LGA Corporate Peer Challenge – Progress review: Uttlesford District Council

Uttlesford District Council undertook an LGA Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC) in December 2024 and promptly published the full report. 

A Progress Review is an integral part of the Corporate Peer Challenge process. It is designed to provide space for the council’s senior leadership to:

• Receive feedback from peers on the early progress made by the council against the CPC recommendations.
• Consider peers’ reflections on any new opportunities or challenges that may have arisen since the peer team were on-site including any further support needs.
• Discuss any early impact or learning from the progress made to date. 

The LGA would like to thank the council for their commitment to sector led improvement. This Progress Review was the next step in an ongoing, open and close relationship that the council has with LGA sector support.

The Progress Review with Uttlesford District Council took place on Monday 8 December 2025 and was delivered virtually in the form of a two-hour discussion with the council’s Leader and Chief Executive. It was informed by background reading provided to the peers including an outline of key developments for the organisation and emerging budget proposals for 2026/27. 

Whilst the recommendations from the peer team formed a key part of the discussion, it was important to take into account a number of other developments for the council since the corporate peer challenge. This includes the emergence of local government reorganisation (LGR) at pace in Essex, significant progress having been made in relation to the Planning function and major challenges emerging in relation to social housing service delivery.

The following were the recommendations from the initial corporate peer challenge:

Recommendation 1

Respond to the need partners see for a step-change in the council’s attitude and approach to engagement on a wider regional level and for it to have a much stronger and more strategic focus on economic development

Recommendation 2

Develop the Corporate Management Team so that it “leads the way more”, models the way more in relation to corporate and collaborative working, is more ‘fleet of foot’ and has information flowing more readily from it

Recommendation 3

Empower the Senior Management Team and ensure they are more informed and involved on strategic issues

Recommendation 4

Undertake a re-think around the approach to ‘Blueprint Uttlesford’, focusing on driving genuine ‘transformation’ through investment in technology and necessary expert capacity 

Recommendation 5

Ensure the key risks for the council’s financial position related to the borrowing and the asset portfolio are effectively managed and very closely monitored, with regular updates to the Medium-Term Financial Strategy

Recommendation 6

Reassure yourselves that the ‘Blueprint Uttlesford’ plans will deliver the level of savings and income required to meet the projected medium-term financial gap

Recommendation 7

Respond to the desire from staff for:

• The staff conferences to have a ‘refresh’ through which they enable more engagement and participation and what is shared becomes more meaningful to people.
• Much greater communication with those whose services and functions have been subject to review under ‘Blueprint Uttlesford’. 

Recommendation 8

Regularly communicate to staff the progress being made in response to the findings from the staff survey, on a basis of ‘you said, we did’.

The following members of the original CPC team were involved in the Progress Review: 

• Paul Wilson, Chief Executive, Derbyshire Dales District Council
• Councillor Julian German, Cornwall Council (Independent)
• Chris Bowron, Peer Challenge Manager, Local Government Association.

Planning function

The council has successfully moved away from its development management service being ‘Designated’ by government. This is a very significant step and was achieved in June 2025. It is seen to be the result of a “huge endeavour” both by officers and elected members in reducing, to around four per cent, the number of major planning application decisions overturned at appeal. This is a reduction from the level of around 18 per cent previously seen, which is what led to the designation given the threshold is 10 per cent. The improved situation has been aided by the council managing to develop greatly increased officer stability in this area despite the challenges of a very competitive employment market. This greater stability is also enabling the council now to process consistently 100 per cent of major planning applications within required timescales. This is seen to reflect improved processes, more effective case management and a more collaborative approach with applicants.

The council has also made significant progress with its Local Plan. This has been through an Examination in Public, with the council now awaiting the Inspectors’ final report. It is anticipated that the Local Plan will move forward to formal adoption in the spring of 2026.

The way in which the council handles planning appeals is seen to represent the next key aspect for the council to progress in this area.

Social Housing

In late 2024 and early 2025, the council undertook an externally delivered and independent review of the housing options and homelessness service. The findings were reported to Cabinet, along with an improvement action plan. Major structural change and the introduction of new policies and operating procedures have followed.

The council also commissioned an externally delivered and independent review of its service delivery, communications, data management and partnership working where there is a victim/survivor of domestic abuse involved. This review is close to concluding and was triggered, at least in part, by two significant data breaches. An improvement plan will be produced in response to the review findings and it is anticipated that the focus will be as much on organisational culture change as it will policies, systems and processes.

As a registered provider of social housing and in a context of the inspection regime and Consumer Standards introduced by the Regulator for Social Housing, the council has undertaken an extensive self-assessment and followed this with an externally facilitated mock inspection. An action plan responding to the findings is currently being developed. 

