Agenda item

The Corporate Performance Report provides an analysis of the Council’s performance for the second quarter of 2021-22. The report, set out at Annexe 1, is being presented to each of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees for comment and any recommendations they may wish to make to the Executive.

The Policy and Performance Officer and Heads of Service to highlight areas relating to this committees remit (pages to note are Pages 18 – 33 of the Agenda papers).

The Policy and Performance Officer explained that the performance information was for quarter two which related to 1^st July to 30^th September 2021.  The areas within the Committee’s remit were Corporate Dashboard – HR and Financial Aspects, Business Transformation, Finance and Property and Policy and Governance.

The Head of Business Transformation highlighted the fact that in the last quarter the big project was Where Work Happens changes within the building.  Negotiations were continuing with a couple of potential tenants to lease the second floor of the building.  There had been no additional costs above the established budgets for the team to accomplish this work.

The Customer Services Team were set up in October 2020 and worked together in the Council building again for the first time during quarter 2 rather than working from home.  In that twelve month period there was a staff turnover of half the team.  Some of those who left went on to work elsewhere in the Council.

Radware software was installed to deal with aggressive bots attacking the Planning portal and the situation was now a lot quieter.

There had been further meetings with partners Surrey County Council and the Environment Agency regarding drainage and flooding across the Borough.  All high risk areas were identified.  They were Cranleigh, Elsted and Alfold.  There were also localised spots in Farnham and discussions were being had with Surrey County Council.  Some of the work was being led by the Housing team.  Strategic Director Annie Righton offered to provide a written update to Cllr Hesse regarding Mead Lane, Farnham.  They were currently awaiting legal advice about the site.

There were questions about when would the IT situation improve. The Head of Business Transformation said they were considering moving into a paid relationship with Horizon who provided Planning software.  There was a question about the Citrix migration and when the situation would settle down.  The Committee hoped to see greater improvements soon.  It was confirmed that the Citrix migration was now completed.  There was a slight under estimation of the service capacity needed. Two new servers should be operational in a couple of weeks.

There was a further question around the new Building Control operating model.  The Head of Business Transformation said the Building Control Review was complete but savings had not yet been realised.

The Vice Chairman asked when she could view the Customer Service Strategy and the Head of Business Transformation said it was currently available in draft form.  A lot of the work on transforming Customer Services was actually done in advance of the Strategy being written and signed off.

The Head of Finance and Property provided an update on the areas within his remit.  He said that the collection of Council Tax and Business rates was under pressure as a result of the pandemic.  The team were working on boosting their recovery process.  The businesses under pressure were in the hospitality and retail sectors and had become liable for business rates again in at the end of June 2021 and they had been under pressure due to the lockdowns.  The service were working with those businesses.  The Chairman noted that for quarter 2 in 2020-21 the collection figure was 48.4% and asked whether businesses who were eligible for 100% relief had been left out of the figures and it was confirmed that they had

Councillors asked how much money was lost to Waverley through the none-collection of business rates.  The Head of Finance and Property said that Waverley got 1.85 million of the 36 million collected as other funds went to the Government, Surrey County Council and others.  If the figure fell below 1.85 million it was topped up by the Government so Waverley did not actually lose out.  The Head of Finance and Property also reported that the budget was coping at present with the pressures on it although Leisure Centre income was not back to pre-pandemic levels and the same with car parking.

The Chairman asked that in future rather than there being a table which reported the approved budget figure and variance, they would like the variance column relabelled to report the forecast outturn.  He also requested that the figures be broken down to show what the Council was doing with the money it retained rather than showing money it collected which went to other parties.

The Head of Policy and Governance reported on the performance of the areas within his remit. He explained that it included Legal Services and Land Charges, Democratic Services and Business Support, Electoral Services, Corporate Policy including customer complaints, communications and human resources. 

In addition to the normal work of the service, in quarter 2 there had been the Chiddingfold Neighbourhood Plan Referendum, implementation of a new corporate complaints database, supporting cross party working groups, the boundary review, work surrounding the appointment of a joint Chief Executive with Guildford Borough Council plus various governance changes directed by Full Council.

He reported that the turnaround time for the processing of land charges within 10 days remained off target.  He stated that he had reported on the reasons to the former Value for Money and Customer Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee.  He reported that performance as at the date of the meeting was back under 10 days although this had not been the case during quarter 2.  The Committee asked for their continued concern on Land Charges to be recorded.  The Head of Policy and Governance said that the backlog had now been tackled.

Performance targets were also not being met on responding to complaints within timescale.  He reported that most complex complaints related to environment, property and planning.  A new database system had been implemented to help tackle complaints and track them more efficiently. 

It was noted that staff turnover was higher than the previous year and the Chairman asked whether this was a result of the pandemic or the Guildford collaboration.  The Head of Policy and Governance reported that fewer people moved during the pandemic and they were starting to move again now.  The Chairman asked what the staffing grade was of staff who were leaving and the Head of Policy and Governance said he would provide written information.  He also stated that Waverley’s staff turnover was not dissimilar to other authorities.