Council turning four with a focus on the future

13 March 2025

West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) will be turning four years old on 1 April 2025, with bold plans to build upon its strong track record of improving outcomes for communities in the years ahead.

The unitary authority, which replaced the previous district, borough and county councils in April 2021, has been making solid progress against its priorities since it was formed as a fresh start for delivering better public services across West Northamptonshire.

The Council enters its fifth year building upon its ‘strong, positive start’ highlighted by the LGA’s recent independent review and with a new compelling long-term plan to work together more strategically with partners as One West Northamptonshire to help communities flourish and businesses prosper. 

Summary of highlights

During its first four years, WNC has charted a broad range of service improvements, projects and activities resulting in better outcomes for local communities. A summary of the many highlights can be found below.

Further information about the Council’s performance during 2024/25 will be available in the Council’s annual report, to be published in June 2025. You can view previous annual reports here

Portfolio for Economic Development, Town Centre Regeneration & Growth, Culture & Leisure

• We set an ambitious strategy to grow the local economy inclusively and sustainably with a focus on increasing productivity and skills
• We have driven economic growth, turning £45 million of grants for regeneration in Northampton into £350 million of private investment and making progress on major town centre regeneration schemes including the landmark Greyfriars regeneration
• We completed the multi-million-pound transformation of Northampton Market Square
• We have distributed millions of pounds of national UKSPF funding on initiatives to improve life chances, increase skills, create stronger communities and support local businesses
• We laid the foundations for further redevelopment of our other towns, including the new Sponne Arcade Car Park in Towcester and initial work on a new Masterplan for Daventry town centre
• We have supported all our professional sports clubs. The East Stand is nearing completion at Sixfields, we have helped the Saints develop a masterplan for Franklin's Gardens and we are in negotiations with the cricket club for a new academy in Moulton
• A joint bid for a Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP) for Northamptonshire has been approved by VisitEngland
• We have supported initiatives including the Female Founders Summit, which is returning to Northampton in 2025, while attracting the Small Business Saturday UK national roadshow has raised the Council’s profile
• We launched a new Employability Hub at Weston Favell, helping people find jobs and volunteer opportunities
• We continued our support for businesses and start-ups, offering funding, advice and guidance.

Leader of the Council portfolio

• We are putting West Northants on the map as the beating heart of the country. The Council’s LGA peer review independently highlighted the strong start we have made since our launch in 2021 – a period in which we worked to transform and improve, saving millions of pounds of public money and bringing millions of pounds of investment to benefit our communities
• We have built our profile as a centre of sporting excellence through our successful bids for major sporting events including the Men’s Tour of Britain and the Women’s Rugby World Cup, celebrating the Saints' Premiership win with a victory parade and enabling the development of sporting academies
• The West Northants’ stage of the Men’s Tour of Britain delivered the highest economic benefit of the entire Tour, with an impressive total impact of £5.69 million, driven by £3.6 million in attendee spending. Over 85% of attendees expressed pride in their local area following the event, with 83% recognising the positive boost to the economy. Attendees from across the UK flocked to enjoy the race, with visitors spending an average of 2.4 nights in the area, further boosting the local hospitality sector. The stage also garnered significant media coverage, valued at £635,698, and promoting West Northamptonshire to national and international audiences
• We have developed communications channels and activities, directly posting updates across our social platforms, reaching over 1 million people every month and seeing our followers rise by 20%
• We have increased our visual content to engage new audiences, launching regular e-newsletters, attracting over 38,996 online subscribers and delivering a twice-yearly printed magazine to all households, which is helping engage our harder-to-reach audiences. We worked hard this year to involve more local people in our consultation and engagement activities, leading to a 133% increase in public participation.

