|
Meeting: |
Executive |
|
Meeting date: |
18/07/2024 |
|
Report of: |
Debbie Mitchell Chief Finance Officer |
|
Portfolio of: |
Councillors Katie Lomas and Anna Baxter, Executive Members for Finance, Performance, Major Projects, Human Rights, Equality & Inclusion |
2023/24 Finance and Performance
Outturn
Subject of
Report
1. This report provides a year end analysis of the overall finance and performance position. This is the final report of the financial year.
2. Reports to Executive throughout the year have outlined the Council’s serious financial position as we continue to see significant, recurring pressures across both children’s and adults social care budgets.
3. Whilst there have been some improvements in the outturn, due to the significant work undertaken by officers across the Council to reduce spending and carefully control all costs, the underlying position is still a significant overspend that is of serious concern. It remains the case that the Council cannot afford to keep spending at this level. The general reserve is £6.9m and, whilst we have other earmarked reserves that we could call on if required, continued spending at this level would quickly see the Council exhaust its reserves.
4. The recurring overspends across both adult and children’s social care are significant and, despite investment made in the 2024/25 budget process, we expect to see a continued pressure into the new financial year.
Benefits and Challenges
5. This report is to note the outturn position for 2023/24. The challenge continues to be delivering on agreed savings whilst also identifying further reductions in expenditure. The main benefit of approving the recommendations will be the ongoing financial stability of the Council.
Policy Basis for Decision
6. This report is to note the outturn position for 2023/24. The ongoing financial resilience and stability of the Council will be essential to ensuring that Council priorities can continue to be achieved.
Financial Strategy Implications
7. Many of the budget pressures are recurring and the overspend position of £3.6m has again been mitigated through the use of reserves. Future monitoring reports will continue to identify any actions that are necessary in order to reduce expenditure to safeguard the Council’s financial resilience and stability.
8. Members are also reminded that the Medium Term Financial Strategy identified a budget gap of £40m over a 4 year period. The financial model is currently being refreshed in light of the outturn, but it remains the position that at least £30m of recurring budget savings will be needed in the period from 2025/26 to 2027/28.
9. As outlined in reports to Executive throughout the previous financial year, we have continued to see recurring overspends across both Adult and Children’s Social Care. However, the underspends and mitigations that have allowed us to balance the budget at year end have generally been one off. Whilst the use of reserves to fund an overspend is appropriate as a one-off measure, it does not remove the need to identify ongoing savings to ensure the overall position is balanced.
10. Therefore, it is vital that we continue with the current mitigations and cost control measures to ensure the financial resilience of the Council. The financial impact of the cost control measures has been significant in reducing the overspend position, and we need to ensure this work continues in the medium term.
Recommendation and Reasons
11. Executive is asked to:
· Note the finance and performance information.
· Note the use of the contingency and earmarked reserves to fund the overspend of £3.6m
· Approve the £591k savings identified during the year and outline in paragraphs 89 to 91 as part of the review of early intervention and prevention activities across the Council
· Approve the business rates write offs outlined in paragraphs 29 to 32
Reason: to ensure expenditure is kept within the approved budget.
· Approve the extension to April 2026 for the letter of credit to York Museums Trust as outlined in paragraphs 24 to 26
· Approve the provision of a letter of guarantee to the York Theatre Royal, providing them with access to a maximum of £426k over the next 2 years should it be required as outlined in paragraphs 27 to 28
Reason: to secure the financial viability and confidence in the Theatre Royal through its change programme
12. The draft outturn position is an overspend of £3.7m, compared to a forecast at Monitor 3 of £5.6m. This improvement arises from the significant amount of work undertaken by officers across the Council to identify savings and mitigations across all service areas. In Childrens, for example, this has resulted in a recurring improvement of some £2m in the outturn position.
13. Alongside this, the strict cost control measures implemented at the start of the financial year have also had a significant impact in reducing the overspend. Whilst it is positive that the significant amount of work undertaken by staff across all Council services has reduced the overspend position, it is important to note that there remains a significant overspend across social care that will need to again be carefully monitored with in year savings identified.
14. The underlying position is an overspend of £8.6m, offset by underspends in Corporate and Place. Most of the areas of underspend (parking income and savings due to delaying borrowing) have already been assumed as 2024/25 budget savings, and therefore will not recur at the same levels.
15. Members will be aware that the financial position of local government is a national challenge and that the pressures being seen across both Adult and Children’s Social Care are not something that is unique to York. Many Councils are experiencing significant financial pressures and struggling to balance their budgets now, so it is vital that we continue to take the necessary action to reduce our expenditure down to a sustainable level.
Financial Analysis
16. The Council’s net budget is £141m. Following on from previous years, the challenge of delivering savings continues with c£6m to be achieved to reach a balanced budget. An overview of the latest forecast, on a directorate by directorate basis, is outlined in Table 1 below.
|
Service area |
Net budget |
2023/24 Net Q3 Forecast Variation |
2023/24 Draft Outturn |
|
|
£’000 |
£’000 |
£’000 |
|
Children & Education |
32,701 |
3,690 |
2,609 |
|
Adult Social Care & Integration |
50,093 |
4,712 |
6,051 |
|
Place |
33,206 |
-1,040 |
-2,310 |
|
Customers & Communities, Public Health & Corporate Services |
8,935 |
830 |
-89 |
|
Central budgets |
17,189 |
-2,600 |
-2,600 |
|
Sub Total |
|
5,592 |
3,661 |
|
Contingency |
-500 |
-500 |
-500 |
|
Use of earmarked reserves |
|
-4,250 |
-3,161 |
|
Target for further mitigation |
|
842 |
|
|
Net total including contingency |
141,624 |
nil |
nil |
Table 1: Finance overview
Reserves and Contingency
17. The February 2023 budget report to Full Council stated that the minimum level for the General Fund reserve should be £6.8m (equating to 5% of the net budget). At the beginning of 2023/24 the reserve stood at £6.9m.
18. In addition to the general reserve of £6.9m there are a range of other earmarked reserves where funds are held for a specific purpose. These reserves have been subject to a quarterly review an, where appropriate to do so, have been released to support the in-year position. The underlying overspend has therefore again been financed by using one off reserves.
19. Whilst this is a prudent approach that will ensure the financial resilience of the Council it is not a substitute for resolving the underlying overspends but instead allows time to continue to develop future savings proposals.
20. As in previous years a contingency budget is in place, and this has also been used to offset the pressures outlined in this report.
21. Across Public Health the service was able to use £500k one off reserves to fund the service which mitigates the Council’s forecast overspend in 2023/24. This has not impacted on service delivery but it will hasten the speed at which the reserve is drawn down and is influencing future commissioning decisions. Several contracts have been or are due to be renewed and we have indexed inflationary uplifts, where possible, to the Public Health Grant uplifts.
22. It is possible that cost inflation to outstrip the funding available so the reserve will be exhausted more quickly if we have to vary these contracts to maintain provider’s stability (and the anticipated pay award for CYC staff is likely to exceed funding increases). We will try, however, to respecify contracts and manage within the diminishing resource in a planned way so Public Health continues to work within its grant allocation without recourse to bidding for growth as part of the Council’s annual budget setting process.
Loans
24. In August 2020, Executive approved a letter of guarantee to the York Museums Trust providing them with access to a maximum of £1.95m over the following 2 years, should it be required, to secure the museums as a going concern. Subsequent extensions have been agreed by Executive and the current letter expires in March 2025.
25. YMT have requested that the letter of guarantee be further extended by one year to 31 March 2026 as they continue to operate with minimal reserves and need the letter of guarantee extending for their auditors to be able to sign off their accounts as a going concern.
26. The letter of guarantee outlines the Council’s commitment to providing YMT with the funds should they be required, up to a reduced amount of £1m, on receipt of evidence that the funds are required (i.e., that reserves, and other income sources have been exhausted). This allows the Trust to demonstrate that they are a going concern, as well as providing the certainty they need to continue to operate.
27. York Theatre Royal has approached the Council with a request to provide a letter of guarantee. This letter would give them access to a maximum of £426k over the next 2 years, should it be required, to secure the Theatre as a going concern and provide assurance to their external auditors and potential grant providers.