A further major challenge around social housing has recently emerged. The council appointed a new contractor to undertake housing repairs from 1^st April this year. Through the strengthened performance and contract management mechanisms that have been put in place by the council for this contract, it has become clear very quickly that the service delivery is not to the required standard. Despite the efforts of the council to engage the provider in finding mechanisms for improvement, things have not progressed. The council is currently considering how best to respond to this in order to ensure that the tenants of the 2,800 properties for which it is the landlord receive an appropriate level of service. There are major considerations here, including the commercial viability for a contractor in delivering this service and the impact LGR is likely to have in terms of seeing Uttlesford form part of a larger local authority with other councils who may or may not have their own housing stock. 

A 30-year business plan for the council’s housing stock is currently being developed, with this being heavily informed by an extensive stock conditions survey that was recently undertaken and saw 90 per cent of properties being looked at first-hand.

Local Government Reorganisation

Local government reorganisation (LGR) in Essex has come formally onto the agenda since the corporate peer challenge was undertaken. Following the White Paper in December 2024, the three constituent authorities in Essex were invited to indicate their interest in pursuing devolution, which they duly did in January 2025. All of the councils in the county worked to deliver a combined LGR submission with detailed proposals in September, albeit with four different options reflecting different combinations of councils to create different numbers of unitary councils. It is anticipated that government, following its current consultation, will indicate its intentions on the format of unitary local government for Essex in March 2026. 

Uttlesford had the foresight to create a revenue reserve, when setting its budget for 2025/26, to meet the initial costs of, and provide additional capacity around, LGR. This £2.75m reserve has provided the scope for the council to appoint a Chief Operating Officer as part of the Corporate Management Team, to support the demands generated by LGR.

In relation to Devolution, the situation has become less clear in recent weeks. All of the indications had been that Mayoral elections for Essex would take place in May 2026. However, government has just announced that it is now “minded” to see these take place in 2028 instead. 

Regional engagement and economic development

The corporate peer challenge highlighted external partners seeing the need for a step-change in the council’s attitude and approach to engagement on a wider regional level and for it to have a much stronger and more strategic focus on economic development. In response, the council has sought to play a strong role in shaping the North Essex Priorities Plan. One of the most significant elements within this is located within the district of Uttlesford, in the form of the training college linked to Stansted airport and the ambition, under what is in effect a local growth plan, is to see this facility double in size through private sector investment.

The council has also established an Economic Development Plan for the district covering the period from 2025 to 2029. This places a strong focus on the development and expansion of local small businesses, the vibrancy of local high streets, the vitality of local community amenities such as pubs and shops and enhancing the tourist offer including local trails.

Regionally, the council is the lead authority across the East of England network of 50 councils, at both elected member and officer level, around water infrastructure issues and is hosting a Water Summit for the region in 2026. 

The council has also demonstrated a willingness to re-commit to a number of regional and sub-regional forums. It is also clear, though, that this is for a period of time, during which it will make judgements as to the value of participation relative to the time and effort dedicated to such forums by elected members and officers.

Overall, the council feels that it is “pulling its weight” at regional and sub-regional level.

Corporate Management Team development, Senior Management Team and staff engagement

The corporate peer challenge recommended that the council develop the Corporate Management Team (CMT) so that it “leads the way more”, models the way more in relation to corporate and collaborative working, is more ‘fleet of foot’ and has information flowing more readily from it. It also recommended that the Senior Management Team be enabled to be more empowered and more informed and involved on strategic issues.

Further recommendations were for the council to respond to the desire from people in the organisation for a ‘refresh’ of the staff conferences to enable more engagement and participation and for greater communication with those whose services and functions have been subject to review under ‘Blueprint Uttlesford’. The peer team also recommended regular communication with staff regarding the progress being made in response to the findings from the staff survey.

The council has responded to these recommendations in a number of ways. One of these is developing CMT to fulfil a more formal role in acting as the project board for a number of key areas of work for the organisation. This includes the creation of project boards for the capital programme, Local Plan, LGR and the monitoring and planning around major contracts. 

Members of CMT have consciously sought to increase their visibility in the organisation and are more physically present on council premises. There is a refreshed set of activities that brings the Senior Management Team – which includes the Corporate Management Team members – together. Officers below the CMT level shape and lead the SMT forum and set the agenda for meetings. 

The SMT also leads on the programme of staff conferences held for people across the organisation on a quarterly basis. LGR and devolution have understandably been a major focus for these meetings in 2025. The occasions when staff conferences are held have also expanded in their duration to become almost day-long activities, with social events and team meetings supplementing the conferences themselves. The most recent staff conference sessions in December offered health check facilities to staff. 

