Making progress — North Norfolk District Council’s ‘Direction of Travel'

The Audit Commission has praised North Norfolk District Council for improving performance in priority areas like processing benefits claims, helping the homeless, recycling and cleansing.

But progress has slowed in some areas, and more needs to be done to provide affordable housing and promote equality, according to the Audit Commission’s annual ‘Direction of Travel’ report to NNDC, published this week.

Waste collection, recycling and cleansing performance remains good, with waste collection service costs among the lowest in the country, and recycling rates among the highest.

The report says NNDC performs well in supporting people who are homeless, improving the suitability of housing and avoiding the use of temporary accommodation for people and families in need of social housing. But it said NNDC had been less successful in providing affordable homes, with its 2007/08 target for new affordable homes unmet and many private dwellings standing empty.

The Audit Commission recognised that NNDC is ‘increasingly effective’ at supporting vulnerable people, noting that the number of new benefit claims rose by 60 per cent in 2007/08 over the previous year, but the Council still managed to process these claims promptly. Planning procedures and decision-making are good, the report concludes, though the rate of improvement in the speed of processing planning applications has slowed.

But the Audit Commission criticised the NNDC for making slow progress on promoting equality, saying “the Council lags behind most others in ensuring that the needs of different groups within the community have been identified and addressed”. Sickness absence was also highlighted as a weakness, with 11.63 days lost per full-time equivalent employee in 2007/08.

NNDC Strategic Director Tony Ing said: “This report shows we’re doing well in the areas that matter most to local people, and much of it is very positive. The figures used in this report are at least a year old, and we’ve made substantial progress since then in tackling things like sickness absence, for instance, which is already 10 per cent better. And some areas are beyond our direct control, like building new affordable homes, where we have to work with others to be successful.”

He stressed: “We are tackling the areas that are not so positive. As the Audit Commission itself recognises, we are good at identifying underperformance and planning improvements, so we can be clear about what needs to be improved and how we’re going to go about it.

”And we’re good at working in partnership, to make the most of the resources available in our communities, not just within this Council. That’s important at a time of great economic pressure and structural uncertainty, with the shadow of local government reorganisation hanging over us.”

• For more information see www.audit-commission.gov.uk

ENDS