28. The new management team at the York Theatre Royal have plans in place to improve the theatre’s financial position through a change programme which includes an increase in fundraising activity and a plan to increase revenue by 2025. This, along with the capital improvements (including carbon reduction) at the theatre will allow a significant contribution to community access to culture and to cultural wellbeing to continue. These community benefits were summarised in a report to Children, Culture and Communities Scrutiny Committee on 9th April 2024.
Write offs
29. The Council has processes in place to ensure that income due is identified and collected promptly. However, there are occasions where money owed to the Council proves to be uncollectable. Under the Council’s Financial Regulations, write offs of amounts exceeding £100k must be approved by the Executive Member and amounts exceeding £200k can only be written off on the authority of Executive.
30. In 2023/24, of the £83m charged to businesses £82m was collected, a collection rate of 99%. The Council endeavours to collect all outstanding business rates, even when a company has gone into administration. This can be a long and complicated process as it can take months or even years for an administrator to deal with the company accounts. It is only when the company is fully liquidated and ‘struck off’ the Companies House register that all recovery action will cease.
31. The table below lists the 5 business rate debts that are uncollectable as they ceased trading with arrears owed to the Council. Once a company goes into administration, the Council has no power to enforce payment of outstanding amounts owed. However, in many cases the company may continue to occupy a premises and remain liable for business rates. In all cases, the Council had continued its normal billing and recovery procedures in respect of each of these debts up to the point that the debts became irrecoverable.
32. All options to recover the above debts have been exhausted and this report therefore recommends that the only remaining option is to write-off the amounts listed below as irrecoverable.
|
Name |
Status |
£ |
|
Rougier Street Ltd |
Liquidation |
-369,844.38 |
|
Rougier House Ltd |
Liquidation |
-95,294.15 |
|
Mothercare UK PLC |
Insolvent |
-140,636.40 |
|
Arcadia Group Ltd |
Liquidation |
-234,189.90 |
|
Tourino Ltd |
Liquidation |
-128,900.59 |
|
Total |
|
-£968,865.42 |
Directorate Analysis
Children and Education
|
|
2023/24 Budget |
Draft Outturn Variance £’000 |
Draft Outturn Variance % |
|
Children’s Safeguarding |
22,676 |
+2,863 |
+12.6 |
|
Education & Skills |
15,097 |
+272 |
+1.8 |
|
School Funding & Assets |
-7,642 |
-103 |
-1.3 |
|
Director of C&E & Central Budgets |
2,570 |
-423 |
-16.5 |
|
Total Children & Education |
32,701 |
+2,609 |
+8.0 |
34. There has been significant progress made in reviewing and reducing the expenditure across Children & Education, with a substantial reduction in the use of agency staff and the cost of placements. This is extremely positive and is against the national trend of ever increasing overspends in Children’s Services. However, costs are increasing due to inflation, an increase in safeguarding activity reflecting greater complexity of needs and the challenges of a dysfunctional children’s social care market.
35. As previously reported, the number of Children Looked After (CLA) in York has consistently been at a higher level than the budget was built to accommodate. The number at the beginning of the financial year was 267, at the end of March it was 245. Placement budgets overspent by a total of £3,027k, which is a significant improvement from the 2023/23 outturn which was £5,651k overspent. However, the pressure on this budget continues and is partly due to the limited market for children’s placements and the statutory requirements placed on local authorities to meet children’s needs, coupled with inflationary pressures which could worsen the position.
36. The Safeguarding Interventions & Assessment Teams budget has underspent by 246k due to vacancies held by the various teams throughout the year.
37. Staffing & other budgets within Children’s Social Work Services have underspent by £241k. The majority of this underspend is due to additional income. Legal fees have overspent by £163k.
38. There is a underspend of £48k in the MASH & Targeted Intervention teams. The reason for underspend is due to vacancies held by the various teams throughout the year.
39. The Disabled Children’s Services overspent by £746k mainly due to overspends on direct payments £387k, £157k for home support for a specific young person & £70k for Childcare services. A specific project reviewing historic direct payments and the process of future payments is being carried out and this is predicted to clawback some unspent payments and reduce future expenditure. This will affect 24/25.
40. Innovation and Children`s Champion budgets underspent by £137k due to the ability to fund some expenditure from the Family Hubs grant without increasing the establishment.
41. Home to School Transport overspent by £620k. This continuing overspend is due to an increase in numbers for post 16/19 plus the provision of more specialist education provision locally. This is a much more cost-effective alternative to expensive out-of-city provision but has a consequent effect on this budget as we have had to provide more transport to establishments such as York College, Askham Bryan, Choose 2 and Blueberry Academy. The change in legislation to allow EHCPs up to the age of 25, resulting in significantly more students accessing this option, has also significantly increased our transport spend.
42. Staff resourcing issues and turnover in the SEND Statutory Services Team, and the need to resource this work to progress the Safety Valve targets has resulted in a small number of agency staff being appointed into this team over the period under consideration, resulting in an overspend of £191k (a significant improvement on the £405k overspend in 2022/23). The Educational Psychologists Service has underspent by £132k mainly due to vacancies in the team.
43. The Effectiveness and Achievement Service has overspent by £125k mainly due to one-off unexpected expenditure (York MIND), unachieved vacancy factors and also a delay in the implementation of a saving.
44. An overall underspend of £111k was achieved within the Virtual School and Inclusion service, due to a vacancy and one-off savings in non-staffing expenditure.
45. The Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) is ahead of the target position set out in the Safety Valve recovery plan agreed with the DfE. The local authority is now in the second year of this four year agreement and has exceeded the financial targets for this year.
46. The main pressure continues to be experienced within the High Needs Block and is due to the continuing increase in High Needs numbers, and increasing complexity, requiring expensive provision, especially in Post 16 and Post 19 provision and the education element of Out of Authority placements.
47. The brought forward balance on the DSG at 1 April 2023 was a deficit of £2,723k. The current year end projection is a deficit of approximately £700k, although this is still being finalised.
48. The Safety Valve agreement commits the local authority to bring the DSG into an in-year balanced position by 2025/26. Further payments are conditional on the local authority meeting the targets set out in the Management Plan, and reporting quarterly to the DfE on progress, with the eventual aim of eliminating the in-year deficit by the target date, with additional payments by the DfE eliminating the historic deficit at that point.
49. General Fund budgets within School Funding and Assets have underspent by £108k. This is due to the use of unspent grant funding of £160k and an over-acheivement of income on interest charges to schools on early payment of BAFS funding of £71k. These have been offset by the £144k cost of writing off the revenue deficit of Naburn Primary School following conversion to an academy under the sponsored conversion route.
50. Finally, senior officers in the Directorate and Finance reviewed all budgets and identified a number of in-year mitigations to reduce the headline overspend of £4,880k at Monitor 3. An amount of £1,212k has been achieved to assist with the headline overspend, mainly from reserves and grants brought forward that can be allocated to fund expenditure in the year, plus a small amount of unallocated growth and a contingency budget.
Adults
51. The outturn position for Adult Social Care is an overspend of £6,051k and the table below summarises the latest forecasts by service area.
|
|
2023/24 Budget £’000 |
Draft Outturn Variance £’000 |
Draft Outturn Variance % |
|
Direct Payments |
4,955 |
1,579 |
31.9 |
|
Home and Day Support |
1,350 |
1,847 |
136.8 |
|
Supported Living |
15,376 |
1,420 |
9.2 |
|
Residential care |
14,139 |
2,333 |
16.5 |
|
Nursing care |
4,905 |
838 |
17.1 |
|
Short term placements |
1,228 |
-525 |
-42.7 |
|
Staffing (mostly social work staff) |
7,573 |
64 |
0.8 |
|
Contracts and Commissioning |
2,784 |
-123 |
4.4 |
|
In House Services |
5,090 |
-137 |
-2.6 |
|
Be Independent & Equipment |
1,039 |
179 |
17.2 |
|
Other |
-11,799 |
-1,495 |
-12.7 |
|
Recharges |
3,453 |
71 |
2.1 |
|
Total Adult Social Care |
50,093 |
6,051 |
12.1 |
52. The final outturn position for Adult Social Care is an overspend of £6,051k, compared to £4,712k after mitigations reported at Q3. The main changes from Q3 are:
· £2,402k of mitigations in Q3 were not achieved by the year end
Offset by:
· £458k budget set aside to fund Preparing for Adulthood (PFA) customers was not needed in 2024/25
· £610k more discharge funding than assumed at Q3
53. Some of the pressures outlined in this report will continue into 2024/25. Many of the variations are also due to not fully achieving previous years’ savings, some of which relate to 2020/21 and the impact of the pandemic on delivery.