An internal workshop was held with a cohort of staff from across a range of services, which identified internal communications, support around employee wellbeing and cross-organisational working as areas they would like to see the council prioritise. A space within the main council offices has been refurbished – with the design led by staff groups – in order to increase the amount of space available for teams to come together for team meetings or collaborative working activities. The weekly staff newsletter now features a ‘We Heard You’ section which provides for the council’s leadership to indicate how issues raised by staff are being responded to. The mechanisms people can use to raise matters include a live whiteboard on which people can post things at the staff conferences and an e-mail facility providing direct access to the Chief Executive.

Finance and ‘Blueprint Uttlesford’

The corporate peer challenge recommended that the council seek to reassure itself that its ‘Blueprint Uttlesford’ plans will deliver the level of savings and income required to meet the projected medium-term financial gap and undertake a re-think around the approach to ‘Blueprint Uttlesford’ to focus it on driving genuine ‘transformation’ through investment in technology and necessary expert capacity. Another recommendation related to the council ensuring the key risks for the council’s financial position related to borrowing and the asset portfolio are effectively managed and very closely monitored, with regular updates to the Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS).

The council now provides an MTFS update half-way through the financial year to supplement the established annual refresh. The council is currently receiving mixed messages in relation to the potential impact of the Fair Funding Review but is continuing its policy of being cautious and prudent and therefore assuming it will be a net ‘loser’ from both this and the Business Rates Review. 

Proposals in relation to budget savings for 2026/27 and addressing the medium-term financial gap are in place and working their way through the budget-setting process. The council has confidence that the proposed savings are realistic and achievable. Investment is also planned, with work being commissioned to enhance the environmental sustainability of the main council offices – which enables the organisation to retain government monies for this purpose by match funding them – and converting the council’s vehicle fleet from diesel to a more sustainable fuel-type.

The council acknowledges that the recommendation around ‘Blueprint Uttlesford’ becoming more transformative was valid when it was provided but, understandably, feels that LGR has significantly altered the context. This changed context would make it difficult, and potentially imprudent, for the council to look to invest in significant new technologies. As a result, the revised ‘Blueprint Uttlesford’ is more tactical, focused on efficiencies and increasing income as part of the budget savings. The appointment to a new role of Head of Transformation and Programme Management has been helpful in enabling the ‘Blueprint’ to evolve.

In relation to borrowing and the asset portfolio, the council indicates it is confident that it is monitoring and managing the associated risks carefully and appropriately. The performance of the investment portfolio is reported to the Investment Board and Cabinet on a quarterly basis and to the Finance Portfolio Holder each month. Risk relating to income from the commercial portfolio is highlighted specifically on the corporate risk register, which is reviewed monthly by the Strategic Directors and quarterly by CMT and Cabinet.

The valuation for each major property asset is provided by an independent and leading national valuation company. Where an asset is identified as having a positive sale value, a recommendation around taking it to the market is made to Cabinet and Full Council. This is the process that led to the council agreeing to market its fifty per cent share in Chesterford Research Park.

There has been a positive shift around external audit, with all of the council’s outstanding audits now completed – albeit with ‘disclaimed’ audit opinions, which is consistent with the national picture resulting from capacity pressures in the audit market. All government deadlines around audits have been met.

Governance

An Elected Member Development Strategy was developed by a task and finish group of the Audit and Standards Committee and approved by Full Council in April 2025. The following month, Annual Council established a permanent councillor working group with a remit around elected member training and development. This group is currently reviewing the take up of training opportunities thus far this year by councillors and seeking to make recommendations as appropriate following that. The working group will also consider the training and development programme for the 2026/27 municipal year.

Code of Conduct complaints submitted to the council relate extensively to town and parish councils. However, we noted that the take-up of training on the Code of Conduct by Uttlesford district councillors was poor. The peer team floated the idea of the council not allowing elected members to sit on committees without having completed their Code of Conduct training. The situation here mirrors a picture of elected member engagement in Uttlesford being “disappointing” and “patchy”. Even getting the full cohort of councillors to complete the annual register of members’ interests has been challenging. The Leader and Chief Executive are clear that officers have been doing everything they can to get more elected members participating in training and development relating to their role. The Planning Committee was cited as a positive example of councillors who are very engaged and keen to learn and develop and this has proved to be of real benefit in terms of the Planning function having been de-designated.

The LGA would like to thank the council for undertaking the Progress Review. 

We appreciate that the senior managerial and political leadership will want to reflect on the findings in order to determine how the organisation wishes to take things forward.

Under the umbrella of LGA sector-led improvement, there is an on-going offer of support to councils. The LGA is well placed to provide additional support, advice and guidance on a number of the areas identified for development and improvement and we would be happy to discuss this. 

Rachel Litherland (Principal Adviser) is the main point of contact between the authority and the Local Government Association (LGA) and her e-mail address [email protected]