Highways portfolio

• We invested an additional £10 million into improving the road networks and 97% reported highways defects were repaired on target. We continue to encourage all residents to report issues via our website, WNC app or through customer services
• We have invested in new technology to complete 14,657m² of highway repairs. The equipment reduces the carbon footprint by an impressive 85% compared to traditional methods. The process recycles end-of-life waste tyres which would otherwise be destined for incineration
• The JCB Pothole Pro machine repaired 30,480m2 of roads during 2024. This innovative piece of technology carries out road repairs four times faster than standard methods. Teams can cut the defect, crop the edges and clean the area with one machine
• We are in the final stages of completion of the Sandy Lane Relief Road that will ease congestion and improve connectivity for residents when it opens in early spring, much earlier than planned. This follows the northern part of the road opening to motorists in the summer of last year and forms part of the Council’s wider investment into road infrastructure across the area
• Once the Towcester bypass is open we have secured significant improvements for the High Street which will include a ban on HGVs, improved paving and parking, and more landscaping
• We have worked with Stagecoach to secure a £9.4m Government grant to bring a fleet of electric buses to West Northants by late 2026
• We have opened up new Active Travel routes to encourage walking, wheeling, and cycling, including a new 1.3km accessible path through Delapré Park to link Far Cotton with Brackmills
• We joined with partners to offer new and improved bus services across West Northamptonshire, increasing services in our rural areas, for example between Buckingham and Brackley, which will also provide services to Evenley. This service launched on 25 February. We aim to deliver further public transport improvements to the Brackley area later in the year
• We recently completed a further study with Northampton General Hospital and St Andrews Hospital. We hope this will be a catalyst for service improvements and increased bus patronage which the study indicated there was significant potential for. We are about to start similar studies in the areas served by bus services 33 (Northampton to Milton Keynes) and 41 (Northampton to Bedford). This will guide efforts to better meet bus user needs and grow bus use.

Environment, Recycling and Waste Portfolio

• From 1 April, residents will be able to take their waste to recycling centres across West Northants seven days a week, offering a better service and value for money
• We have increased recycling with our new contract reducing the amount of our waste which goes to land fill
• We delivered efficient waste services and street cleansing to all residents, collecting more than 84 million bins over the past four years and clearing over 14,487 fly tips
• In excess of £700k of funding has been invested to support West Northamptonshire business to decarbonise through the Towards a Net Zero West Northants and NGAGE projects
• Through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, we have invested £7,074,540 to upgrade the heating of the four rural leisure centres to air source heat pumps and solar panels
• WNC has committed £1.2m for the feasibility assessment of a large-scale solar project to deliver on our net zero commitments
• WNC have been successful in bidding for £2.6m of funding to support our residents with home energy efficiency improvements through the Warm Homes: Local Grant scheme
• We have agreed a climate change strategy outlining our approach to reducing locally produced greenhouse gases, improving air quality and placing people at the heart of the climate emergency response
• We have worked with neighbouring authorities to launch a new campaign tackling littering on the A5 and other major routes
• We have retained international Green Flag Award status for a number of our parks and open spaces
• We have seen significant improvements year-on-year in regard to air quality.
• We have supported our communities with the emergency response to flooding incidents and committed to working with partners to review flood defences and improve community resilience. We currently have 11 active investigations across West Northants following the November floods. This includes details surveys, cleaning of culverts, coordination with water authorities, land owners and council and to develop mitigation strategies working with residents and parish councils.

