Agenda item

1. Cabinet approved the Collection Fund surplus estimate of £429,119.98 as at 31 March 2023. The Dacorum Borough Council share of this surplus is £50,451.32.

2. Cabinet approved the payment profile for the surplus identified at 1) above and contained at section 2.8 to this report (Table 3).

3. Cabinet approved the calculation of the Council’s tax base for the year 2023/24 incorporating an estimated collection rate of 99.4%.

4. Cabinet agreed that, in accordance with the Local Authorities (Calculation of Tax Base) Regulations 2012, the amount calculated by the Council as its tax base for the year 2023/24 shall be 59,922.3 and its constituent elements shall be

Decision

1. Cabinet approved the Collection Fund surplus estimate of £429,119.98 as at 31 March 2023. The Dacorum Borough Council share of this surplus is £50,451.32.

2. Cabinet approved the payment profile for the surplus identified at 1) above and contained at section 2.8 to this report (Table 3).

3. Cabinet approved the calculation of the Council’s tax base for the year 2023/24 incorporating an estimated collection rate of 99.4%.

4. Cabinet agreed that, in accordance with the Local Authorities (Calculation of Tax Base) Regulations 2012, the amount calculated by the Council as its tax base for the year 2023/24 shall be 59,922.3 and its constituent elements shall be:

Corporate Priorities

A clean, safe and enjoyable environment

Building strong and vibrant communities

Ensuring economic growth and prosperity

Providing good quality affordable homes, in particular for those most in need

Ensuring efficient, effective and modern service delivery

Climate and ecological emergency.

.

Statutory Officer Comments:

Monitoring Officer:

No comments to add to the report

S151 Officer:

This is a Deputy Section 151 officer report.

Advice

Cllr Elliot introduced the report and was happy to take questions.

NHowcutt said that these technical reports could be quite difficult to get your head around. He said that the report showed a £500k surplus which appears to be a big variance however they collected £113 million last year so this comes out at 0.3% in terms of what they expect to collect. The impact in Dacorum is only around £50k and they smoothed that out with the funding equalization reserve to it does not affect the overall budget. In terms of the council tax base set for 23/24, they were seeing a 1% increase, which they have modelled in the budget, so from that perspective it is in line with what they have in the budget and the medium term financial strategy. Im previous years they had always achieved their collection rate on the council tax, up to period 7 or 8 they were in a good place, where they go no with the costs of living crisis there was a potential risk to that collection rate. Council tax is often lower down the list of priorities for people to pay when their income is stretched so they may see an impact on that.

Cllr Tindall asked if they had noticed many people moving from a 10 month to 12-month payment of their council tax due to the cost of living crisis.

NHowcutt said that it was difficult to give a straight answer too as around four to five years ago the council moved to a having the option for a 12 month payment plan or 10 month for residents. Many of the residents moved to the 12 month at that point. Then came covid and they saw a bigger increase. Now they were seeing similar increase levels as before covid. They expected to see more move to the 12 months as they come to the respites of February and March, people might be feeling the bite of the costs of living and may move towards to 12 months. Therefore, whilst they had not seen a greater movement in the last few months, with the economy set to affect all of the service areas and comes streams we expect it to bite now and onwards and with utility bills set to increase again, they expect potential pressures ahead.

Cllr Tindall said that it was a shame as that advanced payment was a little extra bit of income collecting interest throughout the year.

NHowcutt said that it helped with their collection rate as when you have that movement, you get to period 10 and were thinking was the collection rate lower because people were finding it hard to pay or was it because they had moved to 12 months. It also meant that a lot of the time Feb and March were a good time to collect bad debt as the normal payment wasn’t coming through so it does add additional complexity to it.

Cllr Tindall sked if it took anymore officer hours to have two different payment options and would it be better to have everyone on the 12 month.

NHowcutt said that it was fractions of fractions because it was just a matter of setting up the direct debit itself; they do the same reconciliation so it was only the setting up that takes time. If they saw a massive swing towards the 12-month option then they may come back to members to look to change the policy, however he felt that some people do really like the 10 month, as it is easier as they like the holiday.

Cllr Tindall did say that he does like the 2 months off.

Cllr Anderson said that he was one of the first to change to the 12 month as he feels that it is easier.

Cllr Williams agreed it was nice to not have a bill to pay in Feb and March.

Cllr Barratt said that he was not aware that they offered a 12-month option and asked if this was something that residents were aware of.

NHowcutt said that this was something that they offer when people are having difficulty paying, it is an option on the website, and residents can fill in a form to move to the 12 months option. He admitted that they could advertise this more widely and he would go away and see what they could do towards adverts.

Cllr Barratt feels that especially during the current climate that it should be something they should advertise to help people with their cash flow.

NHowcutt said that they do offer it to people who were struggling and during covid, officers led the switch so that is why they saw growth during that period.

Cllr Griffiths mentioned that this was included in the costs of living page on the website.

Recommendations agreed