ERL: Quarter 3 Performance Report

Key to performance ratings

Performance Summary

·         None of the targetable quarterly key performance indicators (KPIs) reportable to this Committee achieved their Quarter 3 (Q3) target¹.

·         Compared to last quarter (Q2 2021/22), performance for 100% (5 of 5) KPIs has improved and 0% has declined¹.

• Compared to last year (Q3 2020/21), performance for 80% (4 of 5) KPIs has improved and 20% (1 of 5) has declined¹.

Economy

The “Footfall in Town Centre” KPI achieved an outcome of 2,603,185 against a target of 3,314,196, missing its target by more than 10%. When comparing it to last quarter, the footfall has increased from 2,535,553, and when comparing it to the same quarter last year, the footfall count has increased by 52.6%.

The Economic Development team note that footfall in the Town Centre continues to be affected by Covid-19. Figures for November and December were affected by the lack of customer confidence in the face of the Omicron variant, and from the Government’s latest advice, asking people to work from home once again.

Unemployment rates in Maidstone have continued to fall in Q3 and are lower than the rates for the same period last year. Performance for this indicator continues to improve and moves more towards its pre-pandemic levels. For comparison, October, November, and December 2019 rates were 1.9%, 2.0% and 2.0% respectively.  

Unemployment in youths continues to fall slowly every month. The number of youths unemployed in December 2021 is 36.6% lower than the number of youths unemployed in December 2020. However, it is still significantly higher than the pre-pandemic figure of 400 (December 2019).  

The average house price for all properties have increased by 10.8% when comparing October 2021 to October 2020 (£290,335.00). Prices for all properties saw a growth in November 2020 and have continued to increase since then. The highest increase in a category was for Detached Houses, with an increase of 2.2% against September 2021 (£543,101.00) and an increase of 17.3% against October 2020 (£487,473.00). Flat and Maisonettes saw a decline of 0.6% in price in October 2021 against September 2021 (£178,636.00) and a growth of 6.2% against October 2020 (£166,678.00). All other house types saw a growth in price within 10% measuring against September 2021 and October 2020.

At the time of writing this report, volumes have not yet been published by HM Land Registry for quarter three 2021, so figures are provided up until September 2021. In August 2021, the number of properties sold in Maidstone saw a growth of 104% when comparing with July 2021 (104, up from 51). In September 2021, this increased again, with a growth of 14.75%, against August 2021 (122, up from 104). When comparing September 2021 to the same month pre-pandemic (2019), the sales in properties has declined by 41.06% (207, down to 122)

Further Notes

At the time of reporting Q2’s performance report, this Committee had asked whether data was available for the total workforce in Maidstone. NOMIS data is provided below for the Annual Population Survey, which provides a 12-month rolling average projection of what the workforce population is (aged 16 – 64). However, NOMIS currently advise caution with these figures as the projections are 2018-based, so using demographic trends that pre-date COVID-19.