South Staffordshire District Council wins iESE Certificate of Excellence

South Staffordshire District Council has been awarded a Certificate of Excellence in recognition of the work it has done since 2011 to achieve financially stability. The council has gone from being an authority with no history of borrowing to invest, to one which now thinks and acts commercially for the wider benefit of the community.

The council is proud that 96 per cent of its residents rate South Staffordshire as a good place to live and that it has the fourth lowest District Council Tax in England.

The idea of becoming increasingly entrepreneurial was first born in 2011 with the launch of a council-wide Transformational Business Plan which generated £2.4m by 2014. The council then worked with an entrepreneur, funded by a Local Government Association (LGA) Expert Productivity Grant, to explore new income generation ideas. This led to the introduction of a council-wide Efficiency and Income Plan (E&I), which was noted as an area of strength in an LGA Peer Review in 2018, and is now generating more than £1m annually.

In 2017, the newly-appointed CEO implemented a new leadership structure, introducing corporate directors to help drive the E&I Plan and build the council’s entrepreneurial nature and commercial activities.

The E&I Plan has so far supported £34m new asset acquisitions and developments, generating more than a six per cent return on investment. Staff and Member suggestions have also increased, with more than 70 new entrepreneurial ideas put forward, reflecting the cultural change of the organisation. The council has also focused on strengthening commercial activity through targeted service re-design and, supporting this, a new virtual sales and marketing team has been created, enabling teams to develop plans with set targets and outcomes. Collectively, this is securing a net increase of £100,000 income per annum, while investment in this approach with a £60,000 commercial investment fund is on target to generate a further £250,000 income.

Staffordshire Business Hub is another example of how the local authority has commercialised its assets, staying true to its public sector principals and generating £300,000 new income annually. The Council significantly condensed its office footprint and let out remaining space in its main building to generate income. The council has now secured a £9.9m investment to refurbish and extend this building, increasing occupiers and generating additional income.

The refurbished building – the Community Hub - will encompass a café, library, three tiers of government, wedding and conference venue, retail, GP surgery, small businesses, Police and NHS Trusts. This will bring together NHS teams, children’s and social care, housing and benefit teams into an integrated hub environment, enabling service transformation and delivering swifter triage of services for the district’s most vulnerable residents.

Jackie Smith, Corporate Director Commercial at South Staffordshire District Council, said: "The culture of the organisation is truly transforming to an entrepreneurial mind-set matched by a public sector ethos to delivering integrated services with our partners to the community, generating new income to create financial stability."

To apply for a Certificate of Excellence, visit our website: https://www.iese.org.uk/ certificate-of-excellence