The Committee was presented with an update against the Performance Management Framework, as introduced within the council’s Corporate Plan, for Quarter Three 2021-22 (October to December 2021).

The Assistant Director (Communities) directed Members to appendix two to the report and provided Members with a statistical overview of the Council’s performance against each performance indicator for quarter two.

The Assistant Director (Communities) and the Assistant Director (Planning) fielded questions and explained that:

• Information held on the amount of social Council houses the Council had in stock fell under the Housing Portfolio, but the Assistant Director (Communities) agreed to raise it with the Director (Housing) and circulate the figures to Members outside of the meeting; it was thought to be below 6000 houses due to the ‘right to buy’ scheme
• As the matter also fell under the Housing Portfolio, the Assistant Director (Communities) agreed to talk to the Director (Housing) to see if there were any delays in the Council’s own programme of delivering affordable and social housing schemes and circulate a response to Members outside of the meeting
• The Assistant Director (Communities) agreed with Members that it was a shame that shops/cafes weren’t open later during the Lights Festival in Town which attracted thousands of people. The Economic Development Team would do more to communicate with high street shops/cafes when certain large Council events were scheduled in order to ask them to stay open later to provide service to large crowds
• The Council were ambitious in taking on so many applicants for the Kickstart Scheme particular with hybrid working arrangements in place, but managers worked very hard with their placements. Each young person was treated as an individual and this required time and there were some challenges with a few of the Kickstarters who were not ‘work ready’.  Eleven dropped out of the scheme and the Council learnt a lot from the reasons for this.. The responsibilities for the Scheme came to an end on 31 March, but there would still be placements in place until June. During the next few months managers would work with them to try and find permanent positions for them in the Council work force or, working with their Work Coaches to find positions in the wider economy. If a Kickstarter was unable to get any job then they would go back onto Universal Credit and look for a job placement through the Job Centre. The Assistant Director (Communities) advised Members that the employer could only do so much to get young people ‘job ready’ but the Council could also look to work with the Job Centre to increase self-confidence and improve young people’s mental health
• With regards to the Government’s Levelling Up agenda, the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to be allocated to lower tier authorities was due to replace the European Programmes and Government have asked for Investment Plans to be prepared to respond to local needs in respect of  business, jobs and skills related issues. The Assistant Director (Communities) advised that there was a significant amount of work to be completed around Levelling Up including working with external partners before the Council’s investment plan had to be submitted in Summer 2022

The Chair thanked the officers for a detailed report.