Agenda, decisions and draft minutes

Members are required to notify any substitutions by midday on the day of the meeting.

Late substitutions will not be accepted and Members attending as a substitute without having given the due notice will not be able to take part in the meeting.

No apologies for absence were received from Councillors.

Audio recording – 1 minutes 27 seconds

No apologies for absence were received.

To take as read and approve as a true record the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on the 28 February 2023.

RESOLVED:That the Minutes of the Meeting of the Committee held on 28 February 2023 be approved as a true record of the proceedings and be signed by the Chair.

Audio Recording – 1 minute 33 seconds

Councillor Ian Albert proposed and Councillor Elizabeth Dennis seconded and, following a vote, it was:

RESOLVED:That the Minutes of the Meeting of the Committee held on 28 February 2023 be approved as a true record of the proceedings and be signed by the Chair.

Members should notify the Chair of other business which they wish to be discussed at the end of either Part I or Part II business set out in the agenda. They must state the circumstances which they consider justify the business being considered as a matter of urgency.

The Chair will decide whether any item(s) raised will be considered.

There was no other business notified.

Audio recording – 2 minutes 17 seconds

There was no other business notified.

Members are reminded that any declarations of interest in respect of any business set out in the agenda, should be declared as either a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest or Declarable Interest and are required to notify the Chair of the nature of any interest declared at the commencement of the relevant item on the agenda.  Members declaring a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest must withdraw from the meeting for the duration of the item. Members declaring a Declarable Interest, wishing to exercise a ‘Councillor Speaking Right’, must declare this at the same time as the interest, move to the public area before speaking to the item and then must leave the room before the debate and vote.

(1)        The Chair advised that, in accordance with Council Policy, the meeting would be audio recorded.

(2)        The Chair drew attention to the item on the agenda front pages regarding Declarations of Interest and 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.

(3)        The Chair advised that Members were required to be present for the entire item at this meeting in order to take part in the vote.

Audio recording – 2 minutes 25 seconds

(1)        The Chair advised that, in accordance with Council Policy, the meeting would be audio recorded.

(2)        The Chair drew attention to the item on the agenda front pages regarding Declarations of Interest and 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.

(3)        The Chair advised that Members were required to be present for the entire item at this meeting in order to take part in the vote.

To receive petitions, comments and questions from the public.

There was no public participation at this meeting.

Audio recording – 2 minutes 59 seconds

There was no public participation at this meeting.

REPORT OF THE SERVICE DIECTOR – 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 2024/2025.

(2)   Set the Council Tax Base for 2024/2025 at 50,562.6 and that the individual sums shown in Appendix A for each Parish was agreed.

REASON 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 2024/2025.

Audio recording – 3 minutes 3 seconds

The Service Director – Customers, presented the report entitled ‘Council Tax Base 2024/2025’, and advised that:

·       Setting the Council Tax Base was an annual statutory requirement.

·       Appendix A detailed the breakdown for each Town and Parish Council.

·       Appendix B detailed how the Council Tax Base was calculated.

·       There was a 0.2% decrease in Council Tax Base for 2024/25 which was due to the changes to the Council Tax reduction scheme to enable more support to families on lower incomes.

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

·       It was important to note that Council Tax was not always collected in the year it was due.

·       The non-collection rate was set to 1% as in previous years.

Councillor Ian Albert proposed and Councillor Elizabeth Dennis seconded and, the outcome of the vote was as follows:

VOTE TOTALS:

YES:                                                    5

ABSTAIN:                                           0

NO:                                                      0

TOTAL:                                               5

NUMBER OF DELEGATES PRESENT: 5

THE INDIVIDUAL RESULTS WERE AS FOLLOWS:

Cllr Ian Albert                                      YES

Cllr Elizabeth Dennis                          YES

Cllr Matt Barnes                                  YES

Cllr Ruth Brown                                  YES

Cllr Terry Hone                                   YES

Therefore, it was:

RESOLVED: That the Committee:

(1)   Set a non-collection rate of 1% for 2024/2025.

(2)   Set the Council Tax Base for 2024/2025 at 50,562.6 and that the individual sums shown in Appendix A for each Parish was agreed.

REASON 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 2024/2025.

REPORT OF THE SERVICE DIRECTOR – CUSTOMERS

To approve the Draft NNDR 1 Return for 2024/25.

RESOLVED:

(1)   That the Draft NNDR 1 was approved.

(2)   That it was noted that a 2nd draft version of the NNDR was sent to Councils by the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities (DLUHC) on Monday 8th January 2024. The final version of the NNDR 1 would need to be returned to DLUHC by Wednesday 31st January 2024.

(3)   That the Committee delegated any amendments to the return resulting from changes to the form and any additional guidance, to the Service Director – Customers in consultation with the Service Director – Resources and the Committee Chair.

REASON FOR DECISIONS: To comply with statutory requirements.

Audio recording – 7 minutes 32 seconds

The Service Director – Customers, presented the report entitled ‘National Non-Domestic Rate Return 1 (NNDR1) 2024/25’, and advised that:

·       This was an annual statutory return which was required to be returned by 31 January each year.

·       The form traditionally followed the government Autumn Statement and incorporated any changes made to Business Rates.

·       Each year this form was sent to the Council with a tight turnaround from the date the form was received to the date it had to be returned.

·       This year the form was received on 8 January and the NNDR1 had been circulated earlier today to Members.

·       Due to the tight turnaround recommendation 2.3 delegated authority to enable Officers to be able to make changes to the return and to seek additional guidance if required.

The Systems and Technical Manager advised:

·       From 1 April 2024 authorities were required to detail gross rates payable for 2024/25 split between the Small Business Rate (SBR) multiplier and the National Non-Domestic Rate (NNDR) multiplier.

·       The SBR multiplier had been frozen in the autumn budget statement and it now included every property under £51,000 regardless of any previous legislation.

·       The NNDR multiplier had been increased for 2024/25 year from 51.42 to 54.7 to compensate for the lack of the SBR multiplier being raised.

·       The Council was now in the second year of a three-year transitional scheme.

·       The draft NNDR1 was an estimate of the expected income the Council would expect to receive through Business Rate collections in 2024/25.

Councillor Ian Albert proposed and Councillor Elizabeth Dennis seconded, following at vote, it was:

RESOLVED:

(1)   That the Draft NNDR 1 was approved.

(2)   That it was noted that a 2nd draft version of the NNDR was sent to Councils by the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities (DLUHC) on Monday 8th January 2024. The final version of the NNDR 1 would need to be returned to DLUHC by Wednesday 31st January 2024.

(3)   That the Committee delegated any amendments to the return resulting from changes to the form and any additional guidance, to the Service Director – Customers in consultation with the Service Director – Resources and the Committee Chair.

REASON FOR DECISIONS: To comply with statutory requirements.