61 Council Tax Reduction Scheme 2022/23 PDF 459 KB
Minutes:
The
Executive Member for Environment and Finance & Governance and the Director
of Finance submitted a report for the Executive’s consideration. The purpose of
the report was to request permission to undertake a consultation (a requirement
of schedule 1A of the Local Government Finance Act 1992) with both the public
and the Major Precepting Authorities in respect of
proposed changes to the Council’s CTR Scheme with effect from 1 April 2022.
It
was proposed that an alternative approach be taken from 2022/23, through the
redesign of the scheme to address all of the main areas highlighted in the
submitted report.
Work
had been ongoing since early 2021 on a proposed alternative scheme, which was
now complete. Consultation now needed to be undertaken with the public and the
Major Precepting authorities. If accepted by the
Council, the proposed alternative scheme would take effect from 1 April 2022.
The
proposed alternative scheme had a number of features, which were included at
paragraph 17 of the submitted report. Paragraph 18 provided details of how the
proposed alternative scheme planned to address the problems with the current
scheme.
OPTIONS
The alternative to
introducing a proposed alternative scheme for CTR from 2022/23 was to leave the
existing scheme in place. That would have been a short-term option; leading to
increasing costs of administration; and in the longer term, would have
significantly affected the collection of Council Tax and the effectiveness of
the scheme to support households within the Council’s area.
Modelling (see table
below) had also been done on an alternative ‘income grid’ scheme with 85%
maximum support and 100% maximum support. The principles of that scheme were
exactly as described earlier in the report (see paragraph 17), however, given
weight to the options appraisal/rationale (Appendix C) those were not
recommended.
Option |
Scheme / Support |
Cost / Saving to the Council |
Support |
Recommended / Not Recommended |
1 |
Income Banded Scheme – 85% maximum support |
£700,000 saving |
85% - similar to existing support |
Not recommended – See Appendix C |
2 |
Income Banded Scheme – 90% maximum support |
£70,000 saving |
90% - 5% increase on existing support |
Recommended – See Appendix C |
3 |
Income Band – 100% maximum support |
£1,000,000 cost to the council |
100% - 15% increase in support |
Not recommended – See Appendix C. |
ORDERED
That the commencement
of consultation on a maximum Council Tax Reduction Scheme of 90%, be approved,
with the following:
·
with Major
Preceptors on the proposed changes to the working age Council Tax Reduction
(CTR) scheme with effect from 1st April 2022 (as required by the Local
Government Finance Act 1992); and
·
with the public
on the proposed changes to the working age Council Tax Reduction (CTR) scheme
with effect from 1st April 2022 (as required by the Local Government Finance
Act 1992.
REASON
The proposed changes, planned to simplify a complicated scheme, further assist low income households and support the collection of council tax, whilst also fulfilling the obligations on local authorities to support the roll out of Universal Credit. ... view the full minutes text for item 61