Agenda item

The Policy Officer, Strategy and Performance, introduced the report submitted to the Committee.  She advised the meeting that the report contained thirty-five quarterly KPIs, of which five showed as no data available.  The Committee was informed that ENV1 (domestic waste collected per household from the kerbside), ENV2 (household waste recycled and composted), and H&J3 (number of net new additional homes) were subject to a time lag in reporting data, H&J1 (average time to let void housing properties) was part of a wider review of void housing properties, and H&J4 (affordable new homes completed each year) was unavailable due to the officer who provided the data leaving the Council recently. 

With reference to a question about the increase in the amount of waste recycled and composted (ENV2) in quarter 1 2023/24, the meeting was advised that in waste data was cyclical in nature and some quarters would always be low performing with an improvement in the following quarter.  The Committee was informed that quarter 4 was always a poor performing quarter, but for 2022/23 it was very significantly so.  The meeting was advised that officers had been unable to fully establish why this quarter 4 was so low, but believed it was the combination of a series of events: including high street cleaning tonnages from gritted roads and the clearance of the remaining leaf fall; high post-Christmas refuse tonnages; a number of recycling rejections; a lower level of recycling than normal; and some errors in reporting following a change in waste classifications at the tip.

The Committee was advised that the Executive Head of Regeneration and Planning Policy would provide a written response to the question of what more the Council could do to encourage occupancy of the town centre shops.

Similarly, the response to a question on efforts to secure more temporary accommodation was that the Neighbourhood Housing Lead had been unable to attend the meeting in person but was happy to speak to the Councillor raising this issue.  In addition, the Committee was advised that two schemes were being planned to meet the need, but work had not started as the Council were currently reviewing all assets and the best use of them.

The Executive Head of Communications and Customer Services responded to a question about the measures put in place for training the Council’s call handling teams and, in particular, how these staff were trained to help residents with health conditions or impairments that may need extra care and time to help them with their queries.  The Committee was advised that all customer service staff attended equality and diversity training, customer service team leaders monitored calls for feedback, and training to help staff deal with customers with mental health needs was planned.

With reference to H&J4, the number of affordable new homes built each year, a Councillor questioned whether his proposal that the number of social homes be reported separately from the number of affordable homes had been progressed since last year.  The Policy Officer, Strategy and Performance, undertook to provide an update to the Committee on the suggestion.

In relation to H&J7 (time taken to assess new housing benefit claims), a member of the Committee asked for details of staff numbers processing claims.  The Policy Officer, Strategy and Performance, indicated she would provide details to Committee members.

The Chairman noted the progress achieved with COU9 (speed of determining planning applications for minor applications) and COU10 (speed of determining planning applications for other development) and thanked officers for their work in preparing the report submitted to the Committee.