Council: Proud, Vibrant, Ambitious, Innovative! A submission for local authority of the Year

Summary 2016 was a landmark year for Luton as we moved being taken out of our budget. We’ve secured over into delivery of our ambitious and credible £10m in grants in 2016 to deliver additionally across £1.5billion Investment Framework (LIF). During a wide range of services. 2016 the LIF became the cornerstone of the Our success is a result of close synergies between Council’s entire activity, along with that of schools, forward-thinking Executive Members, ambitious businesses, partners and developers. senior management, passionate partners and a A quick skim through this submission brings our motivated workforce adamant that Luton will fulfil strategic priorities to life and shows what can be its potential. achieved when the Council comes together with The real heroes are those on the front line, whether partners and investors – each with a huge passion it’s our street cleaners, social workers or our for Luton – to drive improvements to health and passenger transport crews, who get up each and wellbeing, create opportunities, raise aspirations and every morning to make Luton a better place for enhance prosperity across the town. those that live and work here. Our town and people are far too important to dwell on continued public spending cuts in which Cllr Hazel Simmons, we were the sixth worst affected Unitary Authority Leader of Luton Council in the country; which is why we changed our focus Trevor Holden, to ensure we can invest in our communities and Chief Executive of Luton Council improve outcomes for local people despite £107m www.thinkluton.co.uk www.luton.gov.uk Building economic growth and Full submission prosperity Backed by strong and bold political leadership, and tactical private, public and third sector In April we launched Luton’s £1.5 billion partnerships, the Council fundamentally investment potential with national, regional and changed its strategic focus last year with the local partners including businesses, employers, Luton Investment Framework (LIF) – a credible schools, developers and investors. 300+ guests plan for major town-wide transformation – heard how Luton’s unrivalled combination which is making a positive, tangible difference to of superb infrastructure, great access and a the people of the town. skilled workforce is making it one of the UK’s best opportunities when it comes to business Change was signalled at the start of 2016 and investment. Luton has stepped up and with the rollout of Luton’s new brand which announced itself as a major player in the UK has a strong narrative that encapsulates key economy. elements of the town, supported by a modern, clean and aspirational visual identity, marketing The message was out and Luton started getting suite and logo. The new brand received cross- positive national profile, including ‘top ten party political support and is championed by all trendiest places to live’ (http://www.mirror.co.uk/ council departments and key partners. Results news/uk-news/how-trendy-you-live-type-7844604) of the latest ‘Perceptions of Luton’ survey show and ‘Britain’s most desirable location’ (http:// opinions of the town have markedly improved. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/30/britains- desirable-locationluton/) We are on schedule to secure £1.5 billion investment to transform the town and create This positive impact on the reputation and 18,500 quality jobs for local people, and the LIF image of Luton and its potential is being is also the driving force behind the Council’s recognised as evidenced by: updated mission, vision and priorities for the Successful application to Government for a town. The new mission summarises the Council’s 395 acre London Enterprise purpose and aspiration of ‘Enabling Luton to Zone which will create over 7,200 direct jobs. be proud, vibrant, ambitious and innovative’. This has been supported by a refreshed vision Construction projects worth £200 million statement declaring as a ‘leader and shaper’ of put in progress including the £110 million Luton we will deliver high quality services to transformation of London Luton Airport and improve the life opportunities for our people, the £25 million Redevelopment work with our partners to ensure Luton is where 82% of the supply chain is local. dynamic, prosperous, safe and healthy; celebrate Major development proposals brought our diversity and vibrancy and provide strong forward including planning approval and leadership for the town. start on site for the £600 million Napier Park These are all being achieved through the landmark mixed-use scheme including leisure, Council’s strategic priorities: retail and homes which will completely transform a barren site into an attractive building economic growth and prosperity new community. Planning permission also enhancing skills and education submitted for major mixed use residential, entertainment and retail development at the improving health and wellbeing Power Court and Junction 10a sites. developing quality homes and infrastructure Announcement of plans to invest in a £200 supporting safe, strong and cohesive million Mass Passenger Transit linking the communities airport with mainline Luton Airport Parkway station. Planning application submitted in integrated, efficient and digital service February. delivery Neighbourhood masterplan for High Town Summary of achievements against these redevelopment and regeneration works priorities: around the shopping parade at Riddy Lane completed. Unprecedented passenger growth of 44% Enhancing skills and education since 2014 at the Council-owned London Luton Airport, making it not only the fifth largest, but the fastest growing in the country, delivering an additional £13 million PA revenue and creating 3,800 new jobs. Latest business intelligence information confirming that over a 12 month period there was a 25% increase in new businesses,full time employment had increased by 1,300 and full time earnings increased by 3.4%. Salaries of workers in Luton increased by 3.7% (national average 2.2%) Facilitating the set up of Luton BID which has led to a 3.5% increase in town centre visiting numbers, bucking the national trend. Dozens of businesses enquiring about With a growing economy and thousands of new relocating to Luton and major employers (such jobs coming on stream, our skills agenda was as Leonardo, GKN and easyJet) confirming revamped as we are adamant that local people Luton as their home. On top of this our will be the beneficiaries. economic development team visited more than 100 businesses to promote