NORTH YORKSHIRE COUNCIL

20 MAY 2026

STATEMENT OF EXECUTIVE MEMBER FOR CORPORATE SERVICES

Democratic Services and Scrutiny

There have been a number of contentious meetings, and meetings with significant public interest held in March and April, which have necessitated high levels of planning, support and coordination by the Democratic Services Team.  This has included: the meeting of the Executive on 17 March 2026, to consider the Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy and the Whitby Cliff Lift; the meeting of the Harrogate and Knaresborough Area Planning Committee on 17 April 2026, to consider the Harrogate Springwater application; and the meeting of the Strategic Planning Committee on 24 April 2026, to consider the Burniston proppant squeeze application.  There is also an extraordinary meeting of the Scrutiny of Health Committee scheduled for 8 May 2026, at which the future provision of GP services in Reeth and the surrounding area will be scrutinised.  The running of some of the committee meetings is now becoming more akin to event management as: they are recorded and broadcast, by IT and Communications; large numbers of public attend, often with protests outside of the venue; plans for the safe management of the meeting and all involved are developed with the Police, Health and Safety and Estates; and press releases are co-ordinated with the Press Office.     

The Appeals Team is now working on the school admission bulk appeals that follow the national offer days for primary and secondary school places each year.  For Year Seven entry, the appeals run from the end of April until late July and for Reception entry the appeals run from June to July.  Alongside the bulk appeals, there is a steady stream of in-year appeals and exclusion reviews.  The Appeals Team depends on the skills, experience and goodwill of the volunteer, independent panel members and also the dedicated Business Support Team.

Localities

The Localities service has made strong progress this quarter, in areas such as voluntary sector and parish sector support, strengthened partnerships, and outcomes across digital and financial inclusion, community resilience and wellbeing and social regeneration. Some key highlights in over the last quarter/last year include:

Communities:

· Digital inclusion: The second year of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) funding supported 31 organisations to hold sessions in 213 venues, trained 211 digital champions and supported 6,427 people. Fully allocated 184 refurbished devices were distributed through Reboot.

· Local food support: Enhanced collaboration continued across Scarborough, Harrogate and Richmond, with Richmond embarking on a joint food procurement this quarter. The team also worked closely with the 29 Household Support Fund (HSF) Food Support grant recipients to close the scheme on 31 March, which had focussed on the supply of free or low-cost food and essential supplies, and preventative activity over the winter period. 

· North Yorkshire Local Assistance Fund (NYLAF): Demand increased to 3,064 applications, with 58% relating to food and energy. December saw a sharp seasonal rise.  From 1 April NYLAF is anticipated to be used as an interim measure for the new Crisis and Resilience Fund offering crisis emergency support.

· Cost of Living Campaign: Delivered in conjunction with Communications and Customer, Revenues & Benefits, featuring social media activity and widespread partner distribution. The targeted Pension Credit campaign has been highly successful; at the end of the quarter 133 households had secured Pension Credit via the new telephone support service delivered by the Income Maximisation Team.

· Inspire Grants: Strong demand continued with 48 grants (£44,940) awarded – a significant increase on Quarter four last year.

· Community Anchor Network: Ongoing development with 29 place-based organisations. A new Community Anchor Organisation for Malton and Norton now in place.

· Community Partnerships: 15 place-based partnerships are now contributing to local engagement and delivery, of which nine are fully established partnerships, with a further six partnerships emerging. Broader work on Town Investment Plans continues across the county in partnership with Regeneration and is expected to further stimulate the formation and strengthening of additional partnerships.

· UKSPF delivery: Localities have continued to manage £1.3m capital for village halls and £200k revenue for Community Wealth Building Initiatives across North Yorkshire and York on behalf of the Mayoral Combined Authority. For the Village Hall and Community Buildings Fund, monitoring visits have been carried out this quarter to all the 51 funded projects to ensure works were on target and completed by the end of March.

Parish Liaison, Local Devolution and Community Rights

· Parish Liaison: The Parish Charter was updated and agreed this quarter, with work underway to embed it across Council services, supported by a new ‘Charter on a Page’ and plans for engagement and annual review. Parish engagement remained strong, and a new parish website – developed in response to sector feedback – is nearing completion, with positive feedback continuing about the outreach activities of the team such as local surgeries and liaison meetings.

· Devolution: Proposals for the transfers of Ripon Town Hall and Knaresborough Market have been progressed.

