Agenda item

Report of Strategic Director Customer Service and Resources

Summary

To consider the findings of the Land Charges Value for Money (VFM) Review report and the recommendations arising from the report 

Recommendations

The Executive is recommended to:

(1)       Endorse the overall conclusion of the review that the service is high cost and has low performance in terms of its productivity, but is high quality in terms of its search turnaround times.

(2)       Agree that further improvements in value for money be sought and approve the following recommendations to achieve this;

a)     Reduce staffing levels by 37hrs per week to eliminate surplus capacity and generate savings of £22,650. This will bring employee hours per thousand population more into line with the average authority. These savings have already been identified and accommodated in the 2009/10 budget.

b)     Further reduce the capacity within the service by 15hrs per week in recognition of the continuing fall in demand due to the economic slowdown, but re-invest these hours in improving the council’s digital records to improve future productivity by allocating them to the council’s GIS team. Monitor work volumes and review this arrangement after 6 months in order to maximise possible savings (should search volumes continue to fall) end ensure continuity of the service (should search volumes increase).

c)      Recalculate the contributions paid to other services through internal recharges so that these are based on a cost per search rather than a fixed overhead. This would produce savings of £24,865 for the service in 2009/10, although these costs would be transferred elsewhere in the council.

d)     Ascertain the true costs of the service (in anticipation of likely legislative changes allowing cost recovery charging) by carry out a zero based budget analysis of support costs to remove any overhead cost loading on the service. This is to take place in autumn 2009 as part of the routine budget revision process. 

e)     Raise the standard search fee from £80 to £120 (around the average for other Oxfordshire authorities) to raise additional income of £55,000 per annum. This may carry a risk of further reducing demand for searches, although reduced fees have not been shown to have any demonstrable influence on demand.   

f)        If legislation is introduced to allow it, raise the fee for personal searches to at least £25. This would raise additional income of around £30,000 per annum.

g)     Implement the TLC ICT system to improve the automation of electronically held information for searches

h)      Move appointments bookings and advance payments for searches to the Customer Contact centre to provide a common standard of customer service to callers and to remove unproductive administrative work from the land charges team

i)        Develop and introduce an online booking and payments system for appointments to complement the telephone service and further reduce administrative work

j)        Discontinue using Land Charges staff team to deal with personal search appointments in the mornings, transferring this work to reception staff (this has already been agreed and is being undertaken as an early outcome of this review).

The Strategic Director Customer Service and Resources submitted a report to consider the findings of the Land Charges Value for Money (VFM) Review report and the recommendations arising from the report   

Resolved

(1)       That the overall conclusion of the review that the service is high cost and has low performance in terms of its productivity, but is high quality in terms of its search turnaround times, be endorsed;

(2)       That further improvements in value for money be sought and the following recommendations to achieve this be endorsed;

a)     That staffing levels be reduced by 37hrs per week to eliminate surplus capacity and generate savings of £22,650. This will bring employee hours per thousand population more into line with the average authority. These savings have already been identified and accommodated in the 2009/10 budget.

b)     That capacity be further reduced within the service by 15hrs per week in recognition of the continuing fall in demand due to the economic slowdown, but re-invest these hours in improving the council’s digital records to improve future productivity by allocating them to the council’s GIS team. Monitor work volumes and review this arrangement after 6 months in order to maximise possible savings (should search volumes continue to fall) end ensure continuity of the service (should search volumes increase).

c)      That the contributions paid to other services through internal recharges be recalculated so that these are based on a cost per search rather than a fixed overhead. This would produce savings of £24,865 for the service in 2009/10, although these costs would be transferred elsewhere in the council.

d)     That the true costs of the service (in anticipation of likely legislative changes allowing cost recovery charging) be ascertained by carry out a zero based budget analysis of support costs to remove any overhead cost loading on the service. This is to take place in autumn 2009 as part of the routine budget revision process. 

e)     That the standard search fee cost be raised from £80 to £120 (around the average for other Oxfordshire authorities) to raise additional income of £55,000 per annum. This may carry a risk of further reducing demand for searches, although reduced fees have not been shown to have any demonstrable influence on demand.   

f)        If legislation is introduced to allow it, that the fee for personal searches be raised to at least £25. This would raise additional income of around £30,000 per annum.

g)     That the TLC ICT system be implemented to improve the automation of electronically held information for searches

h)      That appointments bookings and advance payments for searches be moved to the Customer Contact centre to provide a common standard of customer service to callers and to remove unproductive administrative work from the land charges team

i)        That an online booking and payments system be developed and introduced for appointments to complement the telephone service and further reduce administrative work

j)        That using Land Charges staff team to deal with personal search appointments in the mornings be discontinued, transferring this work to reception staff (this has already been agreed and is being undertaken as an early outcome of this review).

Reasons - This review forms part of the Value for Money programme of reviews, which aims to cover all services within the council and improve the value of services offered to residents of Cherwell.