Council Plan Annual Progress Report

An annual update on the latest Dundee City Council 5-year plan has been considered by councillors.

The policy & resources committee, on Monday June 26, looked in detail at the first yearly analysis of the plan, which covers the period from 2022-27.

City council leader Councillor John Alexander said: “While achievements show that there is progress to be proud of, the council plan really does highlight that we cannot be complacent in our drive to make Dundee a better city for everyone.

“We are tackling huge problems that are not necessarily unique to our city, but our approach is definitively Dundee – to forge strong partnerships to deliver for our people.

“In this our first progress report, work on our priority to reduce child poverty and inequalities in incomes, education, and health highlights continuous improvement in attainment for children and young people in the most deprived areas.

“We are delivering inclusive economic growth to create jobs and opportunities for all by keeping Dundee in the spotlight as a place to invest. We are developing new initiatives to improve community wealth building and employability for local people, especially participation of 16–19-year-olds. We can see measures showing the claimant count is down to pre-Covid levels and the lowest proportion of people ever earning below the living wage.

“We are tackling climate change and making Dundee greener, and our new Net Zero Transition Plan is almost ready. Phase 1 of our Climate Change Fund engaged over 4,000 citizens in the process to decide which projects to support with nearly £400,000 of funding allocated.”

Chief Executive Greg Colgan added: “We are building empowered communities through local community planning and the new participatory budgeting platform Dundee’s Voice. All eight new local community plans were published this year based on local engagement and we aim to continue to involve more people in decision making on these local plans and initiatives. We continue to invest in communities, building the new East End Community Campus and developing our social house building programme.”                                                                                

The Council Plan covers Five priority themes

• Reduce Child Poverty and Inequalities
• Deliver Inclusive Economic Growth
• Tackle Climate Change and achieve Net Zero Carbon Emissions by 2045
• Build Resilient and Empowered Communities
• Design a Modern Council

In the annual progress report that was considered by councillors on Monday June 26, the policy & resources committee heard that:

The indicators showing the most improvement are:

1. The average tariff for pupils leaving school in 2022 living in SIMD 1 is 637, 12% up on the year before, on top of four years of a rising trend although still behind the ambitious target set.

2. From zero in 2022, 78% of the 5-22 population now have their free bus pass (NEC card)

3. SME Business base per 10,000 head of working age population is 354, up 4% on the year before after four years of continuous growth.

The indicators needing further improvement or focus are:

1. Improve the overall attendance at school of children and young people from SIMD 1, which has reduced from 89% in 2019/20 to 86% in 22/23 compared to a target to increase this year to 93% as this is a leading indicator of improving attainment and positive destinations for school leavers.

2. The number of opportunities for young people as reported by the Youth Employment Service is down 58% from 280 the year before to 117 in 2022/23. The target in the Plan is to increase this in line with the objective of improving positive destinations for 16-19 years olds, especially from SIMD 1

3. The recycling rate has fallen to 32.7% in 2021/22 (2022/23 figure not released by SEPA until later in the year) from 38.4% two years before, against a target to increase it significantly to 48% as part of tackling climate change. However, at the same time the Council benefits from waste to energy generation and very low landfill needs. 

You can find the full report here 

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