the town. Notable achievements: Luton, which is already well-served by Great progress in our education teams, where superfast broadband, joined the Central Ofsted rated provision so highly that 92 per Superfast project to increase coverage to over cent of students now attend a secondary 99% and we’ve also been selected as a G-Fast school that has been rated good or better. ultra-fast broadband pilot area. Improving results in GSCE were also attained and 75% studying at sixth form or equivalent Hundreds of national, regional and trade now go onto university. media stories and excellent features on the town, with #ThinkLuton trending on 15 April. Two Employment, Training and Skills fairs were held in partnership with the DWP, and By growing our economy we have the resources a separate one with the airport, attracting to invest in our people and deliver the rest of 3,000+ people, matching them to jobs and our strategic priorities… offering expert career advice and guidance from dozens of local businesses, education and training providers and recruitment agencies. Investment in Careers Explorer, a free web- based tool, which can be used to research careers, training, apprenticeship opportunities and live vacancies. Work with the South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership Careers and Enterprise Coordinators to encourage businesses to provide mentors to schools, focusing on ways to improve employability skills, learn about jobs and careers and motivate learning. Almost 5,000 local people enhanced their skills by attending training courses run by our Luton Adult Learning service. Through the Council’s New Horizons In 2016 we trained 700 professionals in ‘Five supported employment service, 10 customers to Thrive’ – a partnership programme to build with a learning disability were offered the parenting capacity and improve life chances opportunity in 2016 to undertake work for 0 to 5-year-olds. We also launched Disabled experience with Police as part of Go, a new access guide designed to empower the ‘Apprentice Steps’ programme. residents with disabilities to get out and do what they want to do, featuring over 500 venues. Our own Fixed Assets team designed and built two new SEN Schools and we announced a We’ve been working with the Luton and new secondary school for 1,200 pupils. University Hospital to deliver a streamlined service with health by linking our Improving health and social workers to hospital wards so they can wellbeing assess the right patients at the right time and ensuring decisions are in the best interest of The LIF ensures wellbeing is central to every the patients. This community care discharge council decision made which is why we programme has led to the L&D Hospital being transferred responsibility for commissioning and one of the best performing hospitals in the procurement to our public health team in 2016 country. and Health Impact Assessments are now carried out on all council policy proposals. A modern day and respite care facility opened in for adults with a learning disability. Innovation and best practice have been The state-of-the-art building was designed evident across the piece, with an emphasis on and built by our Fixed Assets staff and shows prevention and early intervention to reduce that while most towns are closing or reducing impacts on service delivery. The latest data learning disability services, Luton is investing in shows male and female life expectancy has high standard provision to ensure residents have increased from 76.8 and 80.8 years in 2009/10 access to quality local services. to 78.4 and 82.2 years, while infant mortality has reduced from 7.4 to 5.1 per thousand live births. Our partnership with Active Luton continues to improve health in Luton communities. The Luton is delivering a new integrated 0-19 ME TIME programme, which combats inactivity years’ health services fully aligned with the 0-5 among women from ethnic minorities, now years Flying Start strategy, providing a cohort has 5,000 members, while Move More Luton – of frontline workers with experience and the local implementation of Macmillan Cancer understanding of the needs of families. Support’s national strategy – was used as a model of UK best practice. The Council’s volunteering programme was re- launched during the year in which hundreds of volunteers gave almost 18,000 hours back into the community. Our bid for £1.5m Arts Council funding to develop a cultural programme was successful. The five strands of funding will enhance the arts and cultural infrastructure of Luton, ensuring the town has an exciting offer with something for everyone. We also had a successful bid of £3.2m in 2016 to renovate Wardown House as a visitor attraction. With our ever increasing cultural offer we have written a strategy targeting City of Culture in 2025. Developing quality homes and Supporting safe, strong and infrastructure cohesive communities In addition to the many aspirational and affordable housing developments brought forward in the last 12 months as outlined in economic growth section above, the Council set up Foxhall Homes, its wholly owned housing company in 2016 which will develop seven housing sites around the town and deliver hundreds of much-needed new homes. Work also started on a £25m mixed-use Marsh Farm development and 80 new homes in High Town. After purchasing Century Park following years of development inactivity we’ve announced plans for 70 acres of commercial development on the Our leading role in safeguarding children site, facilitated by a new 1.6-mile access road. from radicalisation under Prevent has The application will include a new play area, been recognised in the highest corridors of refurbished Pavilion and a green corridor linking Government. The unique Luton Mothers School to the new public open space. has empowered 62 women to recognise warning The Rogue Landlords project, with police signs within families, while 5,000 frontline and fire services, the Home Office and workers have been trained in WRAP. The Prime voluntary sector, has delivered 20 high-profile Minister and Home Office Minister each made prosecutions in its first year to demonstrate visits to Luton to learn more about our work, commitment to improving the standard of which also featured on The One Show and private accommodation and tenant safety. earned a handwritten note from the Security During 2016 200 addresses were visited more Minister. than once, 32 houses in multiple occupation Positive engagement with Luton’s diverse and nine ‘beds in sheds’ emptied, 19 prohibition communities flourished in 2016 through the orders