Performance

Corporate Peer Challenge

LGA Peer Challenge Report

In November 2017, as part of their ‘sector led improvement’ support to local government, the Local Government Association (LGA) conducted a Corporate Peer Challenge.

Peer Challenges are designed to help Councils improve their performance.  The Peer Challenge team were onsite 20th – 22nd November 2017.  The core components that the team looked at were the issues of leadership, governance, corporate capacity and financial resilience.  In addition the agreed scope of the Peer Challenge included:
•    Promoting local growth – this will likely explore how the council might better promote Ribble Valley as a place for businesses to start up and grow.  This recognises the local challenges in many people commuting out of borough to work and will seek to examine how the council might better develop the borough as a place to work, not just reside.
•    Balancing growth and housing – this will likely explore how the council can progress sustainable local development, including increasing the number of new homes (including affordable homes) being built in the context of the desire of many local people to limit the number of housing development in the borough.

The full LGA Corporate Peer Challenge Feedback Report has been reported to Policy and Finance Committee.  In summary the peer team felt that “Ribble Valley Borough Council has much to be proud about.  The council delivers good core services through a committed workforce achieving high levels of customer satisfaction and value for money.  The council has a history of prudent financial management and remains in a comfortable position relative to the rest of the sector”.  However, there were a number of suggestions and observations made within the report that have led to some key recommendations for the Council.

The Council invited the LGA to conduct a follow-up visit. The purpose of this follow-up visit was to review progress made since the original peer challenge in 2017. The follow up visit took place between 26th and 27th September 2019.