Council scorecard
Thanet District Council
- Type
- district
- Population
- 142,000 (ONS mid-year estimate, rounded)
- Political control
- Labour majority (since May 2023)
- Next election
- 6 May 2027 (whole council, all 56 seats)
- Council website
- www.thanet.gov.uk
Scorecard
Methodology published 2026-05-18. Pending cells reflect data collection in progress, not methodology uncertainty — they will populate as the underlying data is gathered.
Refuse collection
Missed bin reports, recycling rates, complaint resolution time
Scored on the two DEFRA-published components — recycling rate and residual household waste, FY 2024-25 final data (England averages: 42.0% / 513.3kg per household) — with the remaining components (missed-bin reports, complaint resolution time, service consistency) pending data ingest. Thanet recycled 34.7% of household waste in 2024-25 — well below the England average of 42.0%, 12th of the 13 Kent waste-collection authorities — though its residual waste (443.9kg per household) is mid-pack for Kent and better than the England average of 513.3kg. Attribution: Labour administration (Rick Everitt), in office throughout the period.
as of 2026-07-02 · source
Complaints handling
Volume, response times, LGSCO upheld findings
Small-numbers caveat: district-tier LGSCO investigation counts are tiny (0–4 a year) and a single case can swing the uphold percentage from 0% to 100%, so this score rests on process indicators — upheld volume per 100,000 residents vs the 1.0 district average, remedies offered before the Ombudsman, and compliance with recommendations — across 2025-26 and 2024-25, never on the raw uphold percentage alone. 2025-26 figures precede the LGSCO annual letters (due ~July 2026) and may be revised. 2025-26: 1 upheld of 2 investigations (0.7 per 100,000 residents, below the 1.0 district average) — but the council missed the agreed timescale on BOTH compliance cases due (timely compliance 0% vs the 75% district average); 2024-25: 6 upheld of 6 investigations at 4.3 per 100k, among the highest district volumes in Kent that year. Attribution: Labour administration (Rick Everitt) throughout both years.
as of 2026-07-02 · source
FOI response
Average response time, refusal/exemption rate, compliance with 20-day statutory deadline
Score pending — Thanet publishes no FOI performance statistics (checked 2026-07-03), so the timeliness and refusal-rate components cannot be scored from public data. What is known: 7 ICO decision notices in the three years to July 2026 — the most of any Kent district — mostly Environmental Information Regulations disputes, including an upheld late-refusal finding (May 2026); 3 upheld vs 8 not-upheld findings overall; ~1,193 requests via WhatDoTheyKnow (Sep 2025 snapshot), a high scrutiny volume for a district. A standardised information request for the missing statistics is planned for the next refresh.
as of 2026-07-03
Financial health & budget discipline
Revenue budget variance, capital programme delivery, reserves + Section 114 risk, external auditor VfM judgment, council tax positioning + trajectory vs national
Weighted across the six published components: revenue budget variance 25%, capital programme delivery 20%, reserves & Section 114 risk 20%, external auditor VfM judgement 15%, council tax positioning 10%, council tax trajectory 10%. The weakest financial scorecard in Kent. 2024/25 closed £4.647m (20.4%) over budget — the largest revenue variance in Kent, driven by temporary accommodation (+£2.2m), housing-benefit subsidy shortfall and Ramsgate Port income — funded by drawdowns across eight reserves; 79% of the £72.2m capital programme slipped (£57.3m, including £41.9m on the Pathfinder regeneration schemes); the council's own 2026-27 budget report describes "critically low financial resilience", with reserves projected to fall below the £6m level it calls "the absolute minimum floor required for the council to remain financially functional" and explicit going-concern language ahead of reorganisation; Grant Thornton rates ALL THREE value-for-money criteria significant weaknesses (Red), with disclaimed opinions for 2022/23–2024/25. Immediate spending controls were imposed in December 2025 against a forecast £2.9m–£3.2m overspend for 2025/26. Council tax: Band D £279.15, 3rd-highest of the 12 Kent districts; 5-yr CAGR 2.80% vs 2.64% nationally. No Section 114 notice has been issued. Attribution: Labour administration (Rick Everitt), in office since May 2023.
