Introduction 

Rother District Council’s Fit for the Future Programme is the key driver for improving productivity, efficiency and resilience in the local authority. 

The bullet points below provide examples of how Rother is improving productivity and addresses any specific questions in the letter from the Minister for Local Government dated 16^th April 2024 – Productivity in Local Government. 

How the council has transformed the way it designs and delivers services to make better use of resources. 

• Our Fit for the Future programme is designed to ensure that Rother is productive and efficient, focusing on four key themes: People, Assets, Financial Resilience and Digital transformation.  
• Performance is formally monitored quarterly by senior officers and members using Key Performance Indicators (which are reviewed annually) see Final performance report for 23/24. Service Plans are in place and link to our current Corporate Plan, however a new Council plan will be adopted in Autumn 2024.  
• Productivity is measured through performance monitoring, peer reviews see Corporate Peer Challenge Rother District Council Local Government Association and analysis of the cost of services, benchmarked against similar local authorities see https://lginform.local.gov.uk/ 
• Improvement in services is delivered through our Fit for the Future programme and Service Plans. A culture of continuous improvement is embedded in the organisation, and efficiencies are monitored through the Financial Resilience Plan. 
• We have commenced a transformation programme (Fit for the Future) and the adoption of our People Strategy. A new Target Operating Model and Workforce Plan will be implemented through the People Strategy. 
• Service savings are realised through our Financial Resilience Programme (shared services, contract reviews, devolution to Parish councils etc.) and the services with the highest number of transactions are prioritised. 
• We are working with stakeholders and communities to design a more community centred approach to meeting the needs of residents and we are active members of the Housing Partnership Board. We hosted a local Housing conference earlier this year bringing together partners and providers to tackle the homelessness crisis. 
• We continue to contribute towards a shared Housing Partnership lead role, funded by the five districts and boroughs in East Sussex and Public Health.  

How the council plans to take advantage of technology and make better use of data to improve decision-making, service design and use of resources. 

• Routine data quality audits and data quality improvement plans. 
• Maintain robust information governance processes to ensure data is kept safe and used appropriately. 
• We are working with Policy in Practice’s LiFT platform (Low Income Family Tracker) (https://policyinpractice.co.uk/lift-product-page/) to identify those residents who may not be claiming the welfare benefits they are entitled to, encouraging take up of Pension Credit through provision of assistance in making a claim.  
• Our use of Elanev (credit bureau data) assists us to predict vulnerability and future arrears on Council Tax, targeted support on current arrears and directing information on benefit entitlement and help through the council’s cost of living fund. 
• Our Digital Programme will transform the way we operate by automating where possible including how we interact with our residents. Our chatbot AIMEE is dealing with increasing numbers of customers, see our performance plan. There are infinite possibilities to use new technology to improve workflows and systems. see our Digital Programme. 
• Our Environmental Health Team has transitioned to Idox and our Planning Development Team has commissioned a replacement to the Ocella system – which will improve efficiency and effectiveness. 

Our plans to reduce wasteful spend within the organisation and systems. 

• We use available data such as https://lginform.local.gov.uk/  to benchmark our services against near neighbours to assess the costs. 
• In 2021 we adopted the Protection of Discretionary Services Strategy with the objective to reduce spend whilst protecting services. We are working with parish councils, community groups and sports clubs to ensure the discretionary services wanted by communities can be provided. 
• The Council has successfully used the Invest to Save capital process to purchase temporary accommodation (TA) properties to meet the needs of homeless persons in Rother since 2019. 
• To date the Council has purchased 49 properties costing £11.34m partly funded by central government grant of £4.11m.  Compared to the use of other forms of accommodation, the Council estimates that it has achieved revenue savings of £607k per annum.  When this phase of the programme is complete, estimated revenue savings of £652k per annum will be achieved. 
• At its meeting in April 2024, the Council’s Cabinet approved an expanded TA acquisition programme of a further 50 properties.  The total cost of this programme will be approximately £12m partly funded by central government grant of £3m.   
• Further revenue savings of £564k per annum are expected to arise when the programme is complete 
• We spend an appropriate amount on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion to ensure we can meet our public service equality duty requirements. All staff receive mandatory EDI training, and a percentage of one officer’s time is dedicated to EDI. Training is monitored through HR and its effectiveness is considered. 
• 7.5 % of the total staff budget is spend on agency/consultants. Their effectiveness is monitored through line management and agreed outputs.  
• We plan to reduce the use of consultants through the implementation of our People Strategy although it’s recognised that consultants will be needed for time limited, specialist work. 
• We have various governance structures for accountability of spend including the Corporate Programme Board, Cabinet, Audit and Standards Committee, Overview and Scrutiny Committee as well as Senior Leadership Team monitoring see link to  Rother committees, meetings and agendas 
• We are part of the East Sussex Building Control Partnership (providing Building Control services to four of the five East Sussex district and borough councils) 
• We are part of the East Sussex Joint Waste Partnership (managing the waste collection contract for all East Sussex district and borough councils). The partnership has saved local authority partners £ one million per annum since its inception in 2013.  
• We are part of the East Sussex Procurement Hub (providing a procurement service for three of the five East Sussex district and borough councils). In its 10 years of operation, the Hub has achieved total savings/revenue in the region of £21 million across all collaborative procurements with other authorities. 
• We lead the Environmental Health Service in partnership with Wealden District Council. Since the inception of the partnership, it has saved over £4 million. 
• We share legal services with Wealden District Council. 
• We spend 0.06% of our pay bill on trade union facility time. 

