Nearly half of Dudley council's performance targets missed, according to report
Dudley Council’s latest report on itself presents a mixed bag of performance with around half of its targets missed.
Data for a meeting of the authority’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee on March 12 shows, of the 14 core business performance measures monitored, six were on or above target, six were below target and two were within target tolerance.
Analysis of short term trends shows seven measures are improving, six are getting worse and one is consistent.
A report for the committee signed by Lisa Kitto, Dudley’s interim director of resources, said: “Performance is generally positive, with nearly half of all measures meeting or exceeding target.
“While some indicators remain below target, these are being monitored and addressed.”
Amongst the information for councillors to consider were 29 complaints against the council upheld in December 2025 which is the lowest monthly figure for the year at 16 percent, marking an improvement on the monthly average of 25 percent.
In the third quarter of the financial year staff sickness rates were up from 9.93 to 10.83 per full-time employee with 48.73 percent of the workforce off sick for some time during the three month period, costing the council £6.9m.
The council’s sickness rates are broadly in line with similar authorities around the country.
Dudley continues to struggle with responding to Freedom of Information requests within statutory time limits.
In the third quarter just 65.52 percent of requests were dealt with on time, significantly under the target of 90 percent.
While the council accepts performance on FOIs is not ‘where the team or committee want it to be’, the report highlights Sandwell and Birmingham council data which shows they are also falling short of targets.
Collection of payment for unpaid invoices was above target for December with £5.3m banked compared to a target of £4m.
At the start of 2026, Dudley was owed £24.8m in sundry debt, which is debt that is not council tax, business rates or unpaid parking fines.
From Dudley’s sundry debt, a total of £8.43m is owed from invoices which are more than 60 days old, including £2.05m from Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and £1.32m to the NHS Black Country Integrated Care Board.