as of 2026-07-03 · source
Transparency
Open data publication, councillor expenses, contract register, committee paper publication
Fixed-date website audit (2026-07-03) against the Transparency Code checklist: spending-data currency and format, contracts register, councillor allowances, interests, committee papers, senior pay, open data, FOI disclosure log. Items not individually verified this quarter are scored neutrally and flagged. Broad coverage: supplier spending published quarterly (a regression from earlier monthly £250 publication) current to the January–March 2026 quarter with archives back to 2010, a contracts register (£100,000+, Kent Business Portal), councillor allowances including previous years, and per-councillor interests registers. Senior-pay page and open data are partial; no FOI disclosure log. Attribution: audit conducted under the Labour administration (Rick Everitt).
as of 2026-07-03 · source
Planning
Application approval ratios, appeal-overturn rate, determination time vs statutory targets
Scored against the England averages (majors in time 91.0%, non-majors 90.8%, major appeal overturns 3.1%) over the 24 months to March 2026 (speed) and June 2025 (appeal quality), from MHCLG designation-regime tables; the enforcement-trend component (15%) is pending and the three measured components are re-weighted pro rata. The national "in time" measure includes agreed extensions of time. 88.1% of major applications and 80.5% of non-majors decided in time — the non-major figure is 10 points below the England average and the second-lowest in Kent (designation threshold: 70%) — with major appeal overturns of 3.8% vs 3.1% nationally. Attribution: Labour administration (Rick Everitt) throughout the April 2024 – March 2026 window.
as of 2026-07-02 · source
Education & children's services
SEND/EHCP statutory processing, SEND tribunal LA-loss rate, children's services Ofsted rating, school transport delivery (county + unitary only)
Education and children's services are not a district/borough function. The county council (or, for Medway, the unitary authority) holds this remit.
Safeguarding & LADO
LADO referral handling, multi-agency safeguarding (MASH) timeliness, Section 47 enquiry compliance, independent safeguarding audit findings (county + unitary only)
Safeguarding is the statutory function of the county council or unitary authority via the LADO (Local Authority Designated Officer) and multi-agency safeguarding hub.
Manifesto delivery (Trust)
KLN tracks what the controlling party promised at the most recent election vs what was actually delivered. KEPT/PARTIAL/BROKEN/PENDING/OUT_OF_SCOPE categorisation.
Trust score: 3 categorised public issues (no scoreable pledges yet).
as of 2026-09-29
Top public issues for Thanet residents
This is editorial assessment, not a metric score. Each issue carries an alignment tag — ALIGNED (council in step with residents), MIXED (some action falls short), COUNTERACTING (council against residents on this), or SILENT (no clear position). KLN-curated. Council positions added verbatim where provided. Right-of-reply opens with initial publication.
- 🟡Mixed
Coastal town housing + cleaner streets
Margate, Ramsgate, Broadstairs face concentrated housing pressure + visible street-cleansing complaints. Residents demand cleaner streets, more council housing.
Council position
Labour, elected May 2023, pledged 400 new affordable homes over four years; cleaner streets is a stated priority. (Council housing management was already back in-house: East Kent Housing was wound up and its services taken over by Thanet and three other districts on 1 October 2020, under the previous administration — that is not a 2023 Labour deliverable.)
KLN assessment
Statements supportive and the housing pledge is numeric, which makes it testable: the council reported 209 homes acquired or developed in the first year against the 400-over-four-years pledge. KLN will verify that figure against the council's own housing returns at the next refresh before moving the alignment. Street-cleansing complaint trend not yet reviewed. Per the "actions, not statements" principle: MIXED pending verification. Corrected 10 September 2026: an earlier version credited the 2023 administration with bringing housing back under direct control.
- 🟡Mixed
Coastal erosion + sea defences
Thanet coastline + cliffs face erosion pressures; sea defence maintenance is critical but expensive.
Council position
Sea defences are partly Environment Agency, partly local. TDC's role is statutory consultation + funding contribution.
KLN assessment
Mixed: council is operating within limited direct authority; advocacy for EA funding is the channel. Resident outcomes depend on national funding decisions.
- 🟡Mixed
Local economy + cost of living
Thanet has higher-than-average unemployment + cost-of-living pressure. Residents expect council procurement + business support to favour local.
Council position
Labour 2023 manifesto committed to use council budget to buy from local enterprises where possible.
KLN assessment
Statement supportive; action evidence is the procurement-local-spend ratio (not yet published in standardised form). Per the "actions, not statements" principle: MIXED until the ratio is FOI'd and published.
News from this council's area
How this scorecard works
Each metric is scored 0-100 and banded A through F. We do NOT aggregate to a single overall ranking — combining unrelated performance areas would mislead. See the methodology page for full details, thresholds, and data sources.
Spot an error or have data we should add for Thanet? editor@kentlocalnews.co.uk.