54. We are revisiting those areas to assess deliverability in 2024/25 as well as rebasing the external care budgets to better reflect the current customer base; a proportion of the £4m growth given in the budget will support this exercise. The directorate also has to deliver approx. £4m of existing, agreed savings in 2024/25 alongside delivering a balanced budget.
55. The following paragraphs outline the main variations.
56. The Council purchases care from external providers who support customers to meet their assessed needs. There are a variety of purchasing arrangements such as block contracts (purchasing a set number of beds/hours at a set rate), spot arrangements where prices are negotiated on an individual customer basis and frameworks where providers specify a rate, and the Council will approach those providers but are not contractually bound to use.
57. The Council can also be a lead commissioner for a package of care where Health contributes an element towards the health needs of a customer and current practice is for the Council to pay the provider and recover from Health.
58. Direct Payments are slightly different in that payments are made to individuals who then control how the many is spent to meet their assessed needs, usually with the assistance of a support agency who help with the administration of the funds such as payroll, paying invoices etc.
59. ASC generally organise themselves alongside the four main customer groups and allocate the budgets accordingly. These are:
· Customers with a Learning Difficulty (LD)
· Customers with a Physical &/or Sensory Impairment (P&SI)
· Customers experiencing poor Mental Health (MH)
· Older customers experiencing mobility issues, memory and cognition issues, frailty (OP)
60. The following sections describe the variations to budgeted costs, customer number and income. The variations are generally due to not fully meeting previous years’ savings targets plus significant price pressures in the market.
Direct Payments
61. Learning Disability direct payments have overspent by £1,084k. This is mainly due to the average cost of a direct payment being £116 per week more than in the budget (£772k), and the average cost of a transport direct payment being £49 per week more (289k).
62. The Older People direct payments budget has overspent by £339k. There are two more customers than assumed in the budget (£56k) and the average cost of a direct payment per customer is £114 per week higher than in the budget (£244k). There has also been an underachievement of the reclaims budget in 2023/24 (£121k). This is offset by an increase in health income due to having two more customers eligible than was assumed in the budget (£95k).
63. The Physical & Sensory Impairment direct payment budget has overspent by £181k, largely due to an underachievement of the reclaims budget.
64. Within the pressure described above is non achievement of delivering a £500k mitigation around removing individual contingencies. The legal advice is that a blanket removal is illegal: However, it may be appropriate and allowable in some instances and incorporating this consideration into the reviews in 2024/25 will support bringing this budget back into balance.
Home and Day Support
65. Physical & Sensory Impairment Community Support has overspent by £641k. The average hours of homecare per week delivered by framework providers is around 179 more than in the budget (£450k) and there are 7 fewer Continuing Health Care customers (£240k). This is partially offset by an increase in the number of customers making contributions to the cost of their care (£52k).
66. The Older People Community Support Budget has overspent by £660k. The average weekly number of hours of homecare delivered by framework providers is 1,270 more than in the budget (£1,386k), there are 20 more customers on homecare exception contracts than budgeted for (£321k) and the average rate of health income received per customer is £143 per week less than in the budget (£97k). This is partially offset by the average cost per customer of an exception contract being £148 per week less than in the budget (£424k), by an increase of £18 per week in the average customer contributions received (£507k) and by additional discharge funding being received (£245k).
67. Learning Disability Community Support budgets have overspent by £422k. There are 5 more homecare customers than assumed in the budget (£98k), and 19 more day support customers (£206k). In addition, the average amount of health income received per customer is £295 per week less than in the budget (£186k). This is partially offset by having one more customer receiving health contributions (£48k) and 10 more customers making contributions towards the cost of their care (£35k) than in the budget.
68. Mental Health community support budget has overspent by £124k due to having 9 more customers in homecare placements than allowed for in the budget.
Supported Living
69. Supported Living are settings where more than one customer live, with their own tenancy agreements, where their needs are met by a combination of shared support and one to one support.
70. The LD Supported Living budget has overspent by £508k. The average cost of a placement is £71 per week more than in the budget (£712k) and expenditure on voids is £361k. This is offset by having 4 fewer customers in placement (£326k), together with an increase in income largely due to the average S117 contributions from health being £100 per week per customer higher than was assumed when the budget was set.
71. The Physical & Sensory Impairment Supported Living schemes budget has overspent by £872k. This is mainly due to the average cost of a placement being around £321 per week higher than in the budget.
72. Providers received a significant mid year uplift supported from the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund. We are moving towards a framework price for Supported Living which will help to stabilise this currently volatile market.
Residential care
73. There is a £1,298k overspend on Older People permanent residential care placements. There are currently 16 more customers in placement than in the budget (£523k) and the average cost per placement is £167 a week higher (£1,605k). This is offset by an increase of £95 per week in the average customer contributions being received (£946k). There has also been a bad debt provision of £69k made against this budget reflecting the current financial climate our residents are operating in.
74. There is an overspend of £938k on Learning Disability residential care placements. This mainly due to the average cost of a placement being £524 per week more than in the budget (£1,833k), offset by having 7 fewer customers in placement (£806k). There is also one more customer receiving health income than assumed in the budget (£87k).
Nursing Care
75. Older People Permanent nursing care has overspent by £229k. This is due to the average cost of a placement being £240 a week more than in the budget (£1,324k), offset by having 23 fewer customers in placement (£1,018k and additional discharge funding received above budget.
76. The Mental Health nursing care budgets have overspent by £429k. There are 4 more customers in working age placements and 3 more customers in over 65 placements than was allowed for in the budget.
77. There has been an overspend of £113k on Physical & Sensory Impairment nursing placements in 2023/24. This is largely due to having one more customer than in the budget (£77k) and the average weekly cost per customer is also higher than budget.
Short Term Placements
78. These are a combination of emergency and planned placements that can be used to step people out of hospital, provide respite for carers, respond to an emergency etc but are time limited with exit strategies.
79. Older People short term placements budgets have underspent by £525k in 2023/24. The underspend on step up step down beds (£457k) is due to additional health funding having been secured for these beds. There is also an underspend on the nursing emergency placement budget as the number of placements in year has been less than assumed in the budget (£232k). This is partially offset by an increase in spend on residential emergency placements as more customers have been placed in year than was assumed in the budget (£175k).
In House Services and Staffing
80. The Council employs a variety of staff to advise and assess residents’ and customers’ social care needs. We also directly provide care and support to individuals and have teams which provide home care both in the community overnight and in our Independent Living Schemes, as well as running day support activities for those with a learning difficulty and those experiencing poor mental health. We also operate short stay residential care for the same customer groups.
In House Services
81. LD Small Day Services have underspent by £64k, largely due to staffing vacancies at The Bungalow.
82. Yorkcraft, the Council’s supported employment service, overspent by £137k due to unachieved savings from previous years (£93k) together with an underachievement of the income budgets.
83. There has been an underspend of £255k on the Personal Support Service (PSS) and Community Care budgets. This follows the decision to outsource the community care element of the service, transferring those staff to fill in vacancies in the PSS rotas and reducing the use of agency staff.
84. Numbers supported in Independent Living Schemes has also fallen. This is partly due to the refurbishment at Glen Lodge taking capacity out of the system but we will review the service delivery model and our ambition to see these schemes as a real alternative to residential/intensive home care.
85. 22 The Avenue has overspent by £60k in total, made up of overspends on property maintenance and security services and an underachievement of income.
