Agenda item

Report of the Director – Finance and Corporate Services

The Service Manager Corporate Services explained that the Corporate Strategy was due to expire in September 2023 and it was therefore timely to review what had been delivered over the last four years and to look at what the Council would wish to include in the Strategy going forward.

The Service Manager Corporate Services confirmed that there were seventeen actions in the original 2019-2023 Corporate Strategy which had been reported to the Corporate Overview Group over the last four years and that six additional tasks had been added into the action plan. She referred the Group to Appendix 1. which summarised each of the actions and looked at their impact on the community. She also referred to the insourcing of Streetwise which did not feature in the Corporate Strategy but which had nonetheless presented a substantial task for the Council to deliver. She noted that the Strategy had been delivered against a backdrop of the covid-19 global pandemic, the cost of living crisis and the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The Chairman said that much could change over a four year timeframe, particularly with future projects such as the Freeport ongoing, and suggested that the Strategy be reviewed at the midway point to assess progress and relevancy. He thought it important that all the various strategies linked together to deliver the overarching priorities. The Service Manager Corporate Services said that Officers agreed that reviewing the Strategy at a strategic point would be beneficial and that this would be incorporated into the future Strategy.

The Group asked about the process and decision making for adding additional tasks to the Strategy and how criteria were applied and resources allocated. The Service Manager explained that the current additional items had been identified through the Council’s internal service planning process but said that she would take these comments back to the Officer management group for review.

The Group referred to the challenge faced by the Council in delivering its 13k housing requirement and noted that its housing land supply now stood at around nine years which it hoped gave some leeway against pressures for large site allocations. The Group also referred to the importance of making sure that infrastructures were in place to provide the supporting community facilities.

The Group referred to climate change and the Council’s commitment to be carbon neutral by 2030 and the need to make sure that it continued to work to achieve this and to look for new ways to save energy and protect the environment.

The Group referred to the Growth Boards and asked if there were any plans to review how they were working with a view to reenergising them and making them action focussed. The Service Manager Corporate Services said that Councillors could put this forward as a scrutiny matrix and said that the Service Manager Economic Growth and Property would be able to support them with this. The Chairman said that he would discuss this with the Service Manager, he was conscious that the new administration may decide how they would like the Boards to be taken forward but thought that it could still be put forward as a scrutiny item for review.

The Chairman suggested that Councillors submit feedback about what they thought was and wasn’t working well in relation to the scrutiny matrix.

The Group asked whether it would be possible to colour code where tasks were completed or ongoing.

It was RESOLVED that the Corporate Overview Group:

a)    reviewed the progress reported against each strategic action set in the 2019-2023 Corporate Strategy.

b)    made suggestions as to future actions that could be included in the 2023-2027 Corporate Strategy to be drafted later this year.