Issue - meetings

REPORT OF THE SERVICE DIRECTOR – CUSTOMERS

To set the Council Tax Base for 2024/2025 in accordance with the Local Authorities (Calculation of Council Tax Base) Regulations 1992 and the Local Authorities (Calculation of Council Tax Base) (England) Regulations 2012 (the Regulations).

RESOLVED: That the Committee:

(1)             Set a non-collection rate of 1% for 2025/2026.

(2)             Set the Council Tax Base for 2025/2026 at 50,836.3 and that the individual sums show in Appendix A for each Parish be agreed.

REASONS FOR DECISIONS: To fulfil the statutory requirement to set a Council Tax Base for the District and to enable Major and Local Precepting Authorities to set their levels of Council Tax for 2025/2026.

Audio recording – 2 minutes 51 seconds

The Service Director – Customers, presented the report entitled ‘Council Tax Base 2025/2026’, and advised that:

·         The Executive Summary should refer to 2025/2026, not 2024/2025.

·         Setting the Council Tax Base was an annual statutory requirement and was established by calculating the number of Band D equivalent properties in the District.

·         The Council Tax Base calculation for 2025/2026 was 50,836.3.

·         The calculation was not a whole number as it included discounts, the impact of council tax reduction, the impact of collection rate and the conversion of properties into Band D equivalent.

·         This was a slight increase of 0.54% compared to 2024/2025.

·         The income from Council Tax was expected to be £13.2 million.

·         The breakdown for each Town and Parish Council was included at Appendix A to the report.

·         The detail on how the Council Tax Base was calculated was included at Appendix B to the report.

·         The collection rate of Council Tax remained high at 99%.

·         It was important to note that this was the overall collection rate, which was different to the in-year collection rate as Council Tax is not always collected in the same year in which it is due.

·         The current in-year collection rate was slightly above target despite a number of customers now choosing to pay over 12 instalments through the year instead of the standard 10.

In response to a question from Councillor Ralph Muncer, the Revenues, Systems & Technical Manager advised that the figures relating to the number of households in which a Summons and a Liability Order was used and the amount of Council Tax collected from this method would be sent to all Members after the meeting.

Councillor Ian Albert, as Chair, proposed and Councillor Val Bryant seconded and, the outcome of the vote was as follows:

VOTE TOTALS:

YES:                                                    3

ABSTAIN:                                           0

NO:                                                     0

TOTAL:                                               0

NUMBER OF DELEGATES PRESENT: 3

THE INDIVIDUAL RESULTS WERE AS FOLLOWS:

Cllr Ian Albert                                      YES

Cllr Val Bryant                                     YES

Cllr Ralph Muncer                               YES

Therefore, it was:

RESOLVED: That the Committee:

(1)  Set a non-collection rate of 1% for 2025/2026.

(2)  Set the Council Tax Base for 2025/2026 at 50,836.3 and that the individual sums show in Appendix A for each Parish be agreed.

REASONS FOR DECISIONS: To fulfil the statutory requirement to set a Council Tax Base for the District and to enable Major and Local Precepting Authorities to set their levels of Council Tax for 2025/2026.