Annual Performance Report

This is Salford City Council’s annual performance report for 2021/22. Here, we take a closer look at how we have delivered on our Great Eight priorities.

The council processed over 7,000 applications to help people in crisis access emergency support via Salford Assist.

The council’s welfare rights, fairer charging and debt advice service helped 4,713 Salford residents bring in over £4.6 million into low-income households.

We launched our new Equality and Inclusion Strategy which shows how we will address inequalities and what steps we can take to make a difference. We also launched our Workforce Equality and Diversity Strategy to celebrate our diverse workforce and how we are working to tackle inequality.

We upgraded our Better Off website – to make it easier for people to find out if they’re entitled to benefits, apply for them and get help with jobs, debt and money management.

We increased the number of accredited Real Living Wage employers in Salford to 83 boosting the pay of over 2,700 people.

We boosted the pay of over 4,000 care workers in the city by an extra £768.

We have started working with local communities to develop new ideas to improve Swinton and Eccles town centres. This is the start of our ambition to regenerate our town centres.

We retained our eight Green Flag awards and added a ninth award for our parks and greenspaces across the city

Our parks and streetscene team won the large team of the year award at the Local Government Chronicle Awards for their work during the pandemic. The team provide services to over 120,000 properties, around 10,000 businesses and over 250,000 residents.

The restoration scheme to revitalise Worsley Delph, one of Salford’s most historic sites, won a National Landscape Award for regeneration won a national landscape award.

The City Mayor launched Crowdfund Salford to help local groups and businesses find funding and support with their ideas to benefit our city. Crowdfunder has raised over £128,000 so far for projects including opening a new rugby clubhouse and restoring a sensory garden.

We have put solar panel charging stations in all our depots to power electric vehicles.

47.98% of all household waste in Salford is sent for recycling, reuse or composting – an increase on 47.35% last year.

To reduce surface water flooding we have been building sustainable drainage systems such as creating natural wetlands and planting trees to take in water from the road and distribute it to the roots.

We are installing air source heat pumps in our public buildings, which are a green alternative to oil and gas. Pumps are already installed at Cleavley athletics track and Clifton Country Park saving 33 tonnes of CO2 a year. We have plans to fit another 10 pumps which are expected to save 295 tonnes of CO2 every year.

In October 2021, The Lowry in Salford Quays hosted the Greater Manchester Green Summit, an important regional event before the Glasgow COP26 conference.

A new solar farm made up of over 5,000 panels will be built in Little Hulton 2 megawatts a year of clean energy.

We supported people to access accommodation by housing over 300 people who have slept rough or remain at risk of rough sleeping.

We delivered 2,865 new homes.

We delivered 425 affordable homes this year, exceeding the target we set of 209. A further 358 homes are forecast to be delivered by March 2023.

A former family centre in Little Hulton is being converted into new apartments to help Salford residents at risk of homelessness.

As part of our Rough Sleeper Accommodation programme, 70 new properties have been agreed and occupied or are in the process of coming into use. We are awaiting decisions on funding for another 24 properties.

Our City Mayor announced a £30 million capital investment into council housing. In the middle of a national homelessness, housing and cost of living crisis, building truly affordable homes is a huge priority for the council. Our target is to build 3,000 new council homes in the next decade.

We have continued to deliver our programme of walking and cycling routes this year, working on the Trafford Road project, key sections of the RHS Garden Bridgewater Greenway, Swinton Greenway and the Liverpool Street cycle links schemes.

Salford’s first fleet of electric cargo bikes will be taking to the roads. Using money from the Energy Saving Trust we have bought 18 bikes which can carry cargo and three separate trailers which can be attached to the electric or ordinary bikes.

We are continuing to deliver the Salford Bolton Network Improvement project to improve bus journeys in our city with work taking place at the Broad Street/Frederick Road junction and on the A666.

The council won The Pandemic Digital Innovation of the Year award at the national Digital Leaders 100 awards. The award was for the Spirit of Salford helpline, launched within 72 hours of lockdown beginning which helped more than 40,000 Salford residents affected by COVID-19.

In March 2022, our Chief Executive opened the 2022 Digital City Festival’s Cyber Summit, held at HOST (Home of Skills and Technology) Salford. This highlighted Salford and Greater Manchester’s outstanding cyber security capabilities and the economic growth this brings to our region.

£37.5 million of public sector and £501 million of private sector investment has been secured.

51.4% of the money the council spent on buying goods and services has gone to Salford based organisations.

The council working with its partners, has helped 14 companies and businesses to relocate to Salford or expand. This has created 2,110 new jobs with the value to the Salford economy estimated to be £138.1 million.

We launched the 'Our Home is on Your High Street' initiative to encourage everyone to visit their local high street, shop local, support local and enjoy local in Salford.

We improved our performance of creditor payments. 98.9% of payments to our creditors were made within 30 days.

The council agreed a balanced budget confirming that, over the next two years, £3 million will be allocated to help Salford residents make the most of the economic growth opportunities in our city.

We launched our new domestic abuse service for children and adults – Safe in Salford which offers a one front door approach for domestic abuse support in Salford.

The number of young people being admitted to hospital with self-harm has reduced to 73, the lowest rate in four years.

We helped over 83% of adults in contact with secondary mental health services to live independently.

44% of smokers who set a date to quit with stop smoking services achieved a fourweek quit, exceeding our target of 35%.

Following our annual report to UNICEF we have retained the Gold award for our Early Help Service and 0-19 Health Service.