Adult Social Care and Public Health and Regulatory Services Portfolio

• We have provided essential support to families and individuals struggling with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, with a specific focus on helping with the cost of food, free school meals, utility bills, and other vital household expenses. West Northamptonshire is expected to distribute £3.66 million in Household Support funding for the 12-month period and has committed to ensuring the funds help as many people as possible
• There are 112 welcoming spaces across West Northamptonshire, which are delivered through collaborative working with parish and town councils and partners in the voluntary and community sector to create a network
• In West Northamptonshire our vision and aspirations for Adult Social Care are aligned to the ‘Live Your Best Life Strategy’ which was developed in partnership with our Integrated Care System partners and launched in early 2023
• We have improved our hospital discharge rate to the highest levels on record getting more residents home sooner with the right support
• Our three-year plan for locality based prevention work that brings together our three conversations model in Adult Social Care, with social prescribing and GP-based wellbeing interventions that are commissioned by Public Health. This approach will provide significantly increased reach to enable proactive preventative interventions that reduce crisis and reliance on services
• Ratings in our care homes are improving due to our monitoring approach, which has seen the number of inadequate providers reduced to just a single organisation due to our investment in our quality improvement programme and robust governance arrangements
• We have developed a buoyant home care market that has meant a reduction in delayed transfers of care alongside a reduction in the number of 18–65-year-olds needing to go into residential care
• Developments are underway to progress proposals for a new Health and Wellbeing Surgery in Moulton. This new facility would enable the expansion of the established GP practice into larger premises, along with additional supporting medical services, to cater to the growing needs of the local community. We held a vape summit with partners in advance of government changes which will assist all partners in responding to this significant threat to children in particular
• Introducing new powers to promote responsible pet ownership and ban smoking in children’s play areas, launching new charters setting out our approach to tackling litter and fly-tipping in our streets and green open spaces, and protecting the public from harm through the ongoing efforts of both our Food Safety and Trading Standards teams
• Worked to protect the public thanks to our Food Safety and Trading Standards teams, and continued to tackle fly-tipping, littering and other environmental crimes
• Developed and established new Local Area Partnerships (LAPs) across West Northants, listening to and engaging with residents at grassroots level to understand health and care needs to help them live their best lives

Children, Families & Education portfolio

• Ofsted have reported a good judgement for Northamptonshire Children’s Trust Adoption Agency and recognised outstanding leadership and management
• Ofsted rated our Independent Fostering Agency as good in January 2024
• Ofsted have rated our youth justice service as good with outstanding features in October 2023
• Our children’s services have improved to requires improvement and there are 241 (17%) less children in care than the 2020 forecast projected
• We are investing over £20 million in property to provide more in house facilities to support our children and young people
• 2.7% 16-18 year olds not in education, employment and training, which is below the national average.
• 99.6% referrals to children’s social care receive an outcome within 2 working days
• Work has officially begun on the construction of Overstone Park Primary School, a state-of-the-art, non-selective, state-funded primary school at the Overstone Leys development in north-east Northampton.
• The Council continues to make progress against its action plan to address ongoing challenge of increasing SEND placements to help ensure better outcomes for families across West Northamptonshire. Positive progress has been noted in our Ofsted monitoring visits and complaints have reduced by a third.
  • November 2022: the opening of 20 places at Hunsbury Park primary school as part a new autism spectrum disorder (ASD) unit for children in foundation stage, early years and key stage 1.
  • January 2023: 10 places created at Hardingstone Academy for pupils in key stage 2 with autism spectrum disorder. This department is for children who need mainstream curriculum and provides that access to this provision as and when they are ready.
  • February 2023: 10 places provided at Castle Academy for pupils in key stage 1 and foundation / early year pupils.
  • Chiltern Primary School located in Northampton, opened its doors to its 30 place SEND unit called The Nest on 2 October 2023. A further 15 Key Stage 2 places were created from September 2024, taking the total number of places at this site to 45. The Nest caters for children in Key Stage 2, Years 3 to 6 and is a designated specialist provision for children with an Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC) diagnosis. The NEST has specialist learning facilities with new classrooms offering breakout spaces, new signage to offer privacy to the playground as well as the new, engaging play area that is available for use by all pupils at Chiltern Primary School.
  • We have made significant progress on a new specialist school in Tiffield near Towcester for children with special education needs and disabilities (SEND)
• We launched our Family Hubs initiative to provide a one-stop-shop for families in need of support with the first hub opening in Towcester on 31 March followed by further hubs in Daventry and Northampton town centre.

