Issue - decisions

Date of Decision:

24^th October 2023

Title:

Council Tax Empty Charges

Decision Maker:

(Including Job Title)

Judith Badger

Strategic Director of Finance and Customer Services

Details of Specific Cabinet Delegation

or Delegation contained in the relevant Sub-Scheme of Delegation.

Section 9 of the constitution, sub-section 4C.5

Decision:

To approve the refreshed Council Tax Discretionary Relief Policy

Reasons for the Decision:

The existing Council Tax Discretionary Relief Policy was produced in 2013. A refresh of the qualifying criteria was required to allow awards to be made in a small number of exceptional cases where the Council may wish to award relief, but which were not covered by the existing policy as they did not meet the exceptional financial hardship criteria (section 3.1).

Additionally, the section regarding appeals needed to be updated due to changes to guidance and the section on equality inserted to bring it up to date in line with Council practices and procedures (section 7 & 8).

Details of alternative options considered and rejected:

Different qualifying criteria options were considered however these were ruled out as they would potentially open relief to a wide range of empty properties the council would not wish to support.

Conflicts of interest declared by any Cabinet Member consulted by the decision maker which relates to the decision:

No conflicts of interest

Dispensations Granted:

(If any)

None

Reports or parts of reports considered

Council Tax Empty Charges

Robert Cutts,

Head of Service, Revenues, Benefits & Payments