Breckland Corporate Plan 2024 to 2028

Breckland is a Council that cares, listens, and supports people and businesses within our district. We are proud of our district, and as an organisation we are working hard to make it a place where people and businesses can thrive, inspiring them to live, work, visit or do business here.

Our Corporate Plan sets out what we're going to do to make this happen and how we plan to do this. Through our actions we want to make things better. But we know we can't do this alone, which is why we work together with others to make a greater impact. This includes a commitment to leading our area into a greener future, in partnership with others, so that we - and future generations - can continue to enjoy and benefit from our natural environment.

As a council, we have big ideas and challenge ourselves to come up with new and creative ways to meet the needs of the communities we serve, especially those who need our help the most. We are also an employer that encourages our staff to grow and develop, empowering them to achieve their full potential and deliver for our district

Our priorities for the future are grouped across three key themes:

• Inspiring Communities
• Thriving Places
• Working Smarter 2035

In addition to the Corporate Plan's three themes, Breckland Council continues its commitment to delivering a programme of caring activity spanning the entire organisation and focusing on all its people, including our staff, our residents and our businesses.

• Breckland Cares includes a range of projects which are delivering specific and important changes. We will develop plans that include:
• Strengthening our commitment to the Armed Forces Covenant;
• Reviewing the Council's policies to ensure we are an inclusive employer;
• Providing mental health training and awareness to support our communities; and
• Under the banner of Health & Wellbeing, shining a spotlight on workplace health 

We want to build on the many strengths of our local communities so that everyone can lead happy, healthy, fulfilling lives in Breckland - supporting people through targeted services that make a difference. We care, and we want to be there when people need us most. We want all our residents to enjoy quality of life, have a place they can call home in Breckland, and feel proud to be here.

We will do this by providing excellent, accessible services that recognise and support the different needs of our residents and local areas, and enable stronger, more resilient communities. As a member of the Health and Wellbeing Partnership and wider Integrated Care System, we will play our part in levelling up health inequalities and care, especially for the most vulnerable residents in our communities

What we will achieve

Through this plan we will deliver on the following key outcomes:

• To address vulnerability and care for the most disadvantaged members of our communities to improve their quality of life
• To work with partners to tackle health inequalities through our Health & Wellbeing Partnership and Integrated Care System
• To improve the health and wellbeing of Breckland's residents by providing enhanced leisure facilities and wellbeing activities
• To take a lead role in joining up partners and people to make best use of shared resources

How we will do it

Working with our partners to achieve these outcomes, we will:

• Continue to deliver our Community Grants scheme;
• Provide early help services that care for and support our vulnerable residents and prevent crisis level support;
• Prevent homelessness in the district;
• Make sure that our residents have suitable, safe, and secure homes;
• Continue to take a robust approach to Anti-Social Behaviour; and noisy neighbours;
• Work with communities to make sure we have plans to respond to - and recover from - local emergencies;
• Play our part in tackling health inequalities;
• Help to enhance leisure and wellbeing provision within the district;
• Make sure that our regulatory services continue to protect residents and visitors to Breckland;
• Help enable our communities to be resilient and thrive.
• Increase tree canopy cover by planting trees in the right locations, working with the right partners, as part of a district wide tree planting strategy;
• Increase uptake and education on waste and recycling, through our waste contract;
• Support our businesses to dispose of their waste in a sustainable way through expanding our trade waste scheme;
• Grow our approach to environmental enforcement to protect our natural environment, taking a zero-tolerance approach to such crimes;
• Continue to monitor air quality in the district;
• Make sure our larger industrial businesses are compliant with air quality standards

Breckland Council will support positive growth in the local economy, and through its Future Breckland programme bring forward and shape large-scale projects and activities, to unlock employment and housing opportunities. By listening to people, by understanding what they need, and by working together, we can shape what we have to offer in our places to benefit those who are already here and those who choose to come - to live, work, visit or do business.

We will work with communities, partners, and businesses to continue to set - and deliver - a long-term vision for how we want our places to be shaped and thrive, as we continue to respond to 
the changing world around us.

