Positive peer review welcomed by Lancaster City Council
An independent review of Lancaster City Council has praised the organisation, saying it has a ‘let’s do it’ culture with a clear vision for the district.
Earlier this year the council was the focus of a Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC) by the Local Government Association (LGA).
A peer challenge is when representatives from councils nationwide spend time with another council to evaluate their performance, assess their ambition for residents, and determine if adequate resources are in place to fulfil those objectives.
In the city council’s case, the peer challenge team gathered information and views from more than 50 meetings, in addition to further research, and spoke to more than 130 people, including a range of council staff, councillors and external stakeholders.
At the end of the visit the team provided a report, which highlights many of the council’s strengths and makes a number of recommendations for further improvements.
The overriding view of the peer challenge is that over the last two years the council has undergone a period of rapid improvement, is making real improvements for people and place, and is well-placed for the future to deliver on the needs of its communities.
Some of the strengths highlighted in the report include:
• The council has a clear vision through its new Council Plan
• There is strong leadership and staff are empowered to try out new things – ‘let’s do it’ attitude
• It is a welcoming, supportive place to work – professional, friendly with a strong emphasis on staff wellbeing and development
• There is a clear ambition that increased prosperity must be for the benefit of the whole community and enable a low carbon future
• People are proud to work for and represent Lancaster City Council – officers and members work well together
• There is a good understanding among officers, councillors and partners of the need to make savings and generate income
Councillor Phillip Black, leader of Lancaster City Council, said: “The peer challenge process has helped to highlight some of the excellent work that staff and elected councillors have been undertaking to continually improve the council and the services we provide.
“I’m particularly pleased with the feedback we received on the Council Plan, which the report recognises as setting out a strong and ambitious set of plans and projects that will bring about real change for our communities.
“As the report acknowledges, the strong working relationships that we have developed via the coalition agreement between the three political parties on Cabinet means that we’re all pulling together in the same direction with a shared agenda.
“This cross-party approach means we are well placed to continue to capitalise on opportunities, deliver increased prosperity, and achieve our aspiration of enabling a low carbon future.”
The peer team also identified some areas where they believe further improvements can be made, in particular acknowledging the ongoing challenge, shared by local authorities up and down the country, of setting a balanced budget.
In the last 14 years central government has withdrawn around 40% of the council’s funding, leading to a significant reduction in real terms spending power.
Demand for services also continue to rise, including the statutory services such as the collection of waste and recycling, that communities rely upon.
While this is already being addressed by the council’s ambitious improvement programme known as ‘Fit for the Future’, the report recommends further work is undertaken to ensure that the budget planning process is driven by the Council Plan.
Last updated: 19 July 2024