Meeting documents

Introduction

The Business Development & Regeneration Service has long been an advocate of trying to measure the performance of its economic regeneration activities.  In the past 18-24 months it has been encouraging the Local Government Association (LGA) and Audit Commission to develop key performance indicators (KPI’s), work that has now manifested itself into a national pilot scheme, involving eighteen local authorities, including Wycombe District.  

This pilot will enable closer comparison of services between authorities in the future.  It will also identify key areas where policy adjustment may be required to combat poor economic performance in the District, including for instance, with skills levels or unemployment.   Officers of the Council have recently attended the second (of five) meeting of pilot authorities.  After comparisons with Cardiff, which has been involved in a Welsh authorities pilot, Wycombe District’s progress is reassuringly advanced. This gives us the opportunity to concentrate on the more detailed and arguable more revealing Economic Regeneration Performance Indicators, concerning inward investment and business confidence.  

The scheme is a joint initiative by the LGA, Audit Commission and IDeA, which will aim to demonstrate the value of economic regeneration services by the information collated in 23 evidenced-based KPI’s.

Perceived Benefits of Involvement in the Pilot

On completion the twelve-month pilot will provide Wycombe District Council with:

The Services involvement in the pilot will help the Council be at the forefront of understanding the pending 2005 CPA target of evidencing how local authorities contributions to the ‘economic vitality of local communities’.

Progress to Date

To date we have not only provided positive and constructive feedback at two steering group pilot meetings, but also compiled an up to date and flexible document exploring the 23 evidence based performance indicators. In fact we have sufficiently completed 15 of the 23 indicators at this stage to amend and include them in the Councils yearly publication ‘Development Trends’. The Audit Commission asked for 46% to be completed by 2005 and at this stage we can supply 67% with a year to put the collection systems in place for the remaining indicators.  

Key Findings

The pilot deals with a wide range of performance indicators directly connected to our service as well as general economic indicators such as town centre footfall and house prices.  The latter produced interesting findings concerning the affordability of housing in the district.  The average earnings are £30,472 per year, while the average property prices is £232,485. Therefore this means that the average house price is more than 7.5 times the average annual earnings of people in full-time employment in the Wycombe District. The increasing house prices are obviously encouraging for existing homeowners and also demonstrate the vibrancy and popularity of the area. However, the service and the council as a whole must support more affordable housing for key workers in the district. The Council is doing this at present and will continue to do so in the future.

Another positive finding from the study is the number of VAT registration of businesses in the district in the past years. When compared with other district and the southeast as a whole, it is clear that Wycombe is continuing to attract businesses into the area due to its skilled work force and its proximity to London. In 2002 there were 7,560 VAT registered businesses in the district resulting in a figure of 469 per 10,000 people, which works out to be 165 more per 10,000 than the national average.

Future Actions

The service will continue to develop systems to collect the remaining performance indicators to complete the economic picture of the district. The KPI pilot steering group will meet again in September to discuss the use and inclusion of certain KPI’s and to compare progress made. Future action may also occur on the policy implementation side as and when the indicators raise problems. A full copy of the document can be obtained from Russell Hale on 01494 421505.  Working updates will be provided on the Business Development website, www.wycombe.gov.uk/business.