Be Independent & Equipment
87. Be Independent has overspent by £179k this year. There is still a budget gap of £130k arising from when the service was originally outsourced which has yet to be fully addressed. Staffing has overspent by £107k largely due to an unfunded regrade of some of the posts in the team and to having a review manager post above establishment. This is partially offset by additional income arising from Mediquip moving into the site at James Street (£60k).
Other (£1,495k underspend)
88. The budget set aside to fund Preparing for Adulthood customers coming through from children’s services has not been fully needed this year (£458k). In addition there has been no spend against the department’s retirement and redundancy budget in 2023/24 (£100k). Finally, around £1m of the Market Improvement & Sustainability Fund has been held back to mitigate the overspends in Adult Social Care in 2023/24.
Early Intervention & Prevention Review (EI&P)
89. During January to March 2024, cross council work was undertaken to review in detail EI&P spend across the council to meet the following budget requirement confirmed at Budget Council on 22nd February 2024:
The following savings were identified to achieve this figure in total:
|
Saving |
Amount |
|
Communities Grants – unallocated budgets |
£78k |
|
Better Care Fund Grants – contract end* or reduction** |
£215k |
|
Public Health Staff (1.5 posts) |
£84k |
|
Additional Temporary funding |
|
|
Public Health reserve |
£114k |
|
Migrant funding |
£51k |
|
Homelessness pathways (part year only in the first year) |
£51k |
|
Total |
£593k |
*Ways To Wellbeing
**Move Mates
90. The post reductions are vacancies, and therefore no direct redundancies are required. The Ways to Wellbeing contract, however, whilst containing a break clause did impact on social prescribing resources in the city, which are now being reviewed by Health as a priority for them.
91. This work also triggered conversations with Health (York Place Board) about how Health, Social Care and respective EI&P service could work closer together going forward to create efficiencies but also to improve EI&P co-ordination and effectiveness to reduce demand and costs of statutory interventions. This work is likely to reshape community based EI&P service delivery going forward and there will be more reports to Executive as this develops.
Place
|
|
2023/24 Budget £’000 |
Draft Outturn Variance £’000 |
Draft Outturn Variance % |
|
Transport |
8,046 |
-536 |
-6.7 |
|
Fleet |
112 |
-116 |
-103.6 |
|
Highways |
5,340 |
552 |
10.3 |
|
Parking Services |
-6,169 |
-1,604 |
26.0 |
|
Waste |
16,145 |
-999 |
-6.2 |
|
Public Realm |
3,887 |
-66 |
-1.7 |
|
Emergency Planning |
137 |
32 |
23.4 |
|
Planning Services |
1,387 |
99 |
7.1 |
|
Forward Planning |
728 |
-2 |
-0.3 |
|
Public Protection |
1,430 |
-168 |
-11.7 |
|
Community Safety |
777 |
1 |
0.1 |
|
Asset and Property Management |
378 |
-80 |
-21.2 |
|
Facilities Management |
1,653 |
317 |
19.2 |
|
Commercial Property |
-3,787 |
409 |
10.8 |
|
Regen & Economic Development |
477 |
-7 |
-1.5 |
|
Housing Services |
2,610 |
-95 |
-3.6 |
|
Management and Support |
55 |
-47 |
-85.5 |
|
Place total |
33,206 |
-2,310 |
-7.0 |
|
|
|
|
|
93. The Place Directorate has delivered a larger than forecast underspend which given pressures across Children’s and Adults social care is of benefit to the council position overall. The primary reason for the underspend is continued strong performance from income particularly relating to parking. However other income budgets performed better than expected in the final quarter particularly across Planning fees, Waste income and Transport fees and charges. Cost control measures have delivered savings across all service areas and the Directorate maximised charges to capital where possible particularly across the Highways service.
94. Car park income to the end of the year remained strong across the city at being £643k (8%) ahead of total income in 2022/23 and £1,713k (25%) ahead of budget. There was also further income above budget of £70k from Penalty Charge notices less a shortfall of £72k from Respark. Parking expenditure was broadly on budget which is better than forecast at Monitor 3 as budget was provided for business rates increases from the prices contingency.
95. There was an underspend of (£999k) across waste disposal and collection. Income from selling spare capacity at Allerton Waste Recovery Plan was £526k higher than forecast as overall council waste tonnages remained static. The council also received a further £80k from deductions as the KPI for recycling was not met by the facility operator. There was also additional recycling income due to higher than budgeted commodity prices totalling £351k. There was also additional income from gas sales from Harewood Whin which was £130k higher than budget and HWRC fees which were £69k above budget. It is proposed that a contribution of £500k is made from the Waste Budget into reserve to fund the continued costs of implementing the Garden Waste roll out and associated Customer Relationship Management system.
96. Across Waste Collection operational costs were £397k below budget as vehicle repairs and the cost of hire was below budget as the fleet is relatively new.
97. Within the Highways area there was a year end overspend totalling £552k. This included additional costs of dealing with a significant number of flooding events between December and March which was £286k above budget. The high cost of energy costs also resulted £698k costs above budget. To offset these costs it was possible to charge additional highways works to capital in order to mitigate the overspend.
98. Within Transport there was an underspend of £0.5m across the service. Of this £474k related to there not being a requirement to pay the levy to the West Yorkshire Transport Fund during 2023/24. As the Fund has not yet borrowed the Combined Authority are not in need of levy payments this year. This has provided a saving that is proposed to contribute towards the abortive costs from the Transport programme that are detailed in the Capital Outturn report elsewhere on the agenda (£802k).
99. The Transport budget area has also seen savings against the Concessionary Fares budget £715k as numbers of concessionary passengers have not fully returned to pre pandemic levels. Income levels were higher than budgeted particularly from Traffic Regulation Orders (£-283k). Elsewhere across transport the service was able to offset costs from the use of external grants and contributions to minimise council costs.
100. There was a significant improvement in income from Planning fees with double the budgeted income levels being received late in the year. This led to the year end position being an income shortfall of £100k across planning compared to an estimate of £450k at quarter 3.
101. Across the Commercial Portfolio, whilst rents were broadly in line with budget there were overspends relating to energy costs, repairs and insurances which led to a position £407k below budget.
102. The budget for facilities management assumes full occupation of external partners at West Offices. There remains a void on floor two whilst let is still subject to final completion. This has led to a forecast shortfall of £338k in this service area.
103. In summary the Directorate has seen significant surplus income arising from Parking £1.6m and Waste Services £1m along with the underspend from Concessionary Fares £0.7m has allowed an underspend to be delivered across the Directorate. Strict cost control measures introduced across the autumn have ensured that other overspends (eg flooding and commercial property) have been contained within other directorate budgets.
104. The position will not recur to this level as savings across parking revenue and waste have been agreed as savings in the 2024/25 budget alongside a further general savings target.
Housing Revenue Account
105. The Housing Revenue Account budget for 2023/24 was set as a net surplus of £342k prior to debt repayment at February 2023. There were carry forwards of £1,611k agreed as part of the outturn report meaning the revised budget stands at £3,169k deficit (including £1,900k debt repayment).
106. The year end position is an underspend of £537k although when taking account of the need to carry forward £1,926k to fund committed capital expenditure the deficit was £1,389k although better than budget. When excluding the debt repayment the underlying position was an underspend of £511k. The main budget lines are shown below.
|
Activity area |
Net Budget |
Actual |
Variance |
|
|
£’000 |
£’000 |
£’000 |
|
Repairs & Maintenance |
9,526 |
9,160 |
-366 |
|
General Management |
7,684 |
6,523 |
-1,161 |
|
Special Services |
4,245 |
4,127 |
-118 |
|
Other Expenditure |
20,562 |
20,099 |
-463 |
|
Dwelling rents |
-35,585 |
-34,955 |
+630 |
|
Non-Dwelling Rents |
-553 |
-565 |
-12 |
|
Charges for Services |
-2,151 |
-1,958 |
+193 |
|
Other Income |
-559 |
-2,968 |
-2,409 |
|
Total |
3,169 |
-537 |
-3,706 |
|
Deferred Revenue Contribution |
|
1,926 |
1,926 |
|
Revised Position |
3,169 |
1,389 |
-1,780 |
|
Debt Repayment |
-1,900 |
-1,900 |
0 |
|
Adjusted excluding Rev Con and Debt Repayment |
1,269 |
-511 |
-1,780 |
107. Across expenditure 96% of the repairs budget was spent in the year. Whilst reactive repairs were overspent there was an underspend across planned repairs (external painting). This was linked to the procurement of contractors as the external painting season is during the first half of the financial year. It is proposed to carry forward the repairs underspend of £366k into 2024/25 to allow for this work to be accelerated.
