Issue - meetings

Report of the Head of Corporate Resources

Further to Minute No. 93 of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 9 January 2020 the Council considered the report of the Head of Corporate Resources that provided details of the review of the local Council Tax Reduction Scheme for 2019/20 and which recommended that there was no change to the scheme for 2020/21 for working age claimants; that also sought changes to discretionary Council Tax Empty Homes discounts following the outcome of a public consultation, and an additional increase to the Council Tax long-term Empty Homes Premium following a consultation exercise that took place in 2018; that sought an increase in the Exceptional Hardship Fund (EHF) budget from £150,000 to £170,000 from 2020/21 onwards; and which provided an updated Council Tax Base for Sefton Council and each Parish area for 2020/21.

It was moved by Councillor Maher, seconded by Councillor Grace and

RESOLVED: That

Report of the Head of Corporate Resources

The Committee considered the report of the Head of Corporate Resources that provided details of the review of the local Council Tax Reduction Scheme for 2019/20 and which recommended that there be no change to the scheme for 2020/21 for working age claimants.

The report would also be considered by Cabinet and Council and changes were recommended to discretionary Council Tax Empty Homes discounts following the outcome of a public consultation, and an additional increase to the Council Tax long-term Empty Homes Premium following a consultation exercise that took place in 2018; and the report also recommended an increase in the Exceptional Hardship Fund (EHF) budget from £150,000 to £170,000 from 2020/21 onwards.

The report also provided an updated Council Tax Base for Sefton Council and each Parish area for 2020/21.

Attached as annexes to the report were the Council Tax Base Report 2020/21; a summary of feedback from the consultation on changing Council Tax Empty Homes discounts and the associated equality impact assessment; and a summary of feedback from the consultation on increasing Council Tax long-term empty homes premium and the associated equality impact assessment.

Members of the Committee asked questions/commented on the following issues:

·       Exemptions for landlords to pay Council Tax as part of the Empty Homes Discount Scheme

·       Landlords owning properties in local communities also had a responsibility to those communities

·       Difficulties in identifying owners of vacant properties and the recovery of costs/charges placed against such properties

·       Council must be prepared to use compulsory purchase or enforced sales legislations to combat the most serious cases of long-term vacant properties  

RESOLVED:

That the report providing details of the review of the local Council Tax Reduction Scheme for 2019/20 and which recommended that there be no change to the scheme for 2020/21 for working age claimants be noted.

Report of the Head of Corporate Resources

The Cabinet considered the report of the Head of Corporate Resources that provided details of the review of the local Council Tax Reduction Scheme for 2019/20 and recommended that there be no change to the scheme for 2020/21 for working age claimants.

The report requested the Cabinet to recommend to the Council changes to discretionary Council Tax Empty Homes discounts following the outcome of a public consultation, and an additional increase to the Council Tax long-term Empty Homes Premium, following a consultation exercise that took place in 2018.

The report also requested the Cabinet to recommend to the Council an increase in the Exceptional Hardship Fund (EHF) budget from £150,000 to £170,000 from 2020/21 onwards.

The report provided an updated Council Tax Base for Sefton Council and each Parish area for 2020/21.

Decisions Made:     That

(1)    the contents of the review of the Council Tax Reduction Scheme for 2019/20 be noted;

(2)     the Council be recommended to make no changes to the existing Council Tax Reduction Scheme for 2020/21 for working age claimants;

(3)     the outcome of the recent consultation and equality impact assessment on the proposed changes to Council Tax Empty Homes discounts, as set out in Annex B, to the report be noted;

(4)     the Council be recommended to approve changes to discretionary Council Tax Empty Homes discounts from 1April 2020, to reduce the discount on uninhabitable properties from 50% to 0%, and to reduce the discount for the first month that a property is empty from 100% to 50%;

(5)     the Council be recommended to approve a change to the long-term Empty Homes Premium from 1April 2020, to increase the premium charged on properties that have been empty for 5 years or more from 100% to 200%;

(6)     the Council be recommended to approve the relevant 2020/21 Council Tax Base for Sefton Council and each Parish Area as set out in Annex A to the report; and

(7)     the Council be recommended to approve an increase in the Exceptional Hardship Fund budget from £150,000 to £170,000 from 2020/21 onwards.

Reasons for the Decision:

CouncilTax ReductionScheme

Each financial year the Council must consider whether to revise or replace its local Council Tax Reduction Scheme. The Council must approve and adopt the 2020/21 Council Tax Reduction scheme by 11 March 2020, as set out in the Council Tax Reduction Scheme (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2017.

This report comments on the impact of various changes made to the scheme in recent years together with the impact of the Government’s Welfare Reform changes. After consideration of the factors outlined later in the report, it is proposed that the local Council Tax Reduction Scheme for 2020/21 remains unchanged for working age claimants.

Council Tax Empty Homes Discounts

Reducing the level of support offered by the current discretionary local empty homes’ discounts may encourage owners of empty homes to bring them into use more quickly. It would remove the current favourable treatment of empty homes, encourage better use of local  ...  view the full minutes text for item 93