Issue - meetings

Report of Assistant Director – Customer Focus

Purpose of report

To report to the committee the council’s performance position at the end of the financial year 2023-2024.

Recommendations

Officers recommend the committee:

1.1         To note the Council’s End of year performance report for 2023/24

Resolved

(1)      That the Council’s End of year performance report for 2023/24 be noted.

The Committee considered a report from the Assistant Director – Customer Focus that detailed the council’s performance position at the end of the financial year 2023-2024.

In introducing the report, the Portfolio Holder for Corporate Services advised that 26 of the 27 Business Plan measures had been achieved. The one measure not achieved was “Net Additional Housing Completions to meet Cherwell Needs” with a final figure of 792 completions, which was  70% of the set target. The Portfolio Holder for Corporate Services advised that this measure had been heavily affected by the national context, circumstances such as inflation, high building costs, and high interest rates which resulted in the lower than expected number of completions.

Following a question from the Committee on how the Council’s measured targets were set as  and could the targets be more challenging  as most targets had been met, the Performance Team Leader advised that the Council use national targets and benchmark from previous years and took into consideration local context to set ambitious targets.

In response to a question from the Committee asking why the number of housing completions target was missed by 30%, the Corporate Director of Communities advised that housing delivery had been good in respect of the requirements of the Cherwell Local Plan 2015 with an average of 1281 homes built a year. In 2023-2024, the number fell to 792 homes built however this was consistent with national figures linked to issues with house building across the country. The Corporate Director of Communities also advised that there 6000 homes had been granted planning permission within the district but had not yet been built.

Resolved

(1)      That the Council’s End of year performance report for 2023/24 be noted.