Part A - PIED: Quarter 4 Performance Report

Key to performance ratings

Performance Summary

·         33.3% (3 of 9) targetable quarterly key performance indicators (KPIs) reportable to this Committee achieved their Quarter 4 (Q4) target¹. 22.2% (2 of 9) targetable quarterly KPIs missed their target within 10%, and 44.4% (4 of 9) KPIs missed their targets by more than 10%.

·         Compared to last quarter (Q3 2022/23), performance for 58.3% (7 of 12) KPIs have improved and 41.7% (5 of 12) have declined.

·         Compared to last year (Q3 2022/23), performance for 66.6% (8 of 12) KPIs have improved, 33.4% (4 of 12) have declined.

The KPI, “Percentage of priority 1 enforcement cases dealt with in time” missed the target by 50%. There were only two priority 1 enforcement cases in the period, and both were visited on time. However, due to one of the reports falling on a bank holiday, and annual leave being taken after, the system was not updated on time.

The graph below shows how in quarter 4, the open caseload of the team has started to fall, as more cases were closed than were opened in the period.

Economy

The Council no longer uses Springboard to record town centre footfall from a fixed camera in Week Street. Springboard was unable to identify unique visitors and instead recorded every movement past the fixed camera. This means that previously reported Springboard data was higher than the new data we capture.

Footfall is now measured using data from HUQ, which records unique visitors for the entire town centre area using mobile phone data. Reporting data from Q2 2022 onwards will look different as we have updated to the KPI to reflect this change.

Using the data from HUQ, the “Footfall in Town Centre” KPI achieved an outcome of 356,574 against a target of 468,658, missing its target by more than 10%. The footfall for the current quarter has increased by 5,000 compared to the previous quarter. However, it is important to note that this figure may be influenced by the inflation rate, which reached over 10% by the end of March. As a result, people may be adapting their spending patterns, which could impact the footfall figures.

The recent trend over the last nine months indicates that the percentage of unemployed individuals has been relatively stable, fluctuating between 2.8% and 2.9%. The long-term trend over the past year shows a gradual decline in the percentage of unemployment, although it has not fallen below 2.8% since June 2022. Whilst this rate Is higher than the pre-pandemic target, it is significantly lower than the rates seen throughout 2020 and 2021.

The number of unemployed youths remained steady at 560 in January, the same as in December, but decreased by 5 in February before increasing by 15 in March. Despite this, the figure of 560 marks a measurable decrease since January 2022 when the Omicron Variant of COVID was coming to an end. However, it is important to note that this figure is still significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels and has been slowly increasing since the summer of 2022.

In March 2023, the percentage of Youths (18-24 years) unemployed in Maidstone was 4.7%, which was higher than the Southeast average of 3.7% but lower than the National average of 4.9%.

We have created a Dashboard on our website, which tracks unemployment figures across all ages, taken from the ONS’ data. This data is updated regularly and can be accessed here: https://maidstone.gov.uk/home/primary-services/council-and-democracy/primary-areas/information-and-data/tier-3-primary-areas/performance-And-stats/tier-3-primary-areas/dashboards/dashboards/out-of-work-benefits-and-average-property-prices-data

At the time of writing this report, data has not been released for March 2023.  In February 2023, across all property types, we saw an increase of 6.1% against February 2022. Prices of semi-detached houses had the largest increase, of 6.4%.

When looking back to pre-pandemic figures, the average price of a property in Maidstone in February 2020 was £283,992. This represents an increase of 29.3% in three years.

We have created a Dashboard on our website, which tracks property prices in Maidstone, including data back to 2004. This data is updated regularly and can be accessed here: https://maidstone.gov.uk/home/primary-services/council-and-democracy/primary-areas/information-and-data/tier-3-primary-areas/performance-And-stats/tier-3-primary-areas/dashboards/dashboards/out-of-work-benefits-and-average-property-prices-data

Please note that the figures provided in this report are accurate up until December 2022, as volumes for Q4 have not yet been published by HM Land Registry. In December 2022, the number of properties sold in Maidstone decreased by 17, compared to the month before. However, December consistently has lower numbers than November.

Compared to the previous year, there was an increase of 64 properties sold (58.7%).

The average number of properties sold in Q3 22/23 was 174, which compares to 105 in the same quarter the year before.

Part B – PIED: 2022/2023 End of Year Outturn

Key to performance ratings

NOTE: Direction of travel for targeted performance indicators shows if performance has improved or declined. For Data Only performance indicators, the direction of travel shows if there has been an increase or decrease in volume.

Annual Performance Summary

Embracing Growth & Enabling Infrastructure

Notes

·         Data for the KPI “New additional homes provided (NI 154)” is not available yet. As with previous years, the data is derived from surveys and subsequent analysis which take place from April, with results being available by August 2023.

·         Direction of travel for targeted performance indicators shows if performance has improved or declined. For data only performance indicators direction of travel shows if there has been an increase or decrease in volume.

Summary of 2022/23 year

Comments from the Head of Planning:

It has been a year of very strong performance from the teams, especially when benchmarked against similar Local Planning Authorities. The resources have suffered this year, especially in the Majors Team, which is down 50% in staffing, and in the Minors team. This shortness across the teams has put increased pressure on the capacity of current staff.

The Economy

Summary of 2022/23 year

Comments from Economic Development Manager:

It has been a tough time for the retail, leisure and hospitality sector and high streets nationally over the last financial year, with inflation rising to just over 10% and as people’s shopping patterns change to online shopping, accommodate the national living crisis and squeeze on wages. The cold snap of weather in December may also have affected footfall in the build-up to Christmas with people deciding not to visit the town centre.

Footfall in the Town Centre

The council no longer uses Springboard to record town centre footfall from a fixed camera in Week Street which was unable to identify unique visitors and would record every movement past the fixed camera. From Q2 22 the council has used Smart data from HUQ. A full financial year analysis of figures is therefore unavailable.

Footfall is now measured using unique visitors for the entire town centre area using mobile phone data. A data time set for HUQ data for 2019 (pre-pandemic) was used to provide the new yearly target of 1,874,632.

For quarters 2/3/4 22/23 the town centre footfall figures totalled 1,136,243. There was a slight increase in footfall of 5,000 from Q3 in Q4, but Q4 was down by 71,526 from Q2.

Percentage of vacant retail units in the town centre

Vacant units surveyed by One Maidstone for April 2023 stood at 16.3%, a fall of 1.9% from April 2021 but a rise of 0.6% since January 2022 survey data.

Percentage of unemployed people in Maidstone

Unemployment figures have continued to drop from 5.5% in May 2020 during the height of the pandemic.

The March 2022 figure was 3.5% falling to 2.9% in March 2023, this equates to a 0.6% decrease in numbers over the last financial year. The Kent average unemployment rate in March 2023 was 3.3% and Great Britain 3.8%. Maidstone has the fourth lowest unemployment rate in the County after Sevenoaks 2%, Tonbridge and Malling 2.1% and Tunbridge Wells 2.3%.

Part C - PIED: 2023/24 Key Performance Indicators