Agenda item

Part B – Finance Performance report is to follow.

The Performance and Programme Lead presented the Quarter 1 Performance report that detailed the Council’s performance against an agreed set of performance indicators. The points highlighted at the previous Scrutiny Committee meeting for further clarification, had been responded to in the report, or would be covered as part of the presentation to Members at the meeting.

During discussion the following points were made:

·         Bandstand - Due to its location by the sea, the Bandstand would require ongoing routine maintenance for its lifetime (including planned maintenances during the winter period).

·         Housing - South Downs Housing was a housing association (HA) that worked in partnership with the Council. The HA housed tenants facing homelessness or rough sleeping. South Downs Housing worked with tenants for a two year period to make them ‘tenancy ready’, and take them out of the cycle of homelessness. South Downs HA currently had 60 Council properties that were tenanted.

·         Housing initiatives - A new Housing Solutions Team had been set up and within the last month and 90 households (49 of who were in priority need) had presented as homeless on the day of their interaction, or within the following two weeks. The new team prevented 38 of those households from going into temporary accommodation, with the intervention saving the Council £154,700 in the same month.

·         Temporary Accommodation – A Commercial Property Team had been set up alongside the new Housing Solution team to deal with temporary accommodation and was tasked with getting families/individuals out of emergency accommodation and into temporary accommodation (allowing the subsidy to be retained) - also discharging duties to the private sector (including the Council’s own housing companies). There was now a private sector stock of housing the Council was able to control. The aspiration was for a zero target in emergency accommodation and the work undertaken was building towards this.

·         Housing waiting list - All individuals in need of social housing or in temporary and emergency accommodation were assessed in terms of need and banded. The number of properties that became available for re-let each year was approximately 100, set against approximately 1000 individuals on the waiting list. This demonstrated the value of the private housing investment companies and the importance of affordable house-building on other sites.

·         Local Plan - The Council’s Housing Delivery action plan set out actions taken towards housing strategy and how developers can be worked with to deliver housing numbers. Policy implications and whether a change of emphasis would provide more opportunities was another area being reviewed, along with the effect of the Community Infrastructure Levy. The Local Plan was previously ‘in date’ until 2027. Legislation (National Planning Policy Framework NPPF) changed requiring local authorities to update their local plans on a five-year basis. Those authorities that were under-delivering housing numbers were under additional pressure to identify further sites and land.

·         The Council’s housing target was confirmed as 668 per year and there was insufficient land in Eastbourne to meet this target.

·         Abandoned calls - The performance indicators were refreshed on an annual basis by the Cabinet and it was felt that the indicator for abandoned calls did not provide an accurate picture as part of the message provided customers with details of the Council’s online facilities. It was agreed that, should there be an adverse change in the levels of abandoned calls by more than 5 percent; a response would be included in the overall commentary in the performance report.

The Head of Environment First provided an update on the Council’s Waste Mobilisation Programme and establishment of South East Environmental Services Limited (SEESL). The following points were highlighted:

·         Many of the Council’s own services had been involved in the successful mobilisation of the SEESL in June 2019 and in its third month of operation significant gains across the service had already been made.

·         A depot had been secured early in the process providing more space. Significant investment in the depot had improved safety levels and improved the professionalism of the service.

·         New in-cab technology (W360) provided live information on the location of all bins, including missed bins, assisted bins and contaminated bins. The performance information provided by the new white-space IT portal allowed patterns in behaviour and issues to be identified early on.

·           A challenging HR process resulted in 97 staff transferred through Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (TUPE) to SEESL (including 13 staff previously employed through agencies).

·         A new fleet of vehicles had been purchased (including some of Kier’s fleet). The increased capacity of the new vehicles reduced the number of journeys to waste disposal sites. Five mechanical sweepers had also been purchased, reducing the dependency on hand-pushed sweepers and improving cleanliness.

·         A high level of commitment and energy had been shown by staff in the new service and input into new initiatives to improve the collection service was encouraged.

·         The Service was working with Neighbourhood First and the Environment Enforcement Team to ensure businesses were aware of their duty of care with regard to bins. Similar work was commencing in targeted areas to ensure landlords with houses of multiple occupancy (HMOs) were also aware of their responsibilities.

·         Complaints via W360 were 68 for July and 11 for August, from a total of 300,000 collections in each period and all Street Cleansing activities. The Service would continue to analyse complaints. The service level agreements (SLAs) included bin deliveries which had been eight weeks (prior to the new service being introduced) and had reduced to two weeks. The SLA target of 10 days had been impacted by the marketing and rolling out of new recycling bins to enhance recycling initiatives.

·         The street-cleaning monitoring service was now in-house allowing a more pro-active approach to the education of service users and evidence based enforcement where appropriate and necessary. 

·         The 50 percent recycling target would be encouraged through smarter collection processes, more education and looking at how waste is managed in the future.

The Head of Environment First thanked the waste services team for the hard work that had contributed to the success of the new service and invited Committee members to visit the team and see first-hand the work being done.

The following points were highlighted during discussion:

The June 2019 recycling rate had increased from approximately 32 percent to approximately 38 percent. Green waste would have been a factor in the increase but a successful programme of community and resident education would have contributed also.

The organisation was aware of the issues around the siting and return of bins. The operatives who collected the bins had already commenced a focus on ensuring they were returned to collection points (within property curtilages). Awareness amongst residents also needed increasing as to where bins should be sited for collection. The siting of communal bins in densely populated areas would be appraised within three years to try and overcome the anti-social behavioural issues around the use and abuse of the bins.

Collection of food waste was not currently a service. The Council had responded to a recent DEFRA consultation and was waiting for the Government to respond with guidance and any available funding (including for food waste).

It was recommended by the Committee that additional performance indicators around waste collection be included in the quarterly performance report.

RESOLVED:

1.    To note the progress and performance for Q1;

2.    To recommend to the Cabinet that additional collection indicators regarding waste performance and how recycling levels can be improved (the details of which will be confirmed by officers) are included in future performance reports; and

3.    That where there is any adverse change in the level of contact centre calls answered (of more than 5 percent) information relating to missed calls will then be included in the narrative of the performance report.

Part B – Finance Performance Report

The Director of Finance presented the report which provided an overview of the Council’s finances in Quarter 1.

The analysis in the report provided a number of key finance headlines. The Committee was advised that the Council continues to experience pressure in managing increased demand for its housing related services including temporary and emergency housing but also provision of housing subsidy.  The quarter’s financial performance also reflected the general economic slowdown including the added uncertainty and its adverse impact on the Council’s commercial income levels.

The Committee was advised that there would be further improvements to the formatting of the report and the reporting timelines.  These will be delivered in time for future reporting cycles. . It was also acknowledged there had not been capacity within the finance team to make the planned improvements. The Financial Services were in the process of transitioning to a new structure and having in place the required staffing complement within the next few months. It was anticipated that noticeable improvements would be delivered by the next quarter.

RESOLVED:

1.    To note the achievements and progress against Corporate Plan priorities for 2019-20, as set out in Part A of the report;

2.    Note the General Fund, HRA and Collection Fund financial performance for the quarter, as set out in part B of the report; and

3.    Note the amended capital programme as set out in Appendix 4.