Affordable Housing

Assistant Director of Customer Services

Deprivation

Assistant Director of Development and Community Services

Education and other skills attainment

Deputy Chief Executive

Infrastructure

Assistant Director of Development and Community Services

Spatial Planning

Assistant Director of Development and Community Services

Climate Change

Deputy Chief Executive

Lack of Unitary Status

Chief Executive and Leader

Strategic Partnership working

Chief Executive

Partnership working – shared services

Director of Change and Support Services

Political Control

Leader and Chief Executive

Workforce planning/Talent management

Head of Human Resources

Waste Management – review of waste collection

Assistant Director of Regulatory & Environmental Services

Risk No.

Rating

Vulnerability

Trigger

Consequence

16

B2

Affordable Housing -

The Council has challenging affordable housing targets. There are limited sites for development in the borough and the value of housing is intrinsically high. 

Required number of affordable houses not provided

·         Council target on affordable housing not met

·         Many people in the borough are unable to afford to buy their own house or to rent a suitable property

·         Young people/key workers leave the borough

·         Increased recruitment / retention issues for public bodies and the general economy (including Maidstone BC as an employer)

·         Local economy declines

9

B2

Deprivation -

The relative affluence of the local area hides some pockets of serious deprivation (two in particular) which have spending needs and require the Council’s attention, but internal and external recognition is needed.

Maidstone Borough Council does not effectively deal with deprivation

e.g.

Funding bid to tackle deprivation is lost / funding not available through budget pressures

·         Areas of deprivation not tackled

·         Increase in the divide between the affluent and less affluent areas

·         Increase in social problems e.g. crime and drugs

·         Dependency culture continues

·         Impact on existing projects

·         Failure to address social inclusion agenda

·         The reputation of the area suffers

·         Effectiveness of the council and community plan questioned

·         Council seen to lack community leadership

18

B2

Education and other skills attainment –

A relatively high proportion of local school leavers do not have the necessary educational skills that are required by employers, particularly those employers whose business environment provided medium to high salary rewards.

The level of qualifications of

working age population residents in Maidstone, though close to the national average, is inferior to that of the South East – a position inconsistent with a prosperous county town in this region.

Attainment of skills does not improve

·         Gap between the ‘have and have not’ increases

·         Children do not reach full potential

·         Key stage 4 results fail to improve

·         Socio-economic impact

·         Communities disenfranchised

·         Deprivation continues

·         Lack of skills and competencies in indigenous population

·         Wages remain low

·         Housing continues to be unaffordable

·         Skills have to be imported, putting further pressure on housing

·         Community isn’t truly sustainable

·         Council marginalised and criticised for lack of effective community leadership

·         New businesses do not locate in Maidstone

21

B2

Infrastructure -

Geographically, Maidstone sits between the development areas of Thames Gateway to the west, and Ashford to the east and resources are being channelled into these areas.

The council has challenging ambitions, together with targets (e.g. on housing) which demand improved levels of infrastructure in the borough.

The Council has been identified as a Growth Point in the SE plan and has been allocated 10,080 houses .In its bid for funding the Council has been allocated  circa £5m over the next 5 years .This level of funding requires further public and private monies to provide the necessary infrastructure

Infrastructure development does not meet borough aspirations/ housing development needs.

·         The provision of infrastructure if very largely reliant on developer contributions which may result in piecemeal and inadequate provision.

·         Public expectations (e.g. from consultation) not met

·         Extra investment is not received.

·         Demands on services increase

·         Infrastructure is put under pressure

·         Transport system under pressure

·         Town becomes less attractive to employers

·         Pay scales stay below national average.

·         Risk of unemployment

·         Town becomes unattractive place to live.

·         Unsustainable community development

·         Residents complain

·         Image of Council damaged

28

B2

Spatial planning -

Economic regeneration, development and planning.

Whilst a key priority for the council, there are many opposing views both within the council and within the community.

Council is unable to achieve/promote/manage regeneration through the planning process

·         Opportunities missed

·         Unsatisfactory solutions are reached

·         Money goes outside the district

·         Failure to renew or refresh the urban fabric

·         Failure to achieve environmental improvement

·         Failure to improve social and economic wellbeing

·         Failure to provided adequate land fro housing, employment and other uses

·         Decline in the Borough in environmental, economic and social terms

·         The Borough becomes less attractive to employers and existing and potential residents

·         Public criticism

·         Council seen to be failing

·         Adverse publicity

8

C2

Climate change - 

All signs are pointing to the fact that the Council must respond both by mitigating environmental impacts and by adapting to the change that comes from the changing climate.

