Issue - meetings

Background:

This report detailed the outcome of the consultation for the delivery of a local Council Tax Support scheme and sought Members’ approval to draw up a scheme, which would then be presented to Cabinet on 18 December 2012 for consideration and referral to Council.

It was noted that as part of the Spending Review 2010 the Government made a policy commitment to localise support for council tax by 2013/14 accompanied by a declared intention to reduce expenditure by 10%. The implications of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 and Local Government Finance Act 2012 were set out in the report, which included the requirement for the Council to establish a scheme for the financial year beginning 1 April 2013.

The Cabinet had agreed on the contents of consultation on 4 September 2012. Consultation had then taken place from 10 September 2012 to 4 November 2012 on both the preferred scheme (attached at Appendix A to the report) and other additional options that had been identified and considered as part of the process of developing a scheme (attached at Appendix B to the report). It was reported that in total 557 survey questionnaires were completed either by phone, on paper or the web and a further 92 letters from individuals and 2 from organisations responding to the survey were received.

The report summarised the outcome of the consultation process, with further details provided within the appendices to the report.

The report also gave details of the announcement by the Department for Communities and Local Government on 18 October 2012 that an additional £100m would be made available for one year to support local authorities in developing council tax support schemes. Details of qualifications for this grant was given and it was noted that acceptance of the transitional grant and a cap on the benefit reduction of 8.5% would cost the Council a net £1.4 million.

It was also reported that a full Diversity Impact Assessment would be completed and submitted with the proposed scheme to Cabinet on 18 December.

Reasons:

The majority of respondents to the consultation were in agreement with the principles of the scheme.

The scheme balances the need for supporting those currently in receipt of council tax benefit and the ability of the Council to fund the scheme within the current budgetary constraints.