Issue - meetings

To consider the attached report of the Chief Executive.

The Head of Leadership Support presented the Performance Report – Quarter 3 2018/19. Overall, there had been an improvement in the performance indicators (PIs) with a decrease in the number of red and amber indicators since Quarter 2.

There were 23 Green PIs, 5 Amber PIs and 5 Red PIs for Quarter 3. The 5 Red PIs were as followed:

East Kent Housing

·        EKHL1 (Average time taken to re-let council dwellings)

·        EKHC2 (Rent arrears as a percentage of annual debit)

·        EKHC3 (Former tenant arrears as a percentage of annual debit)

The rollout of Universal Credit continued to have an impact on the arrears and it took approximately 18 months to clear these arrears on average. The modelling undertaken by East Kent Housing suggested that arrears would rise to 5 – 6% at the worst point during the transition to Universal Credit for the Dover District. Tenants were signposted to a number of support services, including budgeting advice to help with them through the transition to Universal Credit.   

Councillor B Gardner expressed concern at difficulties in contacting East Kent Housing when trying to help constituents. The Chief Executive (East Kent Housing) advised that there was a specific email address for councillors to use and telephone response times were monitored.

Dover District Council

·        HOU101a (Number of households living in Temporary Accommodation including bed and breakfast)

·        HOU101b (Number of households in bed and breakfast)

Members were advised that the Council had managed to reduce the number of people in bed and breakfast as well as reducing the overall length of stay in bed and breakfast. It was recognised that bed and breakfast accommodation was undesirable and the Council was trying to move more people to interim housing.

Councillor M D Conolly advised that there was a lot of work going on in respect of homelessness reduction and the use of modular housing for interim housing accommodation was being investigated. The Council owned two potential sites for modular housing and the necessary due diligence work was being undertaken with a view to the two sites being part of a single procurement exercise.

In respect of a question concerning staff sickness indicators, the Chief Executive advised that the Council took the welfare of its staff seriously and that for long term sickness it was a question of providing support to the employee. The indicator for short terms sickness had improved against Quarter 2 and this was being monitored.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

To consider the attached report of the Chief Executive.

Responsibility: Portfolio Holder for Corporate Resources and Performance

It was agreed that the Council’s Performance Report and Actions for the Third Quarter 2018/19 be noted.