108. There was an underspend of £1,170k within General Management primarily due to lower than budgeted recharges £295k and underspends across Housing Operations £388k and Asset Management £239k.
109. There was a continued shortfall in dwelling rental income of £721k due to the level of voids. Glen Lodge currently has around 30 empty properties pending the refurbishment works, this also has an impact on the service charges expenditure and income.
110. The depreciation charge for the HRA was £1,100k higher than budget. To offset this however the high level of interest rates and large cash balances across the HRA provided an additional £2.2m of credit interest. The budgets for both of these have been amended in 2024/25 as part of the budget process.
111. Included in the budget is £2.9m revenue contributions to capital expenditure. Of this £1m was spend leaving £1.9m to slip into 2024/25. Included in the slippage is resources to fund the Energy Efficiency programme £1.3m and the HEIP programme £161k. These are included in the capital programme.
112. The high level of working balance is available to start repaying the £121.5m debt that the HRA incurred as part of self-financing in 2012. The first repayment of £1.9m was paid in 2023/24 and a second payment on £8.4m is due to be repaid at 31st March 2025. These are to be funded from general reserves.
113. The HRA working balance position as at 31st March 2024 was £30.0m which is higher than assumed when the budget was set. Taking into account the slippage of £2.3m into 2024/25 the forecast balance at 31st March 2025 is estimated to reduce to £21.4m
Corporate, Customers & Communities
114. The outturn position for the remaining areas of the Council is a net underspend of £89k and the table below summarises the latest forecasts by service area.
|
|
2023/24 Budget £’000 |
Draft Outturn Variance £’000 |
Draft Outturn Variance % |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Chief Finance Officer |
3,185 |
-54 |
-1.7 |
|
HR and Corporate Management |
-18,446 |
-336 |
-1.8 |
|
Customers & Communities |
18,300 |
446 |
2.4 |
|
Governance |
5,328 |
-145 |
-2.7 |
|
Public Health |
568 |
0 |
0 |
|
Total Corporate, Customers & Communities |
8,935 |
-89 |
0.9 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Other central budgets and treasury management |
17,189 |
-2,600 |
-15.1 |
|
|
|
|
|
115. Within Customers and Communities, the most significant pressure (£646k) arises from the continued pressure across Housing Benefit Overpayments as the move to Universal Credit reduces opportunities to achieve income from recovering overpayments and the variance between the cost of B&B accommodation for the homeless and the benefits claimed for the accommodation. Neither if these pressures are in the direct control of the service to manage. This has been partly mitigated during the year by maximising grant income and increased income generation in other areas with Customers and Communities. Following due diligence work surrounding the Resettlement project it is likely that this figure will reduce in future years as Hostel accommodation should be fully reclaimable.
116. The underspend in HR and Corporate Management is predominately due to CYT’s 20222/23 dividend (£300k) being is higher than budgeted.
117. The Governance underspend and movement is mainly due to holding vacancies in several teams and recharges to the Combined Authority for staff time, compensating overspends in other areas such as Coroners and Elections.
118. The continued pressure from the loss of external payroll contracts within the Payroll Team (£200k) has been mitigated by underspends in the Business Support Team and ICT staffing vacancies and additional income.
119. Within Communities there was a saving from commissioning grants (£100k) and also from maximising charges to grants and external funding. There was an underspend in relation to Ward Committees of £16k and it is proposed to refocus this funding to YFAS for 2024/25.
120. The pressure from inflation on the energy and maintenance contract with Bereavement Services, was compensated by increased levels income from the Crematorium at the end of the year, improving the position by £72k from monitor 3.
121. The reported overspend in the Chief Finance Officer Area at monitor 3 due to an increased External Audit fee of £175k, has been offset by increased insurance interest (£90k) and reimbursement for the Chief Finance Officer time in the role of establishing the Combined Authority.
122. Across all service areas Managers held vacancies wherever possible and explored other ways of working to reduce spend and liaising with finance on maximising income generation and grant utilisation.
123. The savings within treasury management and other corporate budgets are due to the policy of delaying borrowing by using cash balances, along with slippage on the capital programme. The Council has now started to borrow again, so this saving is not recurring in future years.
Performance – Service Delivery
124. This performance report is based upon the city outcome and council delivery indicators included in the Performance Framework for the Council Plan (2023-2027) which was launched in September 2023. Wider or historic strategic and operational performance information is published quarterly on the Council’s open data platform; www.yorkopendata.org.uk
125. The Executive for the Council Plan (2023-2027) agreed a core set of indicators to help monitor the Council priorities and these provide the structure for performance updates in this report. Some indicators are not measured on a quarterly basis and the DoT (Direction of Travel) is calculated on the latest three results whether they are annual or quarterly.
126. A summary of the city outcome and council delivery indicators by council plan theme are shown in the paragraphs below along with the latest data for all of the core indicator set.
127. Progress against priority actions contained within the Council Plan has been published here: https://www.york.gov.uk/CouncilPlanProgress and will be updated every 6 months to regularly provide details of activity, as the council works to deliver the Council Plan.
128. A progress update on how the council’s 10-Year strategies underpin the ambitions of the council, relate to the Council Plan and inform the council’s priorities has been published here under item 4: https://democracy.york.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=1064&MId=14671&Ver=4
129. A summary of the city outcome and council delivery indicators that have an improving direction of travel based on the latest available data are as follows:
· Number of children in temporary accommodation (paragraph 132)
· Percentage of people who use services who have control over their daily life (older people) (paragraph 138)
· Earnings gap between the 25 percentile and the median (paragraph 151)
· % of dwellings with energy rating in A-C band in the EPC Register (paragraph 167)
· Number of homeless households with dependent children in temporary accommodation (paragraph 173)
· % of dwellings failing to meet the decent homes standard (paragraph 178)
· Number of Void Properties – Standard Voids (paragraph 181)
· Number of Void Properties – Major Works Voids (paragraph 181)
· Carbon emissions across the city (tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent) (paragraph 184)
· Number of trees planted (CYC) (paragraph 187)
· FOI & EIR - % Requests responded to in-time (paragraph 190)
· Average sickness days per FTE – CYC (excluding schools) (Rolling 12 months) (paragraph 193)
· York Customer Centre average speed of answer (paragraph 194)
130. Indicators that have a worsening direction of travel based on the latest available data are;
· %pt gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers achieving 9-4 in English & Maths at KS4 (paragraph 132)
· Universal Credit Claimants (paragraph 148)
· Housing affordability (median house prices to earnings ratio) (paragraph 152)
· % of Talkabout panel satisfied with their local area as a place to live (paragraph 185)
· % of Talkabout panel who think that the council are doing well at improving green spaces (paragraph 189)
Performance - Health and Wellbeing: A health generating city
132. %pt gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers achieving 9-4 in English and Maths at KS4 – In 2020 and 2021, all GCSE, AS and A Level exams were cancelled and replaced by a combination of teacher assessment, mock exam results, course work and a standardised calculation. Summer 2022 saw a return to the familiar testing methods.
133. The gap at age 16 widened in York and Nationally to 43% in summer 2023. A legacy of Covid-19 is that school attendance of disadvantaged groups has been slower to recover, and has been worse than for the same group nationally. The work currently being undertaken through the Attendance Graduated Response is seeing improvements in attendance.
134. Reducing the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers is a key priority in all phases of education across 0-19 years. Our long-term strategy re closing the gap is linked to the early identification of speech, language and communication needs in the early years through Early Talk For York (ETFY). Early communication and language development is particularly important in helping to tackle inequalities between disadvantaged children and their peers. Data shows that the ‘gap’ between non disadvantaged children nationally and disadvantaged children in the ETFY area reduced by 32%, from 34.5% (2018) to 2.5%, during the pilot. The scale up of the programme is designed to reduce the long-standing attainment gap and will focus on supporting the transition of children from the early years in to school.
