HARLOW Council has ‘slashed significant waste behind the scenes of HTS’ to refocus every pound on better services for residents.

A report which went to Cabinet this week reveals that the council’s housing and environmental services company, HTS, has seen clear transformation of the way it is run in recent months.

This comes as part of the council’s mission to ‘transform our council’, ensuring every pound of public money goes further, and every service is focussed on delivering for Harlow residents.

Clear efficiencies have been made, including:

A significant reduction in senior management roles at HTS
The HTS Board has been streamlined from five independent members to one
Council and HTS teams have been co-located to free up office space for rental to local businesses

This has resulted in a large reduction in the ‘back-office overhead’ cost meaning more money is spent on repairs and maintenance and much less on management.

This has resulted in improvements in performance over the past six months including:

Outstanding housing repairs have been reduced to their lowest ever level
Housing repairs being carried out more quickly
A backlog of over 1,000 overdue roof and gutter repairs has been cleared
A new landscape maintenance plan for the grass to be cut every ten days

Commenting on the significant cutting of back-office bureaucracy, the Leader of the Council, Cllr Dan Swords, and Cabinet Members responsible for Housing, Cllr David Carter, and Environment, Cllr Nicky Purse, said:

“We are on a mission to transform our council and that means value for money with every penny accounted for, every process interrogated, every inefficiency put to the sword. That has been the subject of our ongoing transformation at HTS where we have cut the back-office bureaucracy to support the excellent frontline workforce to deliver better services for Harlow residents.

“No one can suggest that a disproportionate amount of money being spent on senior management and back-office bureaucracy which slows services down, not speeds them up, is a good thing. That’s why we have taken direct action to stop that and root out the waste.

“The progress is clear, but we know there is much more to do. Faster repairs, fewer residents waiting for repairs, quicker turnaround times on empty homes and much better maintenance of our neighbourhoods – that is what we are delivering thanks to the drive for greater efficiency, value for money and focus.”