Agenda item

(1)           Councillor Hoddinott indicated that in their rush to penalise tenants with the cruel bedroom tax, the Government had mistakenly charged people who have been in their home prior to 1996.  How many people in Rotherham have been affected by this and had anyone moved out of their home because of the Government’s error?

Councillor Akhtar explained that in this Coalition Government’s push to rush through this ill-conceived, cruel and unfair bedroom tax, it made a fundamental and sloppy error in drafting the legislation by mistakenly including people who have been in their home prior to 1996. So far it was known that 281 tenants have been affected in Rotherham by the error which resulted in an underpayment of £149,000 in Housing Benefit to them. The Council was in the process of rectifying the Government’s error and ensuring each tenant received the benefit that they were entitled to.  The Council was unaware of the numbers of people who may have moved home as a result of this Government error.

(2)  Councillor Middleton asked would the proposed 'selective licensing scheme' for rented residential properties in certain areas of Rotherham be self-funding, how many properties would it cover and when was it proposed to put it into force?

Councillor McNeely explained that selective licensing schemes were required by Government guidance to be self-financing and a robust business case needed to demonstrate costs and benefits. The current consultation concerned a proposal for a scheme to include approximately 2,000 properties. The consultation exercise would conclude on the 24th March. In accordance with national guidelines, the results of the local consultation exercise would be considered along with the business case for selective licensing, before making a final decision about the type of scheme that would be appropriate.

If there was a clear case to proceed with some form of scheme, the Council would be required by national guidance to serve notice of its intentions, which would take several months.  The earliest any scheme could be introduced would be around autumn of this year. 

(3)  Councillor Gilding asked if he could be supplied with income, expenditure and any surplus made from the Council’s parking charges and fines.

Councillor R. S. Russell confirmed that the figures were from the Parking Services report which was presented to the Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Development Services and approved for last financial year (2012/13):-

It should be noted that the surplus was derived from car parking charges, not from Penalty Charge Notices; the cost of employing the team of Civil Enforcement Officers was off-set by the income from penalty charge notices.

Parking Charges in the town have not changed since April, 2010 (when off-street charges were slightly increased, but on-street charges were decreased) and prices would remain static for the financial year 2014/15.

(4)  Councillor Middleton pointed out that RMBC had supported the Magna Trust financially over a number of years and asked why was the present proposed loan a secret, not only in amount, but even as to its actual existence?

The Deputy Leader confirmed that Magna was a key facility for the Borough both as a tourist attraction, education and training facility, conference, event space and local employer. 

There was no secret loan. The request by Magna for a loan was included in the publically available Cabinet agenda.  The matter was considered in the exempt part of the meeting as the report contained information relating to Magna’s financial and business affairs.  The report agreed that an £80,000 loan facility was to be made available to Magna, at a commercial rate of interest.