Issue - meetings

Purpose of Report

To provide the Executive with a summary of the operational performance position for quarter one of the financial year 2018/19 from April 2018 to June 2018.

Decision

(1)          That the report be noted.

(2)          That relevant Portfolio Holders ensured that management had a local focus on those highlighted areas showing deteriorating performance.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

None.

Reason for Decision

Quarter one saw a long list of very good performance results, particularly in relation to development management and housing. A summary of exceptional areas of good performance were noted as follows:

·         the number of face to face enquires in customer services had dropped by 7,336 compared to quarter one last year;

·         the number of telephone enquires that customer services had answered had decreased by 8,793 compared to quarter one last year;

·         the number of users logged into ‘myinfo’ this quarter had increased by 1,409 compared to quarter one last year;

·         the in-year collection rate for Lincoln Business Rates remained above its target of 30.53% at 35.86%;

·         the average days to process housing benefit claim changes of circumstances was better than its target of 5 at 4.72 days;

·         the total number of users at the Council’s health and recreation facilities had increased by 15,697 compared to quarter one last year;

·         the percentage of premises fully or broadly compliant with food health and safety inspection had remained above its target of 97% at 98.7%;

·         the average time taken to determine a planning application had decreased by 9.9 days to 57.44 days;

·         the percentage of non-major and major planning applications determined within the government target at 94.67% and 100% respectively;

·         the rent collected as a proportion of rent owned remains above its target of 96.50% at 97.56%;

·         the current tenant arrears stood at 2.72%, which was better than the target of 3.5%;

·         the percentage of rent lost from voids had decreased by 0.25%, now at 0.72%;

·         the percentage of reactive repairs completed within target time remained above its target of 97.50% at 98%.

Areas with less positive performance results were noted as follows:

·         the average time taken to answer a call to customer services had increased from last quarter by six seconds, to 110 seconds;

·         the level of outstanding customer changed in the revenues team had increased by 156 compared to the same quarter last year, now standing at 659;

·         the average number of days to process new housing benefit claims had decreased by 5.84 days from the quarter four figure of 24.29, now standing at 30.13 days in quarter one which was above its lower target of 26. It was noted that the introduction of the implementation of Universal Credit had impacted waiting times in the benefits areas;

·         the number of housing benefits and council tax support customers awaiting assessment had increased by 746 compared to quarter one last year, which was now at 1,323;

·         percentage of waste recycled or composted had decreased from 30.90% in quarter one last year to 27.4% in quarter one this year, although  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38