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Meeting documents

Council Tax Setting Committee
Tuesday, 7th December, 2010 7.00 pm

Time: 7.00pm Place: Committee Room 3, Council Offices, Gernon Road, Letchworth Garden City
 PRESENT: Councillor T.W. Hone (Chairman), Councillor David Kearns, Councillor H.M. Marshall, Councillor Mrs L.A. Needham and Councillor Lawrence Oliver.
 IN ATTENDANCE: Strategic Director of Finance, Policy and Governance, Head of Finance, Performance and Asset Management and Committee and Member Services Manager.
 ALSO PRESENT:
Item Description/Resolution Status Action
PART I
1 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

There were no apologies for absence.
Noted   
2 NOTIFICATION OF OTHER BUSINESS

There was no notification of other business.
Noted   
3 CHAIRMAN'S ANNOUNCEMENTS

he Chairman reminded Members that, in line with the Code of Conduct, any Declarations of Interest needed to be declared immediately prior to the item in question.
Noted   
4 PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

There was no public participation.
Noted   
5 COUNCIL TAX BASE 2011/12
Report
Appendix A

The Committee considered a report of the Head of Revenues and Benefits seeking approval of the Council Tax Base for 2011/12. The report contained the following appendix:

Appendix A - Tax Base 2011/12 - Council Tax Base by Parish.

The Chairman advised that the Council had virtually no discretion in determining the Tax Base for Council Tax setting, although one important factor was the estimate to include within the calculation in respect of the level of non-collection. However, when considering the non-collection rate, there were a number of factors, other than eventually non-collected payments, which would impact on the collection rate as follows:-

(i) The level of successful appeals against banding valuations;
(ii) The impact of new properties coming into tax which may not be valued until the following year;
(iii) The number of disablement applications, Discounts and Exemptions.

The Committee noted that any surplus (or deficit) on the Council Tax Collection Fund was split between the major precepting authorities (the County Council, Hertfordshire Police and this Council) in proportion to the relative level of precept on the fund (approximately 77:10:13 County/Police/District in 2010/2011). The surplus could only be used to reduce (or increase in the case of a deficit) Council Tax bills in 2011/2012, but whereas the District proportion of the surplus reduced bills only in North Hertfordshire, the County and Police proportions were dissipated across the whole of Hertfordshire. The actual impact on bills would, therefore, depend not only upon the collection performance of NHDC, but of that of all other Hertfordshire authorities as well.

The Committee was informed that collection performance in 2010/2011 had remained in line with the estimated position, despite the current economic climate, although it was possible that this may deteriorate in the last quarter. It was also possible that the Collection Fund could make a loss in the next financial year if Council Tax arrears increased. This did not significantly affect the non-collection rate assumption of 1% as this was based on changes to the Tax Base arising from those changes detailed above and, therefore, there would appear to be no reason to change this for 2011/2012. It was estimated that, at the end of this financial year, there would be a surplus in the Collection Fund of approximately £23,000 attributable to the Council. The Tax Base for each Parish, based upon a 99% collection rate, was shown in Appendix A to the report.

RESOLVED: That the amount calculated by this Council as its Council Tax Base for 2011/2012 shall be £50,282.1 in total, and that the individual sums shown for each Parish, as set out in Appendix A to the report, be agreed.

REASON FOR DECISION: To comply with the legal requirements of the Local Authority (Calculation of Council Tax Base) Regulations 1992.
Agreed  Strategic Director of Finance/Policy & Governance, Head of Revenues & Benefits