Agenda item - Council Tax Reduction 2019

Report of the Executive Director Finance & Resources (copy attached)

80.1    The Committee considered the report of the Executive Director Finance & Resources regarding the Council Tax Reduction Scheme for 2019.

80.2    Councillor Sykes noted that the report would also be considered at Full Council on 13 December 2018, and asked for confirmation that it would be possible to debate the report and bring an amendment to that meeting. The Revenues and Benefits Manager said that a general discussion could be had on the issues which were part of the consultation, but any amendment could only be on what had actually been consulted on.  The Chair added that there had been discussion with Group Leaders on what technical parts of the scheme should be consulted on and so there was a restriction on what could be amended, if not it would be necessary to undertake the consultation again. The Executive Director Finance & Resources said that there were technical implementation issues with the software the Council used, and if there were radical changes it would be difficult to implement them before the Council Tax bills were due to be despatched.

80.3    Councillor Janio said the reason the Council Tax Reduction Scheme was being reviewed was that Universal Credit (UC) was being introduced, and asked if officers could bring a report on how the impact of UC could be softened for new claimants. The Revenues and Benefits Manager said that within the bounds of the consultation that may be possible, but officers would need more information about what that could entail. He said that only around 15-18% of changes to council tax would be affected by the proposals. The Executive Director Finance & Resources said that there wasn’t much time before the meeting of Full Council, and suggested that officers could put together a briefing for Leaders that would set out the parameters of changes which could be achievable in the technical sense, and the number of people who would be affected by the changes and what that impact may be. Councillor Janio agreed that that would be useful.

80.4    RESOLVED: That the Committee –

(i)            Noted that the council undertook formal consultation as a part of this review and that as part of the formal consultation a draft scheme was published which contained possible changes.

(ii)          Noted the outcome of that consultation (Appendix 3) which has been summarised in paragraphs 5.1-5.4.

(iii)         Considered the proposed changes set out in paragraphs 3.8 – 3.14.

(iv)         Noted that an Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) (Appendix 2) had been undertaken based on the proposed. The Committee should further note that, to meet their Public Sector Equality Duty, it must give conscientious consideration to the findings of this assessment when making a decision set out at paragraph 2.3. The actions which will be undertaken as a result of this EIA are set out in paragraphs 7.9-7.11.

(v)          Approved £150,000 funding for the discretionary fund in 2019/20; this would require additional one-off funding of £140,000.

(vi)         Noted that the Executive Director of Finance & Resources will, prior to 1st April 2019, exercise delegated powers to increase the appropriate calculative elements of the scheme to give effect to national changes.

That the Committee recommends to Council:

(vii)        That the council approves the making of a revised Council Tax Reduction Scheme incorporating the changes at paragraphs 3.8 to 3.14 of the report.

(viii)      That the Executive Director of Finance & Resources be authorised to amend the Council’s Council Tax Reduction Scheme (Persons who are not Pensioners) (Brighton & Hove City Council) 2013 to reflect the changes at 3.8 to 3.14 below, and to take all steps necessary and incidental to the introduction of the revised scheme.