135. % of reception year children recorded as being overweight (incl. obese) – The participation rates for the National Child Measurement Programmes (NCMP) in York for 2022-23 were 97.2% for reception aged children and 95.1% for Year 6 pupils.
· The 2022-23 NCMP found that 19.9% of reception aged children in York were overweight (including obese), compared with 21.3% in England and 22.5% in the Yorkshire and Humber region. York has the second lowest rate of overweight (including obese) for reception aged children in the Yorkshire and Humber region.
· Of Year 6 children in York, 32.5% were overweight (including obese) in 2022-23 compared with 36.6% in England and 38.1% in the Yorkshire and Humber region. York has the lowest rate of overweight (including obese) for Year 6 children in the Yorkshire and Humber region.
136. % of adults (aged 16+) that are physically active – The latest data from the Adult Active Lives Survey for the period from mid-November 2022 to mid-November 2023 was published in April 2024. In York, 515 people aged 16 and over took part in the survey, and they reported higher levels of physical activity, and lower levels of physical inactivity, compared with the national and regional averages. Positively:
· 69.8% of people in York did more than 150 minutes of physical activity per week compared with 63.4% nationally and 61.7% regionally. There has been no significant change in the York value from that 12 months earlier.
· 18.8% of people in York did fewer than 30 minutes per week compared with 25.7% nationally and 27.7% regionally. There has been no significant change in the York value from that 12 months earlier.
137. Percentage of people who use services who have control over their daily life – Disabled People – In 2022-23, 78% of all York’s respondents to the Adult Social Care Survey said that they had “as much control as they wanted” or “adequate” control over their daily life, which was the same as the percentage in the Y&H region as a whole. It is higher than the corresponding percentage who gave one of these responses in England as a whole (77%). It has slightly decreased in York from the 2021-22 figure (79%).
138. Percentage of people who use services who have control over their daily life – Older People – In 2022-23, 77% of older people in York that responded to the Adult Social Care Survey said that they had “as much control as they wanted” or “adequate” control over their daily life. This is higher than the corresponding percentages experienced by older people in the Y&H region and in England as a whole (both 74%). It has also increased in York from the 2021-22 figure (71%).
140. Health Inequalities in wards – The ‘health gap’ indicators show the difference between the wards with the highest and lowest values. A lower value is desirable as it indicates less variation in health outcomes based on where people live within the City. Trend data for these indicators helps to monitor whether the gaps are narrowing or widening over time.
· Absolute gap in % of Year 6 recorded overweight (incl. obesity) between the highest and lowest York ward (3 year aggregated) - The value for this indicator for the 3 year period 2020-21 to 2022-23 was 24.7% (the gap between 43.4% in Westfield and 18.8% in Heworth Without). The trend in this gap indicator shows a widening in the difference between the values in the highest and lowest ward over time (12.6% in 2011-12 to 2013-14 to 24.7% in the most recent 3 year period).
· Absolute gap in % of children who reach expected level of development at 2-2.5 years of age between highest and lowest York ward (4 yr aggregated) - The value for this indicator for the 4 year period 2019-20 to 2022-23 was 13.7% (the difference between 96.6% in Bishopthorpe and 82.9% in Fulford & Heslington). At present there is only one previous value for this indicator (13.1% for the period 2018-19 to 2021-22) so it is not yet possible to identify a trend.
· Absolute gap in % of children totally or partially breastfeeding at 6-8 weeks between highest and lowest York ward (4 year aggregated ward data) - The value for this indicator for the 4 year period 2019-20 to 2022-23 was 40% (the gap between 79.8% in Heworth Without and 40.8% in Westfield). There is not a long trend history for this indicator but there has been slight widening of the gap from the 4 year period 2017-18 to 2020-21 (36.5%) to the most recent 4 year period (39%).
142. Children subject to a Child Protection Plan – 147 children were the subject of a Child Protection Plan at the end of March 2024. The number of children on plan in York was consistently within our expected range (111-141 child protection plans) throughout 2023-24. As a rate per 10k population, York is currently below the most recently released National average.
Performance - Education and Skills: High quality skills and learning for all
144. % of working age population qualified to at least L4 and above – In 2023-24, 53.8% of the working age population in York were qualified to at least L4 and above (certificate of higher education or equivalent), which is higher than the national and regional figures (47.3% and 41.2% respectively). This result ranks the city of York fourth regionally. The 2023-24 figure is a decrease from 2022-23 (60.3%) but higher than in previous years.
145. % of pupils achieving 9-4 or above in English and Maths at KS4 – DfE data shows strong performance for York pupils when compared with National averages. In 2022-23, 70.2% of York’s Year 11s achieved grades 9-4 in English and Maths (considered a standard pass), compared to 65.3% Nationally.
147. Performance in York and nationally has not yet returned to 2019 levels. Studies which are analysing the impact of the pandemic on Early Years Development broadly suggest that we could see similar performance for several cohorts whilst the children “catch up” following the disruption of the pandemic.
Performance - Economy: A fair, thriving, green economy for all
148. Universal Credit Claimants – At the end of March 2024 there were 13,258 people, in York, on Universal Credit. This is the highest figure to date, surpassing the previous high of 13,236 in February 2021. The figures dropped to a low of 11,054 in May 2022 but they have steadily increased since then. This is a mixture of increased claimants and people who have been converting over from other schemes, with this picture becoming clearer in 2024-25 as DWP predicts/plans for all people to have moved over to Universal Credit. This represents 9.8% of the working population in York, compared to 18.2% regionally and 16.2% nationally.
149. There are two types of claimant: those in employment and those not. Both types have been gradually increasing in the last 12 months with the number of those not in employment increasing as claimants of health-related legacy benefits (e.g. Employment and Support Allowance) are migrated across to Universal Credit. The increase in the number of those in employment may be attributed to a higher percentage of part time workers (30.7% in York, 26.5% regionally and 23.8% nationally).
150. Inflation dropped to 3.2 per cent in March from 3.4 per cent in the previous month with food prices being the main reason for the fall, with prices rising by less than a year ago. Higher fuel costs, likely a reflection of a sharp rise in international oil prices over the last months have lessened the fall in inflation. There are tentative signs that the jobs market is beginning to cool, with data available in April 2024 suggesting both a fall in the headline employment rate and a drop in the total number of people on payrolls from HMRC data which has led to a slowing in earnings growth.
151. Earnings gap between the 25 percentile and the median (£) – The earnings gap is the difference between full time workers in the bottom quartile and those earning the median. In York, the latest figures show that this gap has reduced by 7.3%, in 2023, to £152.20. This is the lowest gap since 2018-19. Nationally, there has been an increase of 1.4% to £163.20 and regionally an increase of 4.7% to £139.50. It is worth noting that the difference between workers in low-paying and other occupations and industries are not limited to pay. Part-time work, zero-hours contracts and temporary contracts are more common for those working in low-paying occupations, while small firms are more likely to be in low-paying industries. However nationally, in 2023, 8.9% of all employee jobs were low paid (paid less than two-thirds of median hourly pay), when considered in terms of hourly earnings. This was the lowest proportion of low-paid employee jobs by hourly pay since the data series began in 1997, which coincides with recent increases in the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW) rates. This also coincides with the additional increase in the NMW for those aged 23 and 24 years, who joined those aged 25 years and over in receiving the NLW in 2021.
153. % of vacant city centre shops – Whilst acknowledging that a number of city centre streets and prime commercial locations seem to be experiencing higher vacancy levels than York's average, overall at the end of March 2024, there were 56 vacant shops in the city centre (two more than the number at the end of March 2023), which equates to 8.9% of all city centre shops. This is much lower than the national benchmark in 2022-23 of 13.8%. The York figures have remained stable for a number of years.