The barriers preventing progress that the Government can help to reduce or remove. 

Finance 

• Provide a real terms increase in the overall funding envelope for local government in future settlements, which are not disproportionately reliant on Council Tax increases and reflect unavoidable additional costs resulting from national factors beyond local control, including changes to the National Living Wage. 
• Provide funding that accurately reflects levels of need and the cost of delivering national reforms, with sufficient time prior to implementation of new obligations to ensure best value solutions – for example food waste collections.  
• Provide local government the power to create and control their own local tax levying systems (for instance tourism taxes) 
• Deliver multi-year settlements to enable long term planning and investment; and 
• Simplify funding, including taking forward the consolidation of separate ‘incentivised’ funding pots into devolved, un-ringfenced grants to be spent on local priorities. 
• Ensure that capital funding has realistic timescales for delivery given the complex compliance and regulatory requirements for large scale programmes. 

Cost of living and economic outlook 

• Continue to recognise that the increased cost of living drives increased need for council services which are already under pressure, and that additional support for the most vulnerable helps limit rising need for services in future, particularly in relation to homelessness, and children’s and adults’ services; and  
• Recognise in future policy development and funding consideration the significant ongoing challenges councils face in recruitment and retention of workforce, across a range of services, particularly frontline roles, and the resulting impact on councils’ capacity. 

Homelessness and temporary accommodation 

• Remove the cap for housing benefit subsidy rate for local authority homelessness placements. 
• Fully and sustainably address the disconnect between Local Housing Allowance and private rents in East Sussex, as it is an obstacle to preventing homelessness and reducing use of temporary accommodation. 
• Review the balance between burden on private landlords both financially and regulatory and the fullest welfare protection concerns for tenants in private rented accommodation to prevent the widespread abandonment of the private rented sector market by private landlords. 
• Provide additional funding for Discretionary Housing Payments and a top-up to the Homelessness Prevention Grant. 
• Develop policy to stimulate retention and supply in the privately rented sector, including to bring forward the ban on no-fault evictions; and, 
• Give councils the long-term funding, flexibility and certainty needed to increase the supply of social housing. 

Supporting migrants 

• Mandate the Home Office to work with councils in a more joined-up, place-based, way to support the full range of displaced people including refugees, asylum seekers and Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children, including by fully utilising the National Transfer Scheme.  

Transport 

• Improved transport connectivity and the facility to move away from car journeys in a large rural area by: 
• Increasing long term investment in highways maintenance (both capital and revenue) to enable the County Highways Authority to plan and deliver visible improvements for residents in consultation and conjunction with our own strategic plans.  
• Providing ongoing investment in the county’s public transport and active travel priorities; and 
• Continuing investment and statutory status for Transport for the Southeast, to give us confidence in the possibility to deliver strategic transport priorities and investment that help us towards Net Zero. 

Planning 

• Move away from top-down housing allocations so that local community input and expertise can contribute to the calculation of local plan housing requirements. 
• Recognise that often the Government’s policy and need for housing growth is constrained by local factors such as national parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty, lack of infrastructure and resident expectations. 
• Have reasonable and realistic timelines for developing Local Plans, providing adequate resources for planning authorities and statutory consultees.  
• Ensure that the Infrastructure Levy mechanism enables essential infrastructure to be secured and delivered by developers in advance of, or alongside, delivery of development, including affordable housing; and 
• Make sourcing and securing land for new homes easier by streamlining the planning process and reforming sustainability measures, quality building standards, and affordable housing.  

Tackling climate change  

• Empower councils with powers to ensure new homes are built to a carbon neutral standard. 
• Join up central government department initiatives into packages of aligned approaches giving streamlined sets of options with tools and guidance.  
• Provide funding to continue existing local work to improve air quality; and 
• Hand over responsibility and funding for administering future green homes initiatives, particularly housing retrofitting. 

Water  

• Mandate that water companies make the investments and infrastructure improvements needed to limit discharge of sewage and improve water quality in the county and on our coastline.  
• Mandate that water companies ensure they have the resilient infrastructure and supplies needed to provide utilities to residents and allow development and economic growth now and in future.  
• Mandate that water companies meet their statutory duties in an emergency including well-kept vulnerable persons lists; and 
• improve their communication and engagement with local authorities and communities. 

Local Democracy 

• Seek legislative change to allow local democracy to be modernised. To allow for online meetings to be constitutionally accepted (as during covid) and to have more punitive measure for breaches of the Code of Conduct.