried the outcome on the number registered on the Digital Champions Scheme (digital Poverty) and the presentation of chart data on performance measures for Affordable and Accessible Housing.  On Town Centre Regeneration actions, he said it was important that the design of a town formed part of ‘improving the environment in town centres’.

The recommendations were moved and seconded by Councillors Ron Davies and Jason Shallcross.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the Committee supports levels of progress and confidence in the achievement of priorities within 2021/22 Council Plan;

(b)       That the Committee supports overall performance against 2021/22 Council Plan performance indicators; and

(c)       That the Committee is assured by explanations given for those areas of underperformance.