HR and Corporate Services portfolio

• We have extended our customer satisfaction survey to all service areas and our latest data shows over 71% customers have a positive experience of our services
• We have relaunched our website with over 3 million views per year and  95% of customers rating our online information and services helpful
• We have invested in innovation, using artificial intelligence to drive improvements in services from homelessness to special educational needs
• We completed a full division restructure and contract rationalisation programme in DTI, delivering almost £1 million of savings to support the overall corporate position, but adding in much-needed missing skills and a more streamlined structure
• We have rolled out a single Customer Records Management system across all teams, and implemented a new telephony solution unifying the infrastructure in our contact centres and enhancing the available functionality
• We have delivered almost 30 outreach surgeries, with some of them becoming more and more popular and well-attended, and others being ceased either due to low demand or a transition to a different offer
• 88% resident complaints are resolved at the first stage and complaints during the last quarter have fallen across all service areas
• We have invested in our permanent colleagues, reducing our spend on agency staff by over £6 million since day 1 with agency staff at lowest levels across all services.

Finance portfolio

• To date WNC has delivered over £115 million of savings, transforming the services we inherited – this has involved bringing together over 3,000 staff and hundreds of services from the four former councils, over 800 systems, four main office buildings and thousands of inherited contracts
• We have kept our budgets balanced, enhancing productivity and protecting essential frontline services in the face of continuous financial challenges, rising service demands and inflationary pressures affecting all councils nationally
• Our reserves currently stand at £96 million. When we landed in unitary, our opening balance was £171 million, however around £70 million of this opening balance related to ringfenced Covid monies, business rate reimbursement income and a high balance of public health reserves. These balances do not represent the financial health of an authority, are ringfenced, and were expected to be spent.
• We have benchmarked our General Reserve balance of £35 million with our nearest statistical neighbours which demonstrates that the balance being held is above average and prudent.

Housing portfolio

• Announced plans to invest over £9.5 million on building new homes to tackle pressures on the local housing market
• We secured £3.2 million in Single Homeless Accommodation Programme funds to acquire and remodel an affordable housing scheme as a specialist supported housing facility for people with complex needs who are at risk of homelessness/rough sleeping, and revenue funding to fund a high need support service for three years.
• We have allocated more than £12.3 million to provide relocatable temporary accommodation for those experiencing homelessness
• We have developed a pipeline of new housing sites at the bus depot in St James and land at Dallington which will provide 200 affordable homes.
• We worked with our partners and people experiencing homelessness in West Northants to launch the innovative streets of change project, learning from experiences of homelessness and support prevention and recovery.
• We developed the West Northants Homelessness & Rough Sleeping Strategy, adopted by Cabinet in March 2024.
• We have implemented a new governance framework between the council and Northamptonshire Partnership Homes – the council’s arms-length management organisation responsible for managing council housing stock – and continue to strengthen working arrangements across the two organisations.

Planning and Community Safety & Engagement Portfolio

• Involving and engaging communities across West Northamptonshire to help shape our new Local Plan, which will guide how our area is developed over the next 15 years
• Working with parish councils on producing new Neighbourhood Development Plans and Conservation Area Appraisals to help further protect and enhance our area
• We have transformed our planning service, with over 90% of major and minor applications now delivered on target
• Distributing around £5.6m in community grants funding for hundreds of projects, from helping local clubs and groups to improve their facilities to initiatives tackling young violence and knife crime
• We have also held over 170 community events and weeks of action with partners promoting the culture and diversity of our area, from Coronation celebrations, Pride and Diwali to Black History Month, Inspirational Women’s and Men’s Awards and International day of People with Disabilities
• We have achieved Gold Status in the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme and are proud of our work to support the armed forces community as Armed Forces Covenant Signatories
• We are making a significant investment in Kings Heath, Northampton, to support community-led improvements and enhance local facilities. Through the Kings Heath Partnership Group, which includes local schools, charities, sports organisations, and Northamptonshire Police, a range of initiatives are underway to create lasting benefits for residents. During the past year alone there has been £140,000 of investment into a range of interventions including work to bring the former Sure Start Centre back into use, community cohesion events, dedicated staff to support community work and grants for charities providing programmes there
• Working with our residents who opened their homes to nearly 1,000 people fleeing the war in Ukraine, while assisting more than 500 Afghan nationals escaping conflict and persecution through providing emergency accommodation as well as support to help them settle in the UK.