Gravesham Borough Council scores in band B for planning and transparency, but in band D for finances and has the lowest housing and homelessness score in Kent on the Kent Council Scorecard’s October 2026 refresh.
Declaration: Kent Local News is edited by Daniel Dabin, who is also the leader of the GB Freedom party. The Scorecard is scored from published data under a published methodology, every council receives its scores for right of reply before publication, and every score links to its source so that readers can check it.
Gravesham Borough Council, which collects the bins, decides planning applications and handles housing for about 107,000 people in Gravesend, Northfleet and the surrounding villages, is scored on eight measures in the October refresh of the Kent Council Scorecard. It scores in band B on two, band C on four, band D on one and band F on one. This is the eighth of 14 pieces, one for each Kent council.
Scores run from 0 to 100 and are banded A to F. They are never added together, because each measures a different service with different data. The full evidence for every score is on the Gravesham Borough Council page.
The scores at a glance
| Measure | Score | Band | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Refuse collection | 55 | C | 8th of 13 |
| Complaints handling | 55 | C | joint 7th of 14 |
| Freedom of information | 59 | C | 8th of 13 scored |
| Financial health | 45 | D | 12th of 14 |
| Transparency | 75 | B | joint 5th of 14 |
| Planning | 71 | B | 3rd of 13 |
| Housing and homelessness | 39 | F | 13th of 13 |
| Manifesto delivery (Trust) | 67 | C | joint 6th of 14 |
Education, safeguarding, highways and adult social care are run by Kent County Council, so they do not apply to the borough.
Where it does best
On planning, Gravesham scores 71, third in Kent. It decided 92.3% of major applications and 95.5% of smaller ones on time in the two years to June 2026, against England averages of 91.0% and 90.7%, and none of its major decisions was overturned at appeal in the two years to September 2025.
On transparency, it scores 75. It had the freshest spending data in Kent when it was checked in July, with its June 2026 file already online, and it publishes a register of contracts over £5,000, councillors’ allowances, senior pay and live committee papers. It has no log of information released under freedom of information.
Where it falls short
On housing, Gravesham has the lowest score in Kent, 39. At the end of March 2026, 257 households were in temporary accommodation, 6.10 per 1,000 households, more than twice the rate for England outside London, with 417 children among them. In 2024-25, 30.2% of its homelessness prevention cases ended with a home secured for at least six months, against 51.9% for England. The borough delivered 61% of the homes the Housing Delivery Test required, so the presumption in favour of sustainable development applies to its planning decisions. Affordable homes made up 18.8% of the requirement, slightly above the Kent median of 17.2%.
On finances, it scores 45. Its 2024-25 outturn was £935k better than budget, but capital spending fell well short of the programme, and its external auditor, Grant Thornton, found two significant weaknesses in February 2026: financial sustainability, and governance, including the finance team’s capacity to produce the accounts. The council’s 2025-26 draft accounts were formally delayed, and the auditor flags a funding gap of about £1.9m by 2027-28.
On freedom of information, it answered 84.4% of requests within 20 working days in 2025-26 (552 of 654), down from 90.5% two years earlier and below the 90% the Information Commissioner expects. The council’s own figure for the year is 85%; it told Kent Local News that its percentages are averages for the full year. The Commissioner upheld neither of the two decision notices about the council in three years.
Promises
The Trust score of 67 combines KLN’s tracking of the Labour administration’s election pledges with whether its actions match the issues residents raise. Of three pledges tracked, one is partly kept, on campaigning for leasehold reform, and two, on homelessness and rough sleeping, are still pending.
Who was in charge
Labour, led by John Burden, has run the council since May 2019, so every score covers a period under the same administration.
What the council said
The council did not respond to the first refresh in July. It was sent its October scores on 2 October and did not respond before the deadline of 23 October.
What it means for Gravesend
Residents can follow council news on the Gravesend page. The Scorecard hub has a comparison table for each measure. Tomorrow: Maidstone Borough Council.
The right of reply stays open. Any response from the council will be published word for word beside the score it concerns. Corrections are welcome at editor@kentlocalnews.co.uk.