Meeting documents

Return to Agenda

ITEM CA7

CABINET – 17 JANUARY 2006

REVIEW OF CHARGES FOR 2006/07

Report by Head of Finance & Procurement

1. This report sets out, by way of context, a summary of the Council’s Charging Policy and then, for approval by this meeting, the proposed charges for the 2006/07 financial year. The budget proposals considered elsewhere on this agenda assume an increase in charges of 3%, and this report highlights those areas of service where the change in charge has been varied from this general level of increase.

Council’s Corporate Charging Policy

2. The Council adopted its current corporate charging policy in October 2002, following a review by the then Best Value Committee. The Policy was designed to ensure that:

• charges are levied on a clear and consistent basis across the Council’s services;
• the level of charges is both consistent and fair, and takes proper account of the ability of customers to afford the service; and
• charges are imposed and implemented in line with the law, and with the Council’s agreed priorities and objectives.

3. Under the Council’s Policy, the Council will:

• make charges wherever it is lawful to do so;
• set charges to recover the full cost of the service wherever it has discretion over the level of charges, except where the service provides a social benefit, is of a commercial nature (where charges should be set to maximise income), or where the charge is designed to achieve a particular income; and
• offer concessions on a fair and consistent basis for the services providing a social benefit, or where the charge is set to achieve a particular outcome.

4. The Policy also requires that the level of charges, the concessions and the total income produced should all be benchmarked against other appropriate organisations at intervals not exceeding three years.

Proposed Charges for 2006/07

5. As part of the work of the Efficiency Savings Steering Group, all Heads of Service were asked to review their charges against the Council’s Charging Policy during 2005/06. The exercise did benchmark current charging arrangements where data was available, but for the majority of areas there were no readily available benchmark data. All Heads of Service will be asked to undertake further benchmarking work during 2006/07, in line with the Council’s Charging Policy.
6. The review identified very few areas where current charging arrangements were out of line with the Charging Policy. Charges were increased in October for Fairer Charging clients in Adult Social Care to bring them in line with actual costs of service provision. It was also noted that the Outdoor Residential Centres were implementing a series of above inflation increases in charges to reduce the current level of subsidy provided by the Council on the service.
7. In other areas, the statutory charging framework, or the statutory requirement to limit charges to the actual cost of providing a service, restricted the scope for amending the current charging arrangements.
8. The work from earlier this year has been fed into the latest review in developing the charges for services for 2006/07. The proposed charges are set out in detail in the Annex (download as .xls file) to this report. A summary of the expected income from charges in 2006/07 on the basis of the proposed charges is set out below, with a comparison to the estimated income collectable this financial year.

Directorate	2005/06 £000	2006/07 £000	Change £000
Children, Young People and Families	4,462	4,623	161
Social and Community Services	18,732	19,146	414
Environment and Economy	4,141	4,593	452
Community Safety	226	224	-2
Resources	816	880	64
Total	28,377	29,466	1,089

9. The above figures exclude any increase in respect of the Fairer Charging scheme in Adult Social Care, and the charges from CFM. The charges in respect the Fairer Charging scheme are based on the actual cost of the service. The service has recently undergone a major re-tendering exercise in respect of the externally sourced home support, and is currently finalising the results of that exercise. Once the successful tenderers have been determined, and the new contract prices agreed, the charges to clients will be revised in line with the new cost of the service. The figures should be available in advance of the meeting. School meal charges will not be determined until after the Cabinet has considered the future of catering and cleaning services.
10. The change between years reflects both the proposed new charge, and changes to the assumed level of activity against which the charges will be levied.
11. The changes in income can be further analysed as follows:

	2006/07 Income (£000)
Charges Held Static	4,563
Charges increased in line with inflation (3%)	14,794
Charges increased by less than inflation	0
Charges increased by more than inflation	2,266
Charges to be determined	7,843
Total	29,466



12. The single biggest element of the charges held static relates to the on street parking account, which accounts for £2.627m of the estimated income and is subject to particular legal constraints. Of the rest, a number of the fees are covered by statute, and no increases in charge levels have been notified (£0.9m). A further £0.5m is in respect of charges within libraries, where all charges have been reviewed in terms of the need to remain competitive. Other charges within the library service have been increased above the cost of inflation to compensate for the budget shortfall where charges have been held static. A further £0.4m relates to highway maintenance charges.
13. The main components of the charges increased above inflation are the £1.0m in respect of outdoor residential centres, £0.5m in respect of marriage fees (designed to improve the financial position of the Registration Service, whilst maintaining an affordable charge, and one benchmarked against near neighbours), and £0.7m from the library service, mainly in respect of DVD and Video hire (to offset other fees held static).
14. No new areas of charge service were identified during the course of the current review of charges.

RECOMMENDATION

15. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED, subject to consideration of any advice from the Corporate Governance Scrutiny Committee, to note those charges prescribed by legislation, and to approve those charges where there is local discretion, as set out in the Annex (download as .xls file) to the report.

SUE SCANE
Head of Finance & Procurement

Background Papers: None

Contact Officer: Sean Collins, Assistant Head of Finance, Tel (01865) 815411

January 2006

Return to TOP