Broadland District Council and South Norfolk Council

Working together for you

Broadland District Council and South Norfolk Council have a long history of working successfully together. In July 2018 the two councils decided to start the journey towards a formal partnership, appointing Trevor Holden as their Managing Director in October 2018.

The environment we work in is constantly changing and our collaboration has provided us with the opportunity to align our services, working together to define our own futures, and most importantly, continue to deliver those services that our residents and businesses value the most.

While keeping us financially secure was a driver for us working together, the main focus of our collaboration is to drive economic and housing growth and improve the services we deliver. These services make a real, positive difference to the lives of our combined 260,000 residents and 10,000 businesses.

Since January 2020, our staff have been working as one officer team, serving the two independent councils.

The latest step on our journey is our new joint website and email system which replaces broadland.gov.uk and south-norfolk.gov.uk with southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk.

What does it mean for you?

Working together in a formal partnership means we can serve you, our communities and our local businesses better, because:

  • we will have more influence on the regional and national stage, speaking with one voice about matters that are important to our districts
  • we can increase growth and build infrastructure faster
  • we will be more financially stable because we can more easily balance our budgets and shrink our funding gaps
  • we can jointly provide new or better services to you that we wouldn’t have been able to provide working alone
  • we will be better placed to take advantage of commercial opportunities to deliver better value for you
  • we can increase investment in our districts and access new funding opportunities to better serve you
  • together we can deliver a better support offer for our districts’ businesses and important business sectors
  • we can attract and retain the most talented staff to improve and deliver our services
  • we can give you greater choice over your housing supply

What we have already achieved together for you, our communities and our local businesses?

We are making savings

We are on track to deliver our predicted savings from working together. At a time when many councils are facing funding pressures and budget gaps because of COVID-19, this means we are better able to keep providing the local services you and our communities value.

We have supported our local businesses and high streets during the COVID-19 pandemic

After the first lockdown finished we ran our Confidence campaign to:

  • support the economic recovery of our high streets in Wymondham, Diss, Harleston and Aylsham
  • help local businesses to get back on their feet and sustain jobs
  • help you shop and dine safely in your local area

We then supported businesses with our Pleased to see you campaign.

Pleased to see you let's do it right protect everyone stick to the rules

We have also worked together to efficiently distribute government grants so struggling business can access the support they need quickly.

We have supported businesses with:

  • £84 million in grants distributed to local businesses
  • 10,000 businesses called offering support
  • first councils to distribute £1 million to businesses forced to close
  • £1 million of support distributed for every week of lockdown

We have supported our communities during the COVID-19 pandemic

In the community:

  • 2,750 prescriptions collected
  • 3,150 shopping trips done
  • 560 households in food poverty fed
  • 4,000 food parcels delivered
  • 8 tonnes of food distributed to residents
  • 45 community support groups formed with 4,000 volunteers

Housing:

  • 294 residents provided with temporary accommodation
  • 739 residents housed
  • 781 people helped onto the housing register
  • 1,694 people a month provided housing advice 

Help Hub:

  • 20,104 calls taken from residents asking for help
  • 5,000 calls made to shielding residents
  • 7 days a week working
  • Help Hub support line opened until 10pm
  • 4,373 individuals visited on enhanced contact tracing to support self-isolation

Financial support to residents:

  • 51,764 calls taken by the Housing and Benefit Team
  • 5,821 Benefit and Councils Tax Support claims received
  • £73,000 paid through COVID-19 hardship fund
  • £1,260,935 paid in extra Council Tax support
  • £263,000 paid in track and trace payments

We have launched a new and improved housing system

Our new housing allocations policy and housing register:

  • give you more choice to choose your own home, based on your own priorities and circumstances
  • is more transparent – letting you see every property that becomes available in both South Norfolk and Broadland districts, advising you of the average waiting times in each area and allowing you to understand and if necessary challenge banding decisions
  • give you greater control over finding and bidding on a new home that suits you
  • has an online system that you can easily access anytime (24/7), with phone, post and email support still available as before

We are working on improving our customer experience

Our new Customer Satisfaction project will:

  • make it clearer to you what you can expect from us and what we expect from you, giving you a better customer experience
  • engage with you in new ways, giving you the opportunity to tell us what you think through surveys

What’s next?

We will continue to work together to create the best place and environment for everyone, both now and for future generations. See Our Plan 2020-2024 for more information about our vision for Broadland and South Norfolk over the next four years.

Download an accessible version of Our Plan 2020-2024The vision working together to create the best place and environment for everyone now and for future generations

Our Delivery Plan 2022-24 sets out in more detail what we will do to achieve our vision for Broadland and South Norfolk over the next two year. It provides an overview of the key projects and programmes of work, alongside our business as usual activities. Included in the plans are delivery measures to help us celebrate our achievements and also track progress to tell us where we need to do better.

If you require an accessible version of the Delivery Plan, please email your request to council@southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk

Explore the Delivery Plan for 2022-2024.