To note a report from the Leader of the Council on the Council’s Corporate Plan.

The Leader presented a report which provides a summary of performance against the Council’s Corporate Plan 2023-24. The report covers highlights form April 2023 to September 2023. He drew attention to the priorities for 2021-24 split into three sections –

·       Reducing Health Inequalities

·       Supporting People out of poverty

·       Addressing of Climate Crisis

Each Strategic priority has a number of key performance indicators and the table Appendix 1 attached to the report provides a summary of the indicators and information regarding current performance. A red amber green status is also shown in the Appendix that gives an indication whether performance is improving or declining based on target.

The Leader informed Members that it is a good story to tell. There has been over the years some progression with school street schemes, improvement in affordable housing completions, recycling rates are good and library borrowing remains very healthy. We will be looking to refresh the Plan over the next few months and engage with partners and other people in 2024 with the final Plan being available in the summer.

In referencing a comment raised regarding addressing our climate crisis, paragraph 2.3 of the report refers, the Leader was delighted to acknowledge the new resource in place to respond to the climate crisis and emphasised that the new resources such as this does help deliver on our priorities.

The Executive Member for Finance Change and Governance welcomed the report and the work that Trafford undertakes and made particular reference to the following –

·       Following the conclusion of the Trafford Poverty Truth Commission Trafford has adopted the four recommendations on how to focus our work to alleviate and end poverty in Trafford.

·       Pleased to secure funding at Longford Park and the deculverting of the brook and lessons to be learned in other green spaces.

·       The putting together of a developer hub for Trafford for people wanting to build and is a One Stop point of information.

·       The employment rate – renewing of the Trafford Educating Enterprising Skills Action Plan.

·       Encouragement of the over 50’s workforce back into the labour market who had decided to withdraw from the labour marker following COVID.

It was suggested that there should be an extra part under other highlights to recognise parks and green spaces which was awarded eleven green flags this summer under challenging conditions and a very small budget.

Reference was also made to the programme of urban tree planting and woodland creation and work with the City of Trees. They have officers at ten local authorities and they work with community groups and organisations.

Members attention was drawn to the health and equalities around smoking and smoking cestation and the work which is being done around the vaping and substance misuse problems in our communities and to give our residents a healthier environment. Reference was made to the highlighting in the report of the percentage take up of funded childcare for two year olds. We are second in the north west and eighth nationally so this maybe should be revisited.

It was suggested that the levelling up fund successful bid for the Partington Leisure Centre should be in the report and the promotion of health and welling of residents in Trafford.

Members attention was drawn to the improvement of EPCs and CO2 emissions referred to in Appendix 1 to the report which had not moved at all and needed some focus to improve. Also to the experienced care people that is so low, Appendix 1 refers, What are we doing about that.

The Executive Member for Climate Change acknowledged the work needed to improve EPCs but underlined the fact that this was not directly in Trafford’s gift. Trafford has started to send out letters for the ECO4 Improvement Service and that every effort would be made to ensure that all residents who would qualify for the benefit would be informed . So if you are on benefits for Department and Works and Pensions you can apply for funding for energy performance improvement measures installed.

Members were informed that there is a lot of mistrust by residents that this offer is a scam so there is work to be done by Members to reassure residents about the scheme.

Regarding CO2 emissions, the Corporate Director Place informed Members that we are limited as to what we can do on this aspect. It is down to what is happening in the economy. On the EPCs we are pushing where we can.

The Leader informed Members that we have been embracing the public sector decarbonising schemes so a lot of our public buildings have been through appropriate measures wit a view to making an impact.

The Corporate Director of Children Services acknowledged the problem with Care Levers and underlined the need to stay in touch with our experienced care people. The national target is 12 weeks but our’s is a stretch target of 8 weeks. If we are measured against the national target the percentage would be 92 per cent of all the care experienced young people against our stretch target of 76.6 per cent which is a significant increase against 38mper cent in 1920.

With regard to oral health at Broomwood which has not had an NHS dentist on the estate for some time, the Executive Member for Health and Care informed Member that the Council will take this up with NHS colleagues to with a view to alleviating this problem.

On an issue raised regarding the Central Government decision to withdraw the Council Support Fund, the Executive Member for Housing and Advice did not understand why this had been withdrawn given how well this had been received and put into use. The Council would do whatever it can with partners The Finance and Statutory S151 Officer informed Members get some of that funding back.

In response to a query about residents whose circumstances have changed and are still living in large houses and could downsize thereby releasing the house to other needy families, the Executive Member for Housing and Advice informed Members that such a situation is rare and for the most part people who have lived in large houses for years do not want to move. There are some websites run by Greater Manchester that can help in such cases. The Executive Members would endeavour to produce some figures for Members on the issue.

The Leader informed Members that there is scope to explore with community schemes/community groups and that why we have got additional capacity and we are investing in the service and we look at the art of how we partner up with others. We are fortunate that we have some examples of new decarbonised properties which we could imitate across wider areas.

The Corporate Director for Place reminded Members that the area focused approach was what Local Authorities used to do with schemes but we do not have that level of funding to emulate those types of schemes even though they would be no doubt a success. On the point of households taking out loans it is something which could be investigated. The difficulty with that suggestion is that getting households to engage with free schemes is an uphill battle let alone getting them to pay for the work themselves.

In response to a suggestion in supporting schools to have solar panels installed or other energy performing measures outside  of the public sector in terms of decarbonisation scheme, the Executive Member for Climate Change informed members that this is a body of work the Estates team is undertaking alongside the Principle Officer for Climate Change and Sustainability the Executive Member for Climate Change further informed Members that we need to make sure that the private sector partners are as equipped as possible to drive forward carbon reduction measures by themselves.

RESOLVED: that the Executive notes the contents of the Corporate Plan Quarter 1 and 2 Report.