Issue - meetings

The material relevant to this item is the report on pages 25 to 28 in the agenda and its appendix on pages 79 to 83 of the agenda supplement considered by the Cabinet at its meeting on Tuesday 6 November 2018.

RECOMMENDATION TO THE COUNCIL

That the amended Non-Domestic Rate Discretionary Scheme for 2017-2021 be approved.

The Council considered the recommendation made to it by the Cabinet at its meeting on Tuesday 6 November 2018, as set out in the Cabinet report (pages 25 to 28 of the Cabinet agenda and pages 79 to 83 of the agenda supplement).  

Mrs E Lintill (Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Community Services) formally moved the Cabinet’s recommendation and this was seconded by Mr A Dignum (Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Growth and Place).

Mrs Lintill presented the Cabinet’s recommendation by summarising the report with particular reference to:

·       Section 3: (a) the discretionary fund available for four years from 2017 to assist businesses to adjust to the revaluation of non-domestic rates and (b) the lower than expected take-up rate in the first year, due principally (despite initial and repeated publicity by CDC) to a reticence to apply because of the state aid rules.

·       Section 5: how in the remaining three years of the scheme, payments to eligible customers would be maximised and a repetition of the first-year underspend would be avoided – the increases in the fixed percentage awards for the next three years were set out in the table in para 5.1 of the report. The recent budget changes would not affect this amended scheme.

·       Section 8: in the recent consultation West Sussex County Council had noted with approval the proposed changes and Sussex Police had no comments (it was a statutory consultee but the scheme had no financial implications for it).  

Mr A Moss (Fishbourne and Leader of the Opposition) commended the changes to the scheme and said (with reference to the question he asked at the Annual Council meeting on Tuesday 22 May 2018 about the underspend of the funds for the 2017-2018 allocation) that whilst the lower volume of applicants was disappointing he accepted that CDC had done all it could to encourage applications to be made.

Decision

On a show of hands the members voted in favour of the Cabinet’s recommendation with no votes against and no abstentions. 

RESOLVED

That the Council Tax Reduction Scheme for 2019-2020 be approved.

The Cabinet is requested to consider the agenda report and its appendix in the agenda supplement and to make the following recommendation to the Council:

That the amended Non-Domestic Rate Discretionary Scheme for 2017-2021 be approved.         

RECOMMENDATION TO THE COUNCIL

That the amended Non-Domestic Rate Discretionary Scheme for 2017-2021 be approved.

The Cabinet received and considered the agenda report and its appendix in the agenda supplement.

This item was presented by Mrs E Lintill (Cabinet Member for Community Services).

Mr P Jobson (Revenues Operations Manager Revenues and Performance) was in attendance for this matter.

Mrs Lintill summarised the report with particular reference to sections 3 and 5, including how it was proposed to distribute CDC’s full allocation to eligible businesses as efficiently and effectively as possible for the next three years to 2020-2021 and thereby avoid a repeat of the underspend for 2018-2019 (in many cases businesses had been reticent to apply because of the state aid rules).

Mr Jobson provided an oral update (as intimated in para 8.4 of the report) on the recent consultation. West Sussex County Council had noted with approval the proposed changes. Sussex Police had no comments; it was a statutory consultee but the scheme had no financial implications for it. The underspend in the first year, due principally to the state aid rules, was disappointing but the proposed changes would address that issue. 

Decision

The Cabinet voted unanimously to make the recommendation set out below.    

RECOMMENDATION TO THE COUNCIL

That the amended Non-Domestic Rate Discretionary Scheme for 2017-2021 be approved.