Agenda item

To consider the attached report (FPM-017-2018/19).

The Assistant Director Accountancy presented a report on the fees and charges that would be levied by the Council in 2019/20 and, if any, increases that could be made.

The Medium Term Financial Strategy had identified the need to find savings of £600,000, £300,000 in both 2020/21 and 2021/22, which was over and above the £2.5m (£1.7m General Fund) savings from the implementation of the People  Strategy. The Revenue Support Grant funding was set to be phased out in 2019/20 and there had been no real information on funding levels from 2020/21 onwards with the Council having to fund all the General Fund services from the Council Tax, Retained Business Rates and Fees and Charges.

There was little scope of increasing income through fees and charges with the exception of parking charges, and increases of 2% or 3% would not have a particularly significant impact on overall income levels. Charges were to be set at a level to fully recover costs where possible and prevent the General Taxpayer subsidising those services.

The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) was at 2.7% and the Consumer Price Inflation Householders (CPIH) which included housing costs and employee related inflation were around 2.3%.

The Assistant Director Accountancy advised that the following fees and charges had been put forward as follows; 

Community and Partnership Services – The charges made for the use of the Limes Centre would be increased in line with inflation, rounding to the nearest 50p and the Council’s Museum, Heritage and Culture (MHC) service levy had been increased after taking into consideration the cost of the provision provided.

Housing and Property Services - Housing-Related Fees and Charges for 2019/20 were to be increases by around 2.3%.

Planning Services - Development Control fee levels were controlled by Central Government and the Council had been able to increase the charges by 20% in January 2018, under the proviso that the additional income would be used for planning related services. The pre-application charges were to remain at the same level as 2018/19 for 2019/20 and Local Land Charges were undergoing significant change and migration to the Land Registry system. This was expected to be completed by December 2019 with a report to Cabinet due shortly and fees and charges being reviewed for the 2020/21 financial year.

Contract & Technical Services - The fees and charges relating to Car Parking Charges were being reported to the Cabinet separately. The MOT charges were subject to a maximum charge set by the Vehicle Operating Service Agency (VOSA) which was currently £54.85 and the Council had determined a fee of £45 for trade and £50 normal customers would be competitive. The cost for the collection of bulk waste was subject to an annual index linked increase in line with the Waste Management contract and the general uplift for fees and charges relating to the Leisure Centres were in line with the retail prices index within the leisure contract.

Commercial & Regulatory Services - Public Hire licence fees were set by the Local Government (miscellaneous provisions) Act 1976 and other forms of licensing were based on cost recovery only.The fees relating to the Gambling Act 2005 were set locally and were unchanged from 2018/19.

Building Control Fees were ring-fenced into the Building Control Charging Account and apart from rationalising charges in 2017; fee levels remained unchanged since 2011. Therefore, it was proposed that fees were increased by an average of 5% but the exact fee structure had yet to be determined.

Governance and Member Services - The main area of fees related to the recharging of legal work, which in many cases were too low and did not properly recover costs. Therefore, it was proposed that new fees were introduced from 1 January 2019 and a more detailed review would be undertaken to ensure that costs were fully recovered.

The Cabinet Committee agreed with increases relating to the legal work and asked that the review include benching marking against the market place and commercial services. Furthermore, Councillor J Philip commented on the Limes Centre charges in that, normally a full days usage fee of a venue would be slightly less than the cost of a half day fee, to encourage use. The Assistant Director Accountancy advised that he would investigate this issue.

Recommended:

(1)          That the proposed fees and charges for 2019/20, as set out in the appendices attached to the minutes, be approved; and

(2)          That the proposed schedule of Housing Revenue Account fees and charges for 2019/20 be approved.

Reasons for Decision

As part of the annual budget process changes to fees and charges needed to be agreed.

Other Options Considered and Rejected

Where the Council had discretion on the level of fees and charges that it set, there were many possible options open to the Council ranging between no increase up to applying quite large increase where justifiable.