What we will achieve

Through this plan we will deliver on the following key outcomes:

• To help Towns and villages thrive, helping them achieve their unique potential and support their positive growth in the future
• To help our high streets and local businesses succeed through continued collaboration and further proactive engagement
• To secure or attract investment for local priorities and make the district an attractive place for businesses and residents - both current and new.

How we will do it

To achieve these outcomes, we will:

• Deliver on the mandate set to us through the 'Future Breckland' Programme - bringing forward priority projects across the District, both big and small, and continuing to work with communities to ensure plans are delivered;
• Proactively work with partners at a local level to deliver Breckland's priorities;
• Improve the volume and value of local job opportunities, helping grow the number of jobs available to residents in the District;
• Lead a new local skills agenda, bringing partners together to target local priority needs, and set an agenda for long term change;
• Help bring more activity and creativity into high streets and locations across the District, helping drive footfall and attract new visitors;
• Work through the planning system, and with partners, to help increase the supply of housing, particularly in areas of priority need;
• Use our enforcement powers to support confidence in the businesses that operate in Breckland, and protect the quality of our places;
• Focus on the support we provide to our businesses, new and old;
• Work with partners to ensure Breckland's strategic infrastructure needs - transport, digital, walking and cycling - are understood and being supported;
• Attract new investment and Government support and funding for key programmes.
• Shape our planning service and the Local Plan to deliver our sustainability goals;
• Deliver a strategy for electric vehicle charging across the district that will increase the number of locations where there are charging points.

We are a dynamic, innovative organisation that embraces new, environmentally-friendly ways of working, delivering a nationally recognised programme of change designed to help us put residents and businesses at the heart of everything we do. 

Our aim is to continually improve the delivery of services so that we are not only meeting or exceeding customer need, but also offering value for-money. We do this through building strong and trusted relationships  with our partners, and by developing a high-performance work culture. Enabling remote working has seen us break down the barriers of site specific working, so members and officers are empowered and enabled  to work at the location and time which meets business demand and best supports the delivery of high-quality services.

Through our culture of trust, support and empowerment, we aim to be an employer and partner of choice: where others want to work for - and with - us. Together, we can make great things happen for our district. Our approach to working in a greener, more sustainable way, will underpin everything we do as an organisation, informing the decisions we make and the actions we take: from how we collect waste and recycle, and what our towns and villages will look like in the future, through to how we use our own office spaces. 

We recognise that as a community leader, we have a responsibility to take positive action in support of this. The way we plan to do to this is set out in our 'Breckland 2035' Sustainability Strategy.

What we will achieve

Through this plan we will deliver on the following key outcomes:

• Provide exceptional services in a flexible way to meet our residents', businesses', visitors', and partners' needs, ensuring services are accessible to all
• Continue to innovatively use our resources to produce a balanced budget to enable the delivery of our (statutory and additional) services
• Make sure we are using the best mix of service delivery models to deliver value for our residents and businesses
• Continue to reduce our carbon footprint and enable residents to take actions for themselves
• Protect and enhance our outstanding local environment through proactive action to prevent environmental crime
• Support and enable communities and businesses to protect their local environment and reduce carbon emissions, taking enforcement action where needed
• Continue driving efficiency and innovation through our waste and recycling contract - to not only deliver strong performance and efficiency, but to educate our residents about reducing waste

Strategic priorities

To achieve these outcomes, we will:

• Develop a 'smarter working' organisation using data to better predict, plan for and provide services;
• Review our ICT systems to improve customer experience and reduce costs;
• Invest in digital service delivery, including our website, giving customers more choice, control and convenience in how they access our services - and giving us more time to spend with those who need extra support;
• Deliver a financially sustainable balanced budget in the short, medium & long term; through prudent investment and cost-saving plans;
• Maximise external funding income and undertake external borrowing to invest in our priorities where the business case supports this; Protect the organisation by making sure we are well-governed, democratically accountable, and legally compliant;
• Support and empower our people to be the best they can be through wellbeing support, development, and training;
• Promote our council to protect and enhance its reputation, helping us to attract and retain high-calibre staff; and making sure we are seen to be a partner of choice to work with others across the district, and beyond;
• Work towards delivering the council's target to be NetZero by 2035, embedded in the wider Corporate Plan through a range of plans and activities:
• Make improvements to our buildings and explore renewable energy options to reduce their carbon footprint.

