Issue - meetings
THE COUNCIL TAX REDUCTION SCHEME (EFFECTIVENESS AND PROPOSALS FOR 2026/27)
Meeting: 29/01/2026 - Council (Item 74)
74 THE COUNCIL TAX REDUCTION SCHEME (EFFECTIVENESS AND PROPOSALS FOR 2026/27) 
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REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR – RESOURCES
This report sets out the context of Council Tax support, including the introduction of local schemes for working aged people from 2013.
Additional documents:
Decision:
RESOLVED: That Council:
(1) Amended the Council Tax discretionary policy to include the support provided to residents with a terminal illness, with the wording detailed in paragraph 8.17.
(2) Approved changes to the Council Tax Reduction Scheme bands to reflect the impact of inflation and delegated a decision on those increases to the Director – Resources in consultation with the Executive Member for Resources.
REASON FOR DECISION: To respond to the request from Overview and Scrutiny Committee, and to consider changes for next year.
Minutes:
Audio recording – 12 minutes 50 seconds
Councillor Ian Albert, as Executive Member for Resources presented the referral from Cabinet and the report entitled ‘The Council Tax Reduction Scheme (Effectiveness and Proposals for 2026/27)’ and advised that:
· This report was seeking approval of the changes to the Council Tax Reduction Scheme (CTRS) for 2026/27, including changes to the discretionary policy.
· This had been incorporated into the wider report requested by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in relation to the effectiveness of the CTRS.
· This scheme worked well. It was affordable and ensured that the poorest residents did not pay any Council Tax.
· The actions from the Marie Curie campaign that local authorities could take to prevent residents from dying in poverty were set out in paragraph 8.14 of the report.
· As the CTRS already ensured that the poorest residents did not pay any Council Tax, this support would be best covered by an additional to the discretionary policy.
· Inflationary uplifts to Council Tax bands of 6% in line with inflation, were referenced in paragraph 8.19 of the report.
· As the increase to Universal Credit had not been confirmed, the Council would need to wait to ensure the final modelling had the desired outcome.
· An addition to the wording of recommendation 2.2 was proposed to delegate authority to the Director – Resources in consultation with the Executive Member for Resources to make any inflationary changes to the CTRS bands.
Councillor Ian Albert proposed as amended and Councillor Sean Nolan seconded and, following a vote, it was:
RESOLVED: That Council:
(1) Amended the Council Tax discretionary policy to include the support provided to residents with a terminal illness, with the wording detailed in paragraph 8.17.
(2) Approved changes to the Council Tax Reduction Scheme bands to reflect the impact of inflation and delegated a decision on those increases to the Director – Resources in consultation with the Executive Member for Resources.
REASON FOR DECISION: To respond to the request from Overview and Scrutiny Committee, and to consider changes for next year.