From recycling to homelessness – where Northampton Borough Council is performing above and below its targets

The latest Corporate Performance report also gives interesting updates on the council’s approach to homelessness, and latest details on sick days and customer service.

The report indicates that the borough council is performing ‘exceptionally’ in six performance areas, but is failing to meet targets in eight. The remaining three quarters of the 34 target areas are performing to expectations or ‘within agreed tolerances’.

And it is in environmental services where the most adverse areas of performance appear to be. Targets to remove incidents of fly-tipping within two days of being notified are performing almost 30 per cent below the required levels. A footnote to the indicator states that NBC and Veolia will be developing a programme to improve the speed of response, but that the figures are skewed somewhat as they include responses to ‘hazardous’ fly-tipping material that takes longer to clear up. Next year the hazardous waste will be set aside as a separate indicator.

Meanwhile, the percentage of missed bins that were not corrected within 24 hours is seven per cent below its 84 per cent target, with the report saying Veolia is working with its crews ‘to identify why the figures are not improving in the manner required’. And it also falls below target in the number of assessments it is carrying out of highways and land that are ‘falling below standard’ and look unkempt.

There was one positive within environmental services though, and that is the percentage of household waste that is being recycled, which is almost double its 44 per cent target. The target was not being met in January, but a promising three months has followed and ‘has shown a pleasing increase since the introduction of the blue lidded bin scheme’.

It was a mixed bag on housing and homelessness targets. The number of Houses in Multiple Occupancy (HMOs) having a mandatory licence was well above target, while the authority is above target in making a decision as to whether the council has a duty to a homeless household.

On the flip side, this has led to a larger than wanted number of households who are having to live in temporary accommodation, which at March stood at 342 – way above the target of 80. The report states: “Temporary accommodation use in the last quarter remained stable throughout the COVID-19 situation despite not being able to move households out of temporary accommodation due to coronavirus restrictions coming at the end of the quarter. We are confident the use of temporary accommodation is likely to decrease further once the service is back to normal.”

Also below target was the number of households that are prevented from becoming homeless. The report adds: “The prevention number has gone down compared to the

last quarter due to the COVID-19 situation. This has seen the teams having to offer the running of a reduced service, not able to carry out home visits and struggling to procure more private sector accommodations.”

Other areas where the council failed to perform to agreed levels were the percentage of off-licence checks that were compliant, while it was also found that there was a lack of businesses moving to and jobs being created in the Northampton Waterside Enterprise Zone (NWEZ).

The zone follows the River Nene from Sixfields down to the new University of Northampton campus, and the corporate performance report states: “The low progress on the NWEZ is due to a lack of space left available. Going forward, sites such as Four Waterside are being progressed which will provide high quality commercial space within the NWEZ. Marketing of the area is on hold due to issues around problems caused by COVID-19.”

But there was positive news for the council in other areas where it performed well above target. This included reducing the number of sick days from staff leading to lost shifts, and the percentage of planning applications that are being determined within the legal timeframe – with the council failing to meet its deadline on just one out of 1,401 planning applications it had received.

There was also praise for customer services, with a 95 per cent satisfaction rate to date across the year so far.