Issue - meetings

Report of the Leader of the Council. 

The report of the Leader of the Council was submitted setting out the details of the business undertaken by the Executive.

The Leader and the Cabinet made statements and responded to questions.

The following questions were submitted in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 11.1. 

1.  Pedestrianisation of Guildhall Square

Question from Councillor Fitzhenry to Councillor Hammond. 

Can the Leader confirm his commitment to the pedestrianisation of Guildhall Square as quickly as possible? 

Answer

It was never agreed the Northern Above Bar side of Guildhall Square would be entirely traffic free – but that a review would be undertaken.  Now that the galleries are open we are undertaking monitoring of the traffic and will consider the options of pedestrianisation as part of the LTP4 consultation.   

2.  One New Home Every Day

Question from Councillor Fitzhenry to Councillor Hammond.

Can the Leader confirm his commitment to the Labour election pledge of one new home every day?

Answer

This pledge was made in 2012 since then we have been faced with changes to affordable homes legislation, Brexit, three Leaders (ourselves and the Opposition), the context is very different today.  In our latest manifesto, we set the target of providing 1000 new homes over the next five years.   

3.  Telephone Answering

Question from Councillor Laurent to Councillor Chaloner

Eastleigh Council answer the telephone and deal with queries at the same point immediately and efficiently.  Why cannot Southampton Council do the same?

Answer

We have been investing significant time and effort into improving our customer services, to increase the efficiency with which we deal with customer enquiries. As an example last month we dealt with around 45,000 calls and answered these in an average time of 2 minutes 28 seconds. This is an improvement on the position in June 2017, the average speed of answer was 4 minutes 12 seconds.

Dealing with customer issues at the first point of contact is a key part of our strategy for improvement. We have recently introduced a new customer satisfaction survey for the contact centre and one of the questions monitors our performance in this area by asking whether customers were able to successfully do what they called for on that occasion. The latest data shows 72.5% of customers responding positively to this question. However, there will always be a proportion of customer enquiries which require referral to a specialist team, for example where the information provided indicates a social care assessment is needed.

We are continuing to make changes to systems and processes to improve customer experiences both online and via traditional channels.

4.  Reduced operating hours at Housing and Gateway cash offices

Question from Councillor Fitzhenry to Councillor Chaloner

Given the Council’s strategic approach towards digitalisation and reduction in customer facing interactions, can the Cabinet Member confirm if the reduced hours of service at our housing and Gateway cash offices has increased our rent/payment arrears and/or increased our costs of recovery?

Answer

Part 1 – Impact of reduced hours.

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