· Community Rights: Decisions on four Assets of Community Value nominations. Preparatory work for upcoming new legislation in relation to Community Rights is being undertaken, including raising awareness across council services and connecting with other local authorities to understand the impacts.

Migrant Programmes

· Swift: Phase 2 of the Swift Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise Capacity Building and Training Programme has been completed, engaging 336 unique staff and volunteers across both phases. The Swift website is now live, providing multilingual, area‑specific information and an online referral system to support people arriving in North Yorkshire and those supporting them.

· Translation and interpretation – Good progress is being made towards the projected savings in overall translation costs, with approximately £20,000 saved in the last six months compared to the same period last year.

Planning operations

Work on a single hosted planning system (One Uniform) continues. By way of a re-cap, we now have Harrogate, Scarborough and Craven plus all of Building Control in the new hosted system. This is a significant step forward, from which we are starting to see the benefits in relation to workflow management and performance.  

This is a large and complex project. Since my last update we took a decision to pause any further migration work until we received the necessary reassurance from our system supplier that multiple issues we had identified could be satisfactorily resolved without exposing the Council to significant risk. We now have this reassurance, and I can advise of a revised timetable for the remaining migrations:

· Selby and Hambleton: migration commenced beginning of April with a go-live of 4 August (previously go live was 5 May)

· Richmond, Ryedale, Minerals and Waste: migration commencing early August with a go live of 23 November (previously go live date was 3 August)

· Uniform upgrade: An upgrade to the latest version will be required to allow the effective integration of an Exacom module to support the introduction of the Building Safety Level and this is planned for mid-December. 

As we continue to deliver this important systems project, there will be inevitable impacts on timescales relating to the processing and validation of applications during periods of migration.  Officers continue to work hard to ensure that impacts are kept to a minimum and there is communication with customers to manage expectations during these periods.

Development Management and Enforcement

From 1 April 2025 until 31 March 2026 the service has dealt with 194 major, 1,518 minor, 3,002 other and 14 county matter applications. In addition, we have also dealt with a considerable number of other types of applications, including prior approvals, screening opinions, scoping reports, trees, hedgerows, discharge of conditions, telecommunications, etc.

Performance across all application types exceeds statutory national targets.

In terms of Planning Enforcement, from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 we have received 1,843 cases and closed 2,540 cases. We have also served 65 Notices.

Further performance measures are being developed to be used alongside the emerging Local Planning Enforcement Plan.

Customer

Pension Credit Campaign 2025/26

A targeted Pension Credit campaign was launched in late November 2025 and concluded on 17 April 2026, following an extension in response to strong engagement and demand. The campaign aimed to help eligible older residents access additional financial support and improve take-up of Pension Credit and related benefits.

Delivered in conjunction with the Welfare and Benefits, Communities Team, in alignment with the HSF 7 and wider cost of living activity, the campaign focused on raising awareness and increasing take-up among pension‑age households.

The Income Maximisation Team provided dedicated support, including eligibility checks, telephone-based claims completion, follow‑up calls and in‑person appointments where required. Officers also carried out checks for related entitlements such as bus passes, Blue Badges and Attendance Allowance. All activity was recorded to enable reporting on outcomes directly linked to the campaign.

Key campaign activity includes:

· Targeted direct mail issued to over 1,200 households identified as likely eligible but not currently receiving Pension Credit across North Yorkshire

· Inclusion of Pension Credit information in over 26,000 HSF letters, including 11,700 sent to pension-age households

· Social media promotion, local radio activity and partner engagement

· A dedicated telephone line for Pension Credit eligibility checks and claims support

· Extension of the targeted mail campaign by a further three months due to positive response, including follow‑up letters to households that had not made contact after the initial mailout

Summary of customer contact:

Metric	Number
Number of letters issued	1,246
Number of calls	333
Customers not eligible	128
Pension Credit already in payment	59
Eligible – claims made	146

Financial impact:

The campaign has delivered a significant and sustained financial impact for residents:

Total weekly Pension Credit awarded	£7,847.99
Annualised value of Pension Credit awards	£408,095.48

This represents ongoing income for residents, significantly improving financial security and helping to mitigate cost‑of‑living pressures.

