Issue - meetings

Report of the Chief Executive

Presented by the Leader

The Leader presented the report to Members and summarised the following points:-

·         Rent collection levels had exceeded the performance targets, with the level of rent loss improving during the quarter.

·         All housing officers within Housing Management went live with mobile devices allowing improved efficiency when handling customers out in the district.

·         All processing targets for benefits had been achieved and North West Leicestershire had been positioned 3^rd in the County after achieving a 99% collection rate.

·         There had been an 8% increase in Leisure Centre fitness membership and a 13% increase in the Swim Academy income, resulting in the income forecasts for the year to be exceeded.

·         There had been an increase in trade waste income by £20k and recycling income had exceeded its target by £15k.

·         Processing performance for planning applications had exceeded both local and national targets.

The Leader went on to advise Members that there had been 9.4 days per full time equivalent to sickness against a target of 7.4 days and that long term sickness accounted for 72% of the total days lost. He informed Members that the Council was in the process of reviewing the Occupational Health support contract to ensure more support could be given to managing the long term sickness.

Councillor N J Rushton advised Members that the General Fund current projection was £2.3m and not £1.736m as stated in the report, and that following the decision at the February Cabinet meeting to set aside any underspend to reserves, reports would be brought to future meetings to consider how the one off surplus could be spent. He did stress to Members that the authority needed to be prudent as there was uncertainty around future funding such as the reducing Revenue Support Grant, the reduction in the number of years that New Homes bonus payment would be paid and the changes to the business rates regime.

Councillor R D Bayliss stated that the reason the stand alone re-let times had been high was due to the number of long term out of use properties that required more work, but he could report that the number of days had already started to reduce and he hoped that June would be lower.

It was moved by Councillor R Blunt, seconded by Councillor N J Rushton and

RESOLVED THAT:

The Quarter 4 Performance Report (January – March 2016) be received and noted.

Reason for decision: The report is provided for Members to effectively monitor the organisation’s performance.