Chris Penberthy (Cabinet Member for Housing, Cooperative Development and Communities) introduced the report and highlighted the following:

a)     The report was consistently being updated to improve clarity of data and was consistently reviewed by internal and external groups;

b)    Data was included from a wide range of data sets, including temporally from before the Covid-19 pandemic, to assess robust performance indicators at a broad level;

c)     The report highlighted the resilience and innovation that the Council had been taking to combat circumstances which affected the entire nation and were often out of Local Government control;

d)    Plymouth had maintained excellent performance against carriageway works and road defects within agreed timescales, although this was hampered by successive funding cuts since 2006;

e)     100% of major development applicants were determined on-time by the Planning Department;

f)      There was some success with the reduction of numbers of under 25-year olds claiming Universal Credit and an increase in employment rates;

g)     The ability for pupils to access schools in Plymouth had increased to its highest level since the pandemic;

h)    In terms of healthcare, patients in primary care had seen positive improvements – rates of being seen within a fortnight had increased from 63% to 83%;

i)      This had not occurred within the field of dental care across the City.

Councillor Evans OBE (Leader of the Council) added:

j)      Electoral registration performance had been remarkable with 213, 000 people being registered.

Cabinet agreed to note the report.