154. Business start ups – Figures for 2022-23 showed 870 new business start-ups for York, which is higher than in the previous year (746 in 2021-22). The York figure is at only a slightly lower level to that seen before the pandemic (932 in 2019-20). The year to date figure up to the end of February 2024 of 767 new start ups is at a similar level to last year. The monthly figures for business start ups in York came from a regionally paid for dataset but this has now come to an end. Alternative sources of this information are being sought.
156. % of working age population in employment (16-64) – In Q3 2023-24, 79.4% of the working age population were in employment, which is higher than the national and regional figures (75.8% and 74.2% respectively) and the York performance gives the city a ranking of second regionally. The figure for Q3 2023-24 in York remains fairly high overall but is lower than the figures seen for the previous two years.
157. % of Total Employees working for an Accredited Living Wage/Good Business Charter employer – 16% of employees worked for an Accredited Living Wage employer and 13% worked for an Accredited Good Business Charter employer in 2022-23, which are both higher than in the previous year (14% and 12% respectively).
158. Survival of Newly Born Businesses post 1 year – Businesses have had a turbulent time over recent years, coping with Covid, the soaring cost of energy, high inflation and high interest rates. The latest business demography statistics suggest that resilience may be better than expected. In York, 175 businesses were created in Q3 2023-24, up 6% on a year ago. There were 160 business closures in the same quarter, down 8% on the year before. The survival rate post 1 year has been consistently above 94% in York for the last 4 years, with the latest figure of 94.4%. The York figures have been consistently higher than the National and Regional rates.
Performance - Transport: Sustainable accessible transport for all
160. Area Wide Traffic Levels – Between 2011-12 and 2016-17, the number of vehicles on the city’s roads increased year on year to a high of 2.2 million. Following this, the numbers decreased to a low of 1.75m in 2020-21. However, the covid pandemic brought with it numerous national lockdowns and local restrictions so the decrease in traffic levels was to be expected. Since then, figures have been increasing again to the latest figure of 2.08m in 2022-23.
161. Index of Cycling activity – Prior to the pandemic, cycling levels in the city were around 41% (2019) above the baseline taken in 2009. Recently released data shows that cycling levels in 2023 were 13% above the baseline. The pandemic had a huge effect on how people travel around, and how much they travel. Other cities with high levels of cycling have also seen falls in activity. In York, cycling levels appear to have fallen because of a decline in commuting (as a result of more working from home), although travel patterns are still settling down. York has a strong walking and cycling heritage, but if we are to achieve our climate and traffic reduction targets and see a long-term, sustainable increase in rates of cycling, we need to enable more people to choose the bicycle as the primary way of getting around. There is much more to be done to encourage even more people towards riding, wheeling and walking in the future, and we have recently carried out an extensive consultation to better understand what changes we can make to help support residents to make the change to cycling, and how we can support our cycling communities.
162. Index of pedestrians walking to and from the City Centre – From a baseline in 2009-10 (37,278), there has been a 23% increase in the number of pedestrians walking to and from the city centre in 2022-23. This is 19 %pts higher than in 2021-22 and the highest increase seen for a number of years. Data is gathered on an annual basis over the course of one day; it is a count of pedestrians crossing an inner cordon set just beyond the inner ring road and includes off-road routes such as riverside paths.
164. % of road network that are grade 4 (poor) or grade 5 (very poor) – Data for this indicator is currently being worked on and it is hoped that this will be released to York Open Data, Ward Profiles and Yorkview in May 2024, subject to licensing issues.
Performance - Housing: Increasing the supply of affordable housing
165. Number of new affordable homes delivered in York – During 2023-24, affordable housing completions have been significantly below the identified level of need with 122 homes delivered (109 in 2022-23). National scale challenges are facing many areas with buoyant housing markets such as a shortage of sites for affordable housing and labour and supply chain constraints, and these have affected delivery in York. The council itself is maximising delivery opportunities currently, and has accessed a range of funding opportunities for direct delivery in addition to securing over half of the total completions during 2023-24 through Section 106 planning agreements.
166. There remains a significant future pipeline of affordable homes with planning permission in place across the council's own newbuild development programme and section 106 planning gain negotiated affordable housing. Inclusive of applications with a resolution to approve from Planning Committee, there are over 1,000 affordable homes identified in approved planning applications. The progress ranges from sites that are being built out currently to others with substantial infrastructure or remediation challenges to resolve prior to development. Over 600 of these have progressed through detailed planning, either as a Full application or Reserved Matters. The remainder are at Outline stage, with more uncertainty on timescales and final delivery levels, including the York Central affordable housing contribution.
167. % of dwellings with energy rating in A-C band in the EPC register – An Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) gives a property an energy efficiency rating from A (most efficient) to G (least efficient) and is valid for 10 years. Apart from a few exemptions, a building must have an EPC assessment when constructed, sold or let. Whilst the EPC register does not hold data for every property, it can be viewed as an indication of the general efficiency of homes. The rating is based on how a property uses and loses energy for example through heating, lighting, insulation, windows, water and energy sources. Each area is given a score which is then used to determine the A-G rating. In 2023, the median energy efficiency rating for a dwelling in England was Band D and a rating of A-C is generally considered to be good energy performance.
168. The % of properties on the register for York with an EPC rating of A-C has increased slightly throughout 2023-24 from 42.1% at the start of the year to 44.6% at the end. The largest changes can be seen in the middle categories with around 2% less properties rated D-E and around 2% more rated C. The median grade for York for the same period was band D which follows the latest national benchmark. Data is based on the last recorded certificate for 60,298 properties on the register for York, some of which will have been last assessed more than ten years ago.
170. Some of the main features of the housing completions have been;
· 141 (92.8%) homes were competed on (Use Class 3) housing sites;
· A total of 106 new build homes (69.7%) were completed whilst 3 homes were demolished;
· Individual sites that saw the construction of five or less dwellings contributed an additional 21 homes;
· The most significant individual sites that provided housing completions have been 35 flats at the Cocoa Works, Haxby Road (Phase 1, Block C), Germany Beck (27), Former Civil Service Club, Boroughbridge Road (25) and the Former Lowfield School site (24).
171. Net Housing Consents – Planning applications determined between 1st April 2023 and 30th September 2023 resulted in the approval of 324 net additional homes and represents a reduction of more than one hundred compared to last year’s update covering the same equivalent monitoring period.
172. The main features of the consents approved were;
· 247 of all net homes consented (76.2%) were granted on traditional (Use Class C3) housing sites;
· Sites granted approval for traditional (Use Class C3) housing included Os Field South of & Adjacent to 1 Tadcaster Road, Copmanthorpe (158), Land East of Middlewood Close, Rufforth (21) and Clifton Without County Junior School, Rawcliffe Drive (15). A further 38 homes were approved on sites of 5 or less homes;
· Three sites were granted ‘prior approval’ for a net total of 33 new homes, the most significant of which was at Gateway 2, Holgate Park Drive (31);
· 44 net new retirement homes were allowed on appeal at 11 The Village, Wigginton;
· A further 23 homes were approved through a resolution to grant consent by councillors in the previous six months at Morrell House, 388 Burton Stone Lane (13) and 12 Sturdee Grove (10).
174. Of the 26 households with children in temporary accommodation at quarter end, most were recorded as accommodated in hostels with one accommodated within Local Authority housing stock. York continues to report no households with children housed in Bed and Breakfast accommodation.
175. During Q1-3 2023-24, an upward trend in overall numbers can be seen both nationally and regionally, however York has been moving in the opposite direction. When looking at the total number of households in temporary accommodation per households in area (000s), York continues to perform positively compared to benchmarks (0.73 in York compared to 4.7 Nationally, 1.3 Regionally and 17.4 in London). It should be noted that these figures are snapshot figures and therefore may fluctuate between the snapshot dates.
176. Number of people sleeping rough – Every Thursday, Navigators carry out an early morning street walk checking known rough sleeping hot spots and responding to intel or reports of rough sleepers. The monthly figure is based on the number of rough sleepers found bedded down on the last Thursday of each month. The latest figure shows that there were 23 people sleeping rough in York in March 2024, which is an increase from 17 in February. The number has fluctuated during the year, from a low of 8 in May 2023 to a high of 25 in November 2023.