Additional benefits identified and claimed

In addition to Pension Credit, officers identified and supported claims for a wide range of related benefits, demonstrating the gateway role of Pension Credit and the value of holistic support:

Benefit type	Number recorded
Attendance allowance	23
Attendance allowance upgrades	3
Blue badge	21
Bus pass	3
Carer’s underlying entitlement	17
Council tax support	8
Health costs	13
Housing benefit	5
Married tax allowance	3
TV licence concession	18
Utilities support	3
Total	119

Closing Summary and Statement

The Pension Credit Campaign 2025/26 delivered strong, measurable outcomes for older residents across North Yorkshire. Targeted engagement and dedicated officer support increased Pension Credit take-up and identified a wide range of additional benefit entitlements.

The campaign secured over £408,000 in annualised Pension Credit income, providing long-term financial support for residents affected by cost-of-living pressures. Officers also supported claims for Attendance Allowance, Council Tax Support, mobility concessions and health‑related support, demonstrating the value of a holistic income maximisation approach.

While not all residents contacted were eligible for Pension Credit, many benefited from reassurance, improved understanding of entitlements and access to alternative support. Overall, the campaign provides strong evidence to support continued investment in Pension Credit take-up and wider income maximisation activity.

Household Support Fund 7 – Q4 Update

Q4 saw the closure of North Yorkshire Council’s seventh and final phase of HSF.  The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) funded programme aimed to support those most in need with significantly rising living costs between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026. 

In line with the expenditure guidelines and the agreed eligibility framework, c26,000 households across North Yorkshire received a direct award in the form of a shopping voucher during a 6-week period (October 2025 to November 2025) achieving a redemption rate of 94%. This encompassed eligible families, pensioners and working age adult household.   

In addition to this, supplementary funding was awarded to NYLAF, the HSF Energy Support Scheme, Money and Benefits Advice Service, Care Leavers, and 29 free or low-cost food providers across the County. An HSF Exceptional Circumstances Fund was also delivered, to support those who may have missed out on support due to circumstances beyond their control.  In total, 72,744 households in North Yorkshire received support through the seventh phase of HSF.

From 1 April 2026 HSF has been replaced by the new Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF).

Crisis and Resilience Fund

CRF is a new national funding scheme introduced by the DWP that will operate from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2029.

The CRF replaces both the HSF and Discretionary Housing Payments and is a dedicated funding scheme designed to help individuals, communities, or organisations respond to urgent crises while strengthening their ability to withstand and recover from future shocks. It provides flexible, rapid financial support for emergency needs arising from events such as economic hardship, health emergencies, or sudden changes in living costs, alongside investment in longer-term resilience measures. The fund also offers assistance for residents who rely on oil for heating and hot water, helping to alleviate fuel poverty and ensure homes remain safe and habitable during periods of increased costs or supply disruption.

Under DWP guidance, the CRF is structured around four core strands:

· Crisis payments – cash first support for households facing an immediate financial shock

· Housing payments – support towards housing costs, replacing Discretionary Housing Payments

· Resilience services – preventative and early help services that improve financial stability

· Community coordination – strengthening local referral pathways and join up between services

Interim arrangements have been put in place from 1 April 2026 through the delivery of crisis support and support for residents reliant on oil for heating and hot water, this is currently being managed through existing providers, primarily NYLAF and Citizens Advice.

A comprehensive, longer-term solution that fully addresses all required strands of the CRF is currently being actively developed to ensure support is both effective and resilient.

Customer Service

On 16 March, the Council successfully went live with its new Contact Centre as a Service platform. This was delivered smoothly and without disruption to staff or the services residents rely on.

Importantly, this change was implemented during one of the Council’s busiest periods of the year, including garden and green waste service demand, the annual council tax billing cycle, and changes to fees and charges, demonstrating the resilience and professionalism of teams involved.

This represents an important first step in delivering our Customer CARE commitments – helping to make Council services more Consistent, Accessible, Responsive and Easy for residents when they contact us.

While the system is newly live, it lays the foundations for our One Front Door approach by enabling us to begin bringing customer contact from different channels into one place. Over time, this will allow us to build a more joined‑up, omni‑channel view of customer journeys and demand across the Council.

Alongside this, we have introduced call‑back functionality, which has been well received by customers. Teams have adapted extremely well to the new system, supported by strong preparation and training, and early feedback from staff has been very positive.

This is only the beginning of our wider customer transformation programme. As we continue to build and develop the Netcall Liberty Converse customer platform, we will further strengthen joined‑up customer journeys and improve how residents experience council services, regardless of how they choose to get in touch.

COUNCILLOR HEATHER PHILLIPS