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ERL: Quarter 2 Performance Report

Key to performance ratings

Performance Summary

·         0% 0 of 2 targetable quarterly key performance indicators (KPIs) reportable to this Committee achieved their Quarter 2 (Q2) target¹.

·         Compared to last quarter (Q1 2021/22), performance for 100% (4) of (4) KPIs has declined, with 0 KPIs improving or sustaining performance.

• Compared to last year (Q2 2020/21), performance for 50% (2) of (4) KPIs has improved, and 50% (2) of (4) KPIs has declined.

Economy

The “Footfall in Town Centre” KPI achieved an outcome of 2,535,553 against a target of 2,959,104, missing its target by more than 10%. This is also slightly lower than the footfall achieved in Q1 (2,588,741). When comparing to the same quarter last year, the footfall count this year was 11.5% higher.

As public confidence continues to grow and companies start to request that their staff work from their premises more regularly and not from home, the number of people visiting the Town Centre is starting to recover. This indicator is tracked using one fixed camera, which counts each person that walks past it. Whilst there is no hard data available to suggest what people are visiting for, we can assume that people would be travelling to work or school, shopping, dining or leisure. As these activities begin to recover, so can we assume that footfall count will improve over time.

Unemployment rates in Maidstone have continued to fall in this quarter, and are lower than the rates for the same period last year. However, when comparing these to 2019/20 figures, they are still considerably higher.  For comparison July, August and September 2019 saw rates of 1.8%, 1.8% and 1.9% respectively.

Unemployment in youths continues to fall slowly every month. The number of youths unemployed in September 2021 is 28% lower than the number of youths unemployed in September 2020. However, it is still significantly higher than the pre-pandemic figure of 365 (September 2019).

House prices in Maidstone have increased when comparing July 2021 to July 2020. The average house price (all properties) in July 2020 was £291,067, an increase of 7.7%. When comparing July’s average to the same month, pre-pandemic, the increase is 8.7%, increasing from £288,491.

However, July 2021 figures have seen a short-term decrease when comparing to June 2021 across all property types.

At the time of writing this report, volumes have not yet been published by HM Land Registry for quarter two. Whilst numbers appear to have been steady, and above the figures seen during the pandemic, May 2021’s results show a big dip in the number of properties sold. This could be due to the changes in stamp duty exemptions that were originally planned to finish in March 2021, but at the last minute were extended until June 2021. Property sales appear to be sporadic during the first quarter of the year, but adding a trend line to the graph above shows that sales are slowly increasing.