In Stockport we have big ambitions as a council and for our borough. We want Stockport to be one of the best places to live a happy, healthy life, working with our partners to ensure we create opportunities for everyone across our borough.
Over recent years, we have made considerable progress, from delivering ambitious residential, commercial and public service regeneration schemes to supporting our communities through our nationally recognised Stockport Family and beyond. This is real progress that is having a big impact, but we are not complacent, and we need to go further. Many of our residents are having a tough time and we need to rise to the challenges they are facing.
I have also never known a more testing time for local government. We are all seeing rising demand, alongside increasing costs. This and reduced funding in real terms means that one in five councils believe that they are fairly likely or likely to issue a section 114 notice this year or next. It is a sobering thought.
During these difficult times, at Stockport, we think it is more important than ever that we keep moving forward and assert our role in shaping a positive future for the borough. To do this we must open our doors, test our approach and learn from others.
That is why in November 2022, we invited we invited the LGA peer team to Stockport to carry out a Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC). This process provides robust challenge and support to councils and provided us with valuable insight and learning. The peer team described Stockport MBC as ‘an impressive organisation' and identified areas for further development. During November 2023, we welcomed back members of the CPC team for our progress review. The revisit allowed us to show how far we have come in the last 12 months and reflect on where we could do more for our residents and communities. So much has happened over the past year in Stockport, and the national recognition we have received was rightly celebrated. However, we were incredibly humbled to listen, learn and be challenged about where Stockport can go next.
The CPC team was impressed by what they saw and acknowledged that we had gone further than expected in delivering on their recommendations. They praised our strong leadership role and recognised how this enables real and ambitious change whilst working closely with partners to commission and deliver high-performing services that meet the needs of our local population. They also noted that we are looking to the future, focusing on longer-term transformation through our One Stockport: One Future agenda. They also recognised that we have been busy exploring opportunities to share new ideas across our organisation and with partners from inside and outside Stockport. The peer team highlighted the ‘sophistication' of our approach to neighbourhood working, which brings together communities, health, physical places, and public services to work together ‘as one' – the breadth and scale they have not seen brought together before in other locality models.
They were impressed with the strength of cross-party working in our diverse political environment. They were also impressed by the relationships between councillors and officers and commented on the ‘great deal of thought and capacity' we have put into our member induction programmes since our last all-out elections in 2023. They also praised our purposeful and targeted approach to developing our workforce - our ‘One Team People Plan'- instilling our core values and a sense of pride in our staff. They could see that we have clear priorities, big ambitions and strong financial management and were ‘pleased to hear that the council is unashamedly focused on doing the basics well.' They recognised our ‘strong financial position' as illustrated by setting balanced budgets, the achievement of savings targets and underspends in recent financial years.
The CPC team concluded that we have a well-established mechanism to support our continued improvement and encouraged us to focus on equality, neighbourhood work, and performance management as we move forward.
The peer review publication comes at an incredibly exciting time for Stockport MBC. We are an ambitious borough with a positive agenda for the future of all our communities. There are amazing things planned or coming to fruition in 2024. From our nationally acclaimed regeneration schemes to our continuing Town of Culture celebrations, Stockport is buzzing. I am looking forward with optimism to another great year ahead!
Cllr Mark Hunter is leader of Stockport MBC
