Additional datasets

Trade Union Facility Time as at March 2024

Richmond and Wandsworth Councils are separate, with each recognising different unions and liaising with different trade union branches. However, in operating a shared workforce the two Councils have only one total paybill and applications for union time off are administered jointly. Therefore only one joint return for the two Councils was possible.

Relevant union officials

Total number of employees who were relevant union officials during the relevant period (April-March)
Number of employees who were relevant union officials during the relevant period Full-time equivalent employee number
 15 14.8

Percentage of time spent on facility time

Number of employees who were relevant union officials employed during the relevant period that spent a) 0%, b) 1-50%, c) 51-99% or d) 100% of their working hours on facility time.

Percentage of time Number of employees
 0% 5
 1-50% 7
 51-99% 1
 100% 2

Employee FTE for those who spend at least 50% of time on union duties

The number of full time equivalent employees who spent at least 50% on union duties:

3.0

Basic estimate of spending on unions

The number of full time equivalent days spent on union duties by authority staff that spent the majority of their time on union duties multiplied by their average salary:

£87,484.25

Percentage of pay bill spent on facility time

The percentage of the total pay bill spent on paying employees who were relevant union officials for facility time during the relevant period:

  • Total cost of facility time: £184,780.79
  • Total pay bill: £240,351,381.43

Percentage of the total pay bill spent on facility time, calculated as (total cost of facility time / total pay bill) x 100:

0.08%

Paid trade union activities

The percentage of paid facility time hours spent by employees who were relevant union officers for paid trade union activities during the relevant period:

0.00% 

Trade unions represented in the Shared Staffing Arrangement between Richmond and Wandsworth Councils

  • GMB – Richmond and Wandsworth
  • Unison – Richmond and Wandsworth
  • UNITE - Richmond only

Education Function

Total number of employees who were relevant union officials during the relevant period (April-March)
Number of employees who were relevant union officials during the relevant period Full-time equivalent employee number
0  0

Percentage of time spent on facility time

Number of employees who were relevant union officials employed during the relevant period that spent a) 0%, b) 1-50%, c) 51-99% or d) 100% of their working hours on facility time?

 Percentage of time Number of employees 
 0%
 1-50%
 51-99% 0
 100%

0

Employee FTE for those who spend at least 50% of time on union duties

0

Percentage of pay bill spent on facility time

The percentage of the total pay bill spent on paying employees who were relevant union officials for facility time during the relevant period:

Total cost of facility time

£ 204,851.58

Total pay bill

£ 282,205,607.94

Percentage of the total pay bill spent on facility time, calculated as: (total cost of facility time ÷ total pay bill) x 100

0.07%

Paid trade union activities

The percentage of paid facility time hours spent by employees who were relevant union officers for paid trade union activities during the relevant period 0.00%

Time spent on paid trade union activities as a percentage of total paid facility time hours calculated as: (total hours spent on paid trade union activities by relevant union officials during the relevant period ÷ total paid facility time hours) x 100

0.0%

Grants to voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations

The Council's Grants (Overview and Scrutiny) Sub-Committee recommends grants for approval to the Executive (the decision making body of the Council). In April 2015, existing schemes were brought together into the Wandsworth Grant Fund, offering a more consistent and coordinated approach to awarding small grants offered by the Council.

The Wandsworth Grant fund does not include the Youth Opportunity Fund (YOF), because the decision-making panel is made up of young representative members from the community. The YOF panel who submit final recommendations for funding to the Council for approval via the S083A procedure. The Education and Children's Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee receives a retrospective report detailing the allocation of funding.

Other grants to voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations are awarded by delegated authority.

View delegated Council decisions.

Fraud Investigation Activity

Information about Fraud Investigation Activity that is required to be published under the Local Government Transparency Code 2015 is reported regularly to the Audit Committee. See agenda item 102 from Paper No 24-191 from the 10 July Audit Committee for the latest information.

On 1 April 2015 responsibility for housing benefit fraud investigation transferred to the DWP under the Single Fraud Investigation Service (SFIS), and the team of officers who were responsible for housing benefit fraud investigation transferred to the DWP. To ensure that sufficient knowledge and capability for fraud investigation was maintained, Wandsworth entered into a partnership with four neighbouring boroughs - the South West London Fraud Partnership (SWLFP).

Social Housing Asset Value

Under the Local Government Transparency Code 2015 local authorities are required to publish details of the value of housing stock that is held in their Housing Revenue Account (HRA).

The information contained in the Social Housing Asset Value 2023 spreadsheet sets out the market and Existing Use Value - Social Housing (EUV-SH) for dwellings as at 31 March 2023 by postcode and valuation band. The information includes the following:

  • the number of social housing dwellings, including hostels and sheltered accommodation,
  • the dwellings value, and
  • the percentage of dwellings that are occupied or vacant.

Tables 1 to 3 show the market value of properties in the HRA. Market values have been calculated using the ‘Beacon’ principle.  This approach is used for large groups of properties that contain properties of similar design, age, type or construction. It is a cost effective  industry standard approach to valuation and provides an accurate assessment of the vacant possession value.

Tables 4 to 6 show the EUV-SH which reflects a valuation for a property if it were sold; with sitting tenants enjoying occupation at less than open market rentals and Retail Price Index linked increases; where the tenants have additional rights including the Right to Buy, and where the Landlord has additional liabilities including insurance, repair and maintenance and legal obligations.

It is necessary to adjust the beacon (market) value to reach EUV-SH.  This value can be obtained by taking the cost of buying a vacant dwelling of a similar type, and applying an adjustment factor according to the type of tenancy and regional factors to reflect the fact that the property is used as social housing.

The adjustment factor for London was set at 25% in 2010 and is applied to the total vacant possession valuation based on the beacon valuation  For example, if the vacant possession value of a property in London is £500,000 the EUV-SH is £125,000 (i.e. £500,000 x 25% = £125,000). This value does not take account of recent changes to National Rent Policy guidance which requires social housing rents to be reduced over the next four years.

Data protection

In order to mitigate the possibility of identifying individual properties for any given postcode sector, where the number of occupied properties in any valuation band is less than ‘10’, these properties have been merged with the next lowest valuation band or adjacent postcode until the resultant merged cells contain at least ‘10’ occupied social housing properties.

Existing social tenancy terms are not affected by the publication of this data.