Issue - meetings

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Finance and Business Services relating to a review of the Council’s Discretionary Rate Relief Policy.

Cabinet at its meeting held on 20 August 2012 had deferred consideration of the report to allow this committee to comment on the proposals.

The current discretionary rate relief policy was approved by Cabinet on 2 December 2008. Changes introduced within the policy had led to some anomalies. In particular, the current policy gave protection to certain ratepayers where relief under the Council’s Policy was less than that received from former legacy billing authorities. The protection offered currently was not time limited.

All organisations currently in receipt of legacy protection had been written to explaining that the Council was currently reviewing its policy. Organisations had been informed that one of the proposals under consideration was to remove the protection in order to ensure that the discretionary relief policy was up to date, robust and fair to all ratepayers in Cheshire East.

The report included a schedule containing the names of all the ratepayers that would be affected by a change in policy on legacy protection. It was reported that 2 organisations had not received the correspondence and could not have responded, and the Director of Finance and Business Services was requested to double check that all of the organisations had in fact been written to. The impact on individual organisations was likely to be variable and needed to be taken into account

In response to a question about the total amount of saving  that would be achieved by removing legacy payments, the Committee was informed that it would be £3,590. However it was explained that the intention of the policy review was to ensure a fair and equitable policy for all existing and future rate payers. It was noted by the Committee that in cases of genuine hardship, there were discretionary powers which enabled the Council to award rate relief.

The Committee concluded that although it supported the principle of reviewing the policy to remove legacy arrangements, it suggested that as there were likely to be consequences for the Council, such as potential additional requests for relief under the hardship rules which may outweigh any savings accrued under the current policy review proposals, these issues needed to be addressed and quantified before Cabinet makes a formal decision.

RESOLVED - That although the Committee supports the principle of reviewing existing legacy arrangements in relation to discretionary rate relief, Cabinet is requested to investigate further the consequences of removing legacy protection, to ensure that any savings made are not outweighed by additional costs being borne by the Council in relation to cases of hardship.