In 2021 the Council concluded one of its biggest-ever pieces of planning work, looking at the next 10 years' priorities for each of our Market Towns and their surrounding areas, based on the specific tangible projects our communities want to see brought forward.

Building on this, we are now developing a wider suite of plans and commitments, intended to set - and work towards - a bold and positive vision for the future of the District where:

• There are sufficient homes, of different types and tenure, to meet the diversity of needs of our community - and homes which are good quality, and provide beautiful places for our communities to live in
• Everyone has access to quality healthcare and local services, which are designed to keep up with expected population growth
• Young people have a diversity of career options locally, and are well prepared to access these through quality education and training
• People can access the things that are most important to them - education, work, leisure - easily and effectively through a range of transport options
• Our Towns and villages are truly sustainable, because they can meet the changing needs of local populations, with vibrant high streets and local centres catering to a new model for leisure and retail offer
• We're predicting - and planning for - major infrastructure needs
• We're able to accommodate major shifts in land use, and land needs, whilst preserving the historic characteristics that make Breckland unique
• We're able to understand and respond to the needs of our changing population, and provide effective provision and support, especially for those who need our help the most

We know that in setting this priority, we are choosing to take on something far more difficult than required from us by Law. However, we do so because we feel it's the right thing to do for our residents - and the right challenge to set ourselves to make sure we are on track to realise greater, long-term benefits for our District.

The next building blocks in assembling this vision will include; the Council's refreshed Local Plan (due 2026), the Council's refreshed Housing Strategy (due 2024) and an interconnecting long-term vision for the District to 2050. These will be delivered alongside continual refreshes of our Future Breckland Town Delivery Plans and District Wide Prospectus.

In addition to the Corporate Plan's four themes, Breckland Council continues its commitment to delivering a programme of caring activity spanning the entire organisation and focusing on all its people, including our staff, our residents and our businesses.

The Breckland Cares programme is focused on driving projects and activity which helps us deliver on our commitments to support our communities, especially our younger people and our most vulnerable residents, as well as creating a caring culture for our staff and elected members.

Breckland Cares includes a range of projects which are delivering specific and important changes. We will develop plans that include:

• Strengthening our commitment to the Armed Forces Covenant;
• Reviewing the Council's policies to ensure we are an inclusive employer;
• Providing mental health training and awareness to support our communities; and
• Under the banner of Health & Wellbeing, shining a spotlight on workplace health.

We are proud to be a forward-thinking organisation that cares, and we will continue to take action, alongside our partners, to ensure we deliver meaningful change within our organisation and across the district.

Breckland Council is an organisation that cares, listens, and supports people and businesses within our district. We are working for everyone in our area, especially those who need our help the most. We are proud of our area and, by driving investment and enabling opportunities, we can maximise its full potential. We want to inspire aspiration to live, work, visit, or do business here; we want our district to be one of choice.

As a council, we have achieved so much while still coping with the effects of the COVID pandemic and supporting residents and businesses in their recovery. Our  Annual Achievements Report (PDF) [1MB] (opens new window)  outlines some of the projects we have delivered in 2021/22 against our overarching commitments and priorities.

Our Corporate Plan brings together our strategic priorities for the coming years and outlines what we'll do to make a difference in Breckland to ensure it is a place where people and businesses can thrive.

Our priorities are grouped across four key themes:

• Inspiring Communities
• Thriving Places
• Breckland 2035
• Working Smarter

We are delighted that in a survey in 2022, residents told us those priorities continue to reflect their needs and aspirations and it is important to us that we remain responsive to the issues that matter to our businesses and communities. Here are just of some of the outcomes we have achieved this year.

Our Annual Achievements Report 2023/24 (PDF) [232KB] (opens new window) outlines some of the projects we have delivered in 2023/2024 against our overarching commitments and priorities.