This report provides information on the performance of Development Services for the period from July to December 2011. All of the indicators either met their target or were on course to meet their annual target during this period.
The indicators are arranged under the heading of each Corporate/Service Goal to which they mainly contribute. It covers a revised set of service indicators and those specified indicators which continue to be reported to Audit Scotland.
Further developing a thriving, sustainable and vibrant economy
There was a further slight improvement in Q2 and over April to December for Householder Applications compared with Q1.
Further improvement in Q2 and Q3 for All Planning Applications.
Non Householder Applications have improved in every Quarter this year.
There was a further slight improvement over July – December for Business Advice Requests compared with Q1. This is an Audit Scotland Indicator.
At the end of Quarter 3, 81% of the annual target for the number of clients engaged has been achieved. Recruitment into training can fluctuate during the year. It is anticipated that the balance of 165 will be recruited in the final quarter. 161 new recruits started during Q4 in 2010/11.
We have further exceeded the annual target for Modern Apprentices and Skillseekers. This has been helped by the European Social Fund initiative to support Modern Apprenticeship opportunities in the private sector launched in August 2011. This should continue to show a positive impact in Quarter 4.
At the end of Quarter 3 we were 33 places short of recruiting 75% of the annual target number. This is proving challenging in the current economic climate but additional incentives are available to help employers to recruit young people. A sufficient number of young people are projected to progress from Get Ready for Work into Employment in the final quarter of the year, enabling the annual target to be achieved.
We have secured almost 90% of the target number of jobs at the end of Quarter 3. These charts show the cumulative total for the year so far at the end of each quarter.
89% of the target number of businesses have received support by the end of Quarter 3. The chart shows the cumulative total for the year so far at the end of each quarter.
Despite the current business climate the occupancy rate is stable and the Council’s industrial portfolio is almost fully let. The office and retail sector is still sluggish with businesses reluctant to commit to anything other than short term leases. The 2011/12 occupancy rate is the average over April – December not the rate on 31/12/2011.
Continuing to improve the health, safety and well being of our citizens and communities
The average response is consistently around half an hour. No response took longer than the target time. This is an Audit Scotland Indicator.
The average response was on the target time in Q2 and better in Q3. This is an Audit Scotland Indicator.
In Q3 only 1 fault out of 65 was missed. In both Q2 and Q1 just 2 faults were missed out of 36 and 70 faults reported. So in Q2 with fewer faults reported the impact on the percentage was greater.
Q2 was below target but Q3 recovered and we are on target across 2011/12 April - December. There were an increased number of faults reported in Q2 and again in Q3. Scottish Power completed 75% of their repairs on time, better than twice their result in 2010/11 contributing to our improvement.
Increasing our efforts to tackle disadvantage and discrimination
Customer satisfaction is in the same range as last year, well above target.
Enhancing and sustaining an environment in which people want to live, work and visit
Building Standards Customer Satisfaction was 100% in each Quarter.
The improvement over last year continued.
The average time taken was on target in Q2 and Q3 and still below target over 2011/12 to date.
The figures for Quarter 1 April – June and Quarter 2 July – September are now available following verification by SEPA. They show a 3.7% increase in the recycling/composting rate over the same two quarters last year. This is still an Audit Scotland Indicator.
Abandoned vehicles were over target again. Only 2 out of the 31 reported could not be dealt with on time in Q2. All 28 were on time in Q3.