served and 17 premises reclassified for establishment of a cross-faith partnership group council tax. where the Council and community leaders have In response to Luton’s severe housing shortage, regular dialogue to resolve emerging community Luton’s new homelessness strategy aims issues and promote cohesion through the to pilot a new way forward to tackle this ‘Luton in Harmony’ campaign and conferences. growing national problem locally. This has The group worked with Bedfordshire Police included an effective early intervention and to ensure a far right group was banned from prevention public campaign with a focus on promoting hate within the borough. education, employment, debt management, Our new Neighbourhood Enforcement Officers health and wellbeing. We also secured £1.1 were officially launched in 2016 with their million Government funding to implement community safety accredited powers. The a new early-help service with 20 dedicated dedicated front line team of uniformed officers officers working to prevent people from patrol streets across the town to target and falling into homelessness. During this time issue fixed penalty notices to the minority of we have eradicated the use of expensive and residents and visitors who disrespect our local unsuitable B&B accommodation as temporary environment. accommodation. Jonathan Henry Place, a new supported housing In their first 75 days: scheme for adults with learning disabilities and Fixed penalty notices issued for spitting and mental health needs also came on stream. urinating in the town 90 ‘on the spot’ actions taken for town centre drinking Used CSAS powers on 53 occasions to deal Integrated, efficient and with begging digital service delivery – Identified, investigated and took action against six prolific offenders by way of injunction or criminal behaviour orders 73 enforcement actions undertaken for fly- tipping, fly-posting and littering Community Protection Notice proceedings initiated with residents who accumulated large volumes of waste in their front garden. Luton is already ninth in the country for issuing fixed penalty notices to fly-tippers demonstrating that we will not tolerate those who abuse our environment (http://www. lutontoday.co.uk/news/luton-s-in-the-top-ten- fining-fly-tippers-1-7757319) Our Member-led Engagement programme was launched during the year to support the Through robust process of challenge and community leadership role of Ward Councillors prioritisation, £107 million has been taken and increase opportunities for community out of the budget over the last six years, with involvement and influence at a local level in over 90% of this achieved through efficiencies, the digital era. As a result more than 20 local reorganisation, smarter procurement councillors are using social media and blogs to and income to protect the front line. LGA engage with constituents. Strong leadership benchmarking put Luton in the lowest 20% has been vital to our success, as has just been spend on support services and still below evidence by being awarded with the EELGA average council tax rate. Charter for Elected Member Development. One example from the year is successfully The council appreciates that events are a great delivering a four-day week refuse collection way of bringing communities together. Despite service which now provides residents less ongoing cuts to funding, we were able to secure disruptive collection services over bank holiday tens of thousands of pounds in sponsorship to periods and has saved taxpayers over £200k. ensure a number of large community family Our Council Tax collection service – which events could go ahead. This meant thousands already trades with other authorities – continues of people came out and enjoyed carnival, Mela, to receive praise from the highest level and Cultural Quarter launch, Fireworks, Christmas recent indicator data revealed it is now the third Lights, The Big Iftar and more. best unitary service in the country in terms of value for money (% collected divided by cost per head of population). Luton Access, a new service offering expert advice from a range of agencies under one roof, brings voluntary sector partners together to provide an innovative and integrated approach to independent advice and guidance. In its first six months the co-located service has delivered: a 15% increase in customer interventions, 70% right first time; increased client income of £1.4 million; successful debt management of £2.4 million; bailiff and creditor actions stopped for over 100 customers; and 67 households prevented from becoming homeless, saving £870K. An independent consultant for the Legal forum to encourage two-way communication Aid Foundation described Luton Access as and a closely-managed programme of team “nationally unique”, adding: “The partnership meetings, staff conferences and senior approach has ensured third sector agencies management ‘shop floor’ visits to boost morale. work together to find budget savings rather Alongside this we launched our ‘People Plan’ than implement cuts so more people can be during the year which sets out how we will lead, seen and casework resources can be prioritised develop, recruit, engage with and enable our for more vulnerable people.” staff to deliver the Council’s vision for Luton The Council’s internal communications was over the next three years. Through a series of revamped to keep staff better informed, workshops with staff across the authority we enabled and motivated. New initiatives include demonstrated how we intend to build on our senior managers issuing regular blogs and videos positive working relationships and provide and providing direct access to their social media our managers and staff with the skills and accounts (LBC SocMed), an online discussion opportunities they need to fulfil their potential. Conclusion

“2016 was a remarkable year for Luton. We are working with partners to create the positive climate for inward investment which is achieving positive impacts on jobs, housing, health and education.” Cllr Hazel Simmons, Leader of Luton Council

“The evidence jumps from the page – inspirational achievement across the Council and the town. Luton’s fantastic journey is born out of a true ‘one town, one vision’ shared by both public and private sector with strong leadership at every level. Our place-shaping and delivery through drive and passion resonates with businesses, residents and public alike. Luton is changing at a remarkable pace and richly deserves to be MJ Local Authority of the Year.” Trevor Holden, Chief Executive of Luton Council Luton in numbers

www.thinkluton.co.uk