177. New funding of over £200,000 has been secured by the council to support people who are sleeping rough. Grants from the Government’s Rough Sleeper Initiative (RSI) fund will be used for the coming year. These were made in recognition of the personalised approach to help people rough sleeping or made homeless in York into the accommodation and support that’s right for them. In addition, more than £100,000 has been released by the RSI as part of a three-year £1.3 million award secured by the council from 2022-2025. These funds will largely be used by the council’s Rough Sleep Housing Navigators and wider rough sleeper team to continue to support the people they work with into more stable, long-term housing.
178. % of dwellings failing to meet the decent homes standard – In 2022-23, 1.6% of dwellings in York failed to meet the decent homes standard. This is a reduction of the last few years (4.9% in 2021-22 and 9.1% in 2020-21) and also lower than the latest benchmarks (2.4% in Yorkshire and the Humber and 8.4% in England).
179. The York figure was calculated based on the last full survey of stock in 2017. Building Services have commissioned a Full Stock Condition Survey to be carried out on HRA housing stock during the first half of 2024. The extensive survey will provide a range of information on the internal, external and communal safety and condition of each property. Whilst strengthening the information held on housing, this may surface further properties requiring works and an increase in this indicator could be seen in future years.
180. % of repairs completed on first visit – The percentage of repairs completed on the first visit was 80% in 2023-24, which is the same as in 2022-23. The figures have fluctuated during the year, from a low of 69% in August 2023 to a high of 88% in March 2024.
181. Number of void properties – Numbers of standard void properties have reduced throughout 2023-24 from 73 at the start of the year to 52 in March 2024. This is also much lower than the 67 standard voids in March 2023. There were 6 major works voids at the end of March 2024 which is a large decrease on the 21 major works voids in April 2023.
182. % of tenants satisfied that their landlord provides a home that is well maintained – The Regulator for Social Housing undertook a consultation on the Introduction of Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) in December 2021 and published the new TSMs in September which came into effect on 1 April 2023. The question relating to satisfaction with landlords providing a home that is well maintained and safe, has been separated into two questions; one specifically about the home being well maintained and the second about safety. The intention that being well maintained goes beyond fundamental safety measures that should be a minimum expectation and legal requirement.
· In 2023-24 in York, 64% of tenants were satisfied that the landlord provides a well maintained home. There are no national benchmarking figures available, as yet, however Leeds have released their results and they have a 67% satisfaction rate.
Performance - Sustainability: Cutting carbon, enhancing the environment for our future
183. Percentage of household waste sent for reuse, recycling or composting – The latest provisional data for the amount of household waste sent for reuse, recycling or composting was 37.9% within Q3 2023-24, which is a decrease from 39.6% during Q3 2022-23. Whilst there has been no increase in total household waste collected to 203kg per household from the same time last year, there has been an increase in residual (approx. non-recycling) household waste – now above 126kg per household (122kg last year).
185. % of Talkabout panel satisfied with their local area as a place to live - The second biannual resident satisfaction survey taken by the Talkabout panel took place during Q3 2023-24. Results from the Q3 2023-24 Talkabout survey showed that 80% of the panel were satisfied with York as a place to live, and 80% were satisfied with their local area, both consistent with results from Q1 2023-24. A slight decline in satisfaction with the local area can be seen over recent years but York continues to perform well against the latest national figure of 76% (Community Life Survey 2021-22).
186. % of Talkabout panel who give unpaid help to any group, club or organisation - Results from the Q3 2023-24 Talkabout survey found that 60% of panellists had given unpaid help to any group, club or organisation within the last 12 months. This is a slight decrease from Q1 2022-23 (62%), but higher than the latest national figure of 55% taken from the government's Community Life Survey 2021-22.
188. In excess of 210,000 new trees and shrubs have now been delivered at York Community Woodland up to March 2024, through the council’s partnership with Forestry England (FE). Local residents and volunteers helped achieve this target during a series of community planting days. The trees, planting and aftercare, as well site infrastructure works has been fully funded by external grants totalling c£1.3m. FE now lease the site from CYC long-term and are responsible for its upkeep and future development, whilst paying an annual rent to the council. In addition, the council will bank the carbon credits generated by the new trees and offset against organisational carbon emissions, assisting in the council’s journey to net zero.
Performance - How the council will operate
190. FOI and EIR – % of requests responded to in-time (YTD) – 89% of requests were responded to in-time during 2023-24, compared to 85.5% in 2022-23, and is the highest figure seen for a number of years.
191. % of 4Cs complaints responded to in-time – In 2023-24, there has been a large decrease in the number of corporate complaints received compared to 2022-23 (1,310 in 2023-24 compared to 1,866 in 2022-23). There has been a small reduction in performance for the percentage of corporate complaints responded to in time (85.5% in 2023-24 compared to 94.6% in 2022-23).
193. Average sickness days per full time equivalent (FTE) employee – At the end of February 2024, the average number of sickness days per FTE (rolling 12 months) had decreased to 11.5 days from 12.4 in February 2023. Recently released benchmarks show that the CIPD public sector benchmark is 10.6 days per FTE, putting us in line with national trends.
194. York Customer Centre average speed of answer – Phones were answered, on average, in 13 seconds during 2023-24 by the York Customer Centre which remains low and is much lower than the average of 1 minute and 42 seconds during 2022-23.
Consultation Analysis
195. Not applicable
Options Analysis and
Evidential Basis
196. Not applicable
Organisational
Impact and Implications
197. The recommendations in the report potentially have implications across several areas. However, at this stage
· Financial implications are contained throughout the main body of the report.
· Human Resources (HR), there are no direct implications arising from this report.
· Legal the Council is under a statutory obligation to set a balanced budget on an annual basis. Under the Local Government Act 2003 it is required to monitor its budget during the financial year and take remedial action to address overspending and/or shortfalls of income. Further work is required to develop and implement proposals that will allow the Council to bring its net expenditure in line with its income. There may be legal implications arising out of these proposals that will be considered as part of the development and implementation of those proposals. If the Council is unable to set a balanced budget, it is for the Chief Financial Officer to issue a report under s114 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 (‘a section 114 notice’).
· Procurement, there are no direct implications arising from this report.
· Health and Wellbeing, reductions in spend in some areas could impact on the health and wellbeing of both our staff and residents. The impact of any reductions in spend will continue to be carefully monitored so that implications can be considered and mitigated where possible.
· Environment and Climate action, there are no direct implications related to the recommendations.
· Affordability, are contained throughout the main body of the report. Where decisions impact on residents on a low income these impacts will be recorded in the individual Equalities and Human Rights analysis referred to below.
· Equalities and Human Rights, whilst there are no specific implications within this report, services undertaken by the Council make due consideration of these implications as a matter of course.
· Data Protection and Privacy, there are no implications related to the recommendations.
· Communications, the information set out in this report necessitates both internal and external communications. With ongoing interest in the current state of Local Government funding, we anticipate this report will attract media attention. A comms plan has been prepared to help make the information about the forecast overspend and the controls proposed clear and understandable, with opportunities to facilitate staff discussion arranged.
· Economy, there are no direct implications related to the recommendations
Risks and
Mitigations
198. An assessment of risks is completed as part of the annual budget setting exercise. These risks are managed effectively through regular reporting and corrective action being taken where necessary and appropriate.
199. The current financial position represents a significant risk to the Council's financial viability and therefore to ongoing service delivery. It is important to ensure that the mitigations and decisions outlined in this paper are delivered and that the overspend is reduced.
Wards Impacted
200. All.
Contact details
For further information please contact the authors of this Decision Report.
Author
|
Name: |
Debbie Mitchell |
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Job Title: |
Chief Finance Officer |
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Service Area: |
Finance |
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Telephone: |
Ext 4161 |
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Report approved: |
Yes |
|
Date: |
10/07/2024 |
Co-author
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Name: |
Ian Cunningham |
|
Job Title: |
Head of Business Intelligence |
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Service Area: |
Governance |
|
Telephone: |
Ext 5749 |
|
Report approved: |
Yes |
|
Date: |
10/07/2024 |