Significant changes in the weather are predicted. Drier hotter summers are expected to lead to greater instances of droughts and decreased water resources. Stormier, wetter winters are expected to increase instances of flooding and storm damage as are increased sea levels

·         Greater instances of drought

·         Greater instances of fires

·         Decreased water resources and increased hose pipe bans

·         Increased storm damage leading to increased insurance premiums

·         Increased flooding instances

·         This may lead to houses located in flood plains being unable to get house insurance in the near future (this would then have knock on effects perhaps decreasing the values of those houses and leading to areas of deprivation, also possibly leading to reduced Council tax revenue).

·         Increased economic upheaval

·         Increased emergency planning resource commitment from the Council

6

B2

Lack of Unitary Status - Maidstone Borough Council has previously set out the goal to be part of a unitary status authority, as a key element of the vision for the organisation.

There are arguments that without unitary status, some priority themes are not fully achievable.

The structural agenda for local government is still in flux, and there has been a change of Council administration.

Maidstone Borough Council is not able to become part of a unitary authority.

·         Sense of uncertainty

·         Inability to influence key decisions

·         Failure to secure necessary funding

·         Authority does not hold the levers to power in some critical areas, such as Education, social services and highways

·         Organisational goals perceived as over ambitious and unachievable

·         Community expectations are not met

·         Members and officers frustrated

·         Council has ‘over promised’.

39a

A2

Strategic Partnership working

The Council is involved in strategic partnership arrangements, particularly in relation to the LAA. Funding is increasingly provided on an area / LAA basis.

This will require levels of commitment, co-operation and a robust, approach in terms of governance and accountability agreed by all partners.

Failure to agree acceptable  governance structure

·         Partners working to different priorities

·         Unable to deliver strategic objectives

·         Ineffective use of resources

·         Missed opportunities

·         Friction between partner organisations

·         Possible fall-out

·         Criticism

·         Damage to reputation

39b

C3

Partnership working – Shared services

The Council is increasingly moving towards partnership working, driven by the need to improve services, reduce cost and increase resilience.

Levels of commitment to partnership working across Kent are variable, as is preparedness to drive through proposals in the face of adversity.

There is a wide range of ICT systems across Kent and differing political/strategic priorities.

Partnership working is ineffective, triggered by e.g.

-Different IT systems prevent effective joined-up working

-Different political/ strategic priorities prevent the development of common objectives

-Managers who frustrate the moves towards partnerships.

·         Partnership proposals fail (not delivering the required efficiencies/service improvements)

·         Partnerships are created but fail to deliver the expected benefits

·         Costs increase as a result of systems integration etc

·         Future partnership working is made less likely

·         Efforts on fruitless partnership ventures absorb time and resource that would otherwise have benefited MBC directly

20

D2

Political control –

There was a change of political control in 2006 and again in 2007. The Council is ‘hung’ and control is likely to continue to be finely balanced.

Full council overturns an Executive decision/ recommendation

·         Political fallout

·         Ineffective decision making

·         Lack of stability

·         Inefficiencies and hiatus

·         Officer frustration

·         Media criticism

·         Council reputation tarnished

2

D2

Workforce planning/Talent management

Maidstone has achieved excellent status and this has been achieved through high quality leadership, management and staff. There are lots of issues:

·         Succession planning

·         Limited resource capacity

·         Loss of key staff to other organisations

·         Difficulties with recruitment and retention

·         Business management expertise

·         Rising costs as more has to be paid for skill shortages.

Maidstone does not have the right people in the right place, with the right skills, to maintain and build on its excellent status for the future.

·         Increased key person dependency

·         Not shaped for the future

·         Failure to maximise on business process re-engineering

·         Significant projects and initiatives not delivered

·         Work/initiative overload

·         Stress and absenteeism

·         Frustrated staff

·         Services suffer and standards fall

·         Threat to Excellent status

40

B2

Waste Management – review of waste collection

The Council needs to meet challenging targets for recycling. Maidstone is a collection authority not a disposal authority, so need to work closely with partners to develop an optimum model in this area. Alternative arrangements are currently being considered.

Alternative arrangements may not be sustainable in the long term

·         Staff de-motivated

·         Media criticism

·         Deterioration of partner relationships

·         Political fall out

·         Possible changes to the service with significant cost implications

·         The Council fails to meet its recycling targets.

Likelihood

A

39a

B

6. 9. 16. 18. 21. 28. 40

C

39b

8.

D

2. 20.

E

F