Calderdale Council is committed to supporting local people and businesses through the unprecedented cost of living crisis, which has come as we are rebuilding from the enormous challenges of flooding and COVID-19.
This support is crucial to making good progress towards the Vision2024 for Calderdale and the Council’s three priorities of building strong and resilient towns, reducing inequalities and tackling climate change, despite major local, national and global issues.
The Council publishes an Annual Corporate Performance Report. The latest report will be discussed at the Cabinet meeting on Monday 11 July and highlights the key challenges and achievements between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022.
In the context of these challenges, the report shows strong Council performance overall in the past 12 months, with some areas for improvement.
Cllr Silvia Dacre, Calderdale Council’s Cabinet Member for Resources, said:
“Despite the end of COVID-19 restrictions, we understand that life is still difficult for many across our communities. Lots of families and businesses are struggling to make ends meet, and we face the ongoing challenges of climate change, flooding and public sector budget constraints.
“However, we have many reasons to be optimistic and we are doing everything we can to achieve our Vision2024 to raise aspirations, instil hope and help everyone in Calderdale to reach their potential.
“Our Annual Corporate Performance Report gives the borough many things to celebrate, whilst also highlighting where we need to improve and where we can focus our efforts to tackle the key issues affecting local people.
“The report also highlights where we have been able to work closely with partners to further our ambitions.”
The report compares the Council’s progress with other local authority areas. Some of the main achievements in the last year include:
- Supporting people to live independently in their own homes, leading to a reduction in people over 65 needing long-term adult health and social care. 3.56% of Calderdale people are receiving support, compared to 3.8% in 2019/20 and the neighbouring councils’ average of 3.8%.
- Increasing the number of adults qualified to Level 4 or above to 39.2% of Calderdale adults aged 16-64, which is slightly above the regional average.
- A significant reduction in youth unemployment from 12.9% in March 2021 to 7.4% now.
- Supporting a rise in the amount of new businesses that are still trading after three years from 54.9% to 57.2%, which is above the regional average.
- An increase in the proportion of physically active adults to 63.2%, which is an important indicator of a healthy lifestyle.
Areas of the Council which experienced challenging performance during 2021/22 and are benefitting from further support going forward include:
- Delivery of new homes – a revised Calderdale Housing Delivery Test Action Plan will clarify the priority status for housing development, and progress will continue towards adopting the Local Plan in September 2022.
- Total crime levels – as in other neighbouring areas, levels are similar to those in 2019. There was an expected increase in total crime in 2021/22 due to the removal of COVID-19 restrictions. Going forward, crime comparisons will be based on pre-pandemic levels to avoid the anomaly period of the pandemic.
- Highway maintenance – despite a 1% reduction in the number of main roads requiring maintenance, the Council and other West Yorkshire authorities have supported a City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement bid that will increase maintenance funding between 2022 and 2027.
The Council publishes all performance data on its open data platform, Calderdale Data Works: https://dataworks.calderdale.gov.uk
The year 2024 marks Calderdale’s 50th birthday, and there are just two years to go. Where do we want to be by 2024? What’s our ambition and what will be different? Find out more at www.calderdale.gov.uk/vision
Calderdale Council’s Cabinet meeting will take place on Monday 11 July 2022 from 6pm at Halifax Town Hall, and can also be watched at https://calderdale.public-i.tv/core/portal/home(external link)