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 minute 22 seconds

No apologies for absence were received.

Councillors Alistair Willoughby and Ruth Brown were absent.

To take as read and approve as a true record the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on the 29 January 2024.

RESOLVED:That the Minutes of the Meeting of the Committee held on 29^th January 2024 be approved as a true record of the proceedings and be signed by the Chair.

Audio Recording – 1 minute 30 seconds

Councillor Ian Albert, as Chair, proposed and Councillor Val Bryant seconded and, following a vote, it was:

RESOLVED:That the Minutes of the Meeting of the Committee held on 29 January 2024 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 6 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 10 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 47 seconds

There was no public participation at this meeting.

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.

REPORT OF THE SERVICE DIRECTOR – CUSTOMERS

To inform Members of the reporting processes for the NNDR 1 Return and to approve the Draft NNDR1 Return for 2025/2026.

RESOLVED:

(1)             That the Draft NNDR 1 was approved.

(2)             That it was noted that a 2^nd draft version of the NNDR1 was sent to Councils by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) on Monday 16^th December 2024. The final version of NNDR1 would need to be returned to MHCLG by Wednesday 31^st January 2025.

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

REASONS FOR DECISIONS: To comply with statutory requirements.

Audio recording – 9 minutes 27 seconds

The Service Director – Customers, presented the report entitled ‘National Non-Domestic Rate Return 1 (NNDR1) 2025/26’, and advised that:

·        This was an annual statutory return which had a required return and submission date of 31January each year.

·        This return was the best estimate of NNDR to be collected in the following year and allowed the Council to calculate any surplus and deficit as well as the amount of NNDR to be retained locally.

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

·        There was a tight turnaround for the Council to complete this form as it had been received on 16December and there was more than one version to complete. These also had to be reviewed by the Finance team and externally by LG Futures before being returned.

·        The return itself had been uploaded the previous day on 22 January as a supplement to the report.

·        Despite the return being complete, last-minute amendments could be received before the deadline and therefore the delegation to officers at recommendation 2.3 was required.

·        The expected income showed £21.724 million.

Councillor Ian Albert, as Chair, proposed and Councillor Val Bryant seconded and, following a vote, it was:

RESOLVED:

(1)   That the Draft NNDR 1 was approved.

(2)   That it was noted that a 2^nd draft version of the NNDR1 was sent to Councils by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) on Monday 16^th December 2024. The final version of NNDR1 would need to be returned to MHCLG by Wednesday 31^st January 2025.

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

REASONS FOR DECISIONS: To comply with statutory requirements.