Issue - meetings

Decision:

To not adopt the CAB Protocol now; but, that officers revisit the issues (including cost of compliance) when looking at future working with Waverley to ensure consistency and best practice moving forward.

Reason(s):

Having reviewed the protocol the benefits do not currently outweigh the cost of compliance, given that the Council already meets the overarching aims of the protocol and service levels are acknowledged as good.  However, reviewing the issues when looking at future working with Waverley will ensure consistency and best practice moving forward.

Other options considered and rejected by the Executive:

a   Adopt the Protocol and address all the issues so that we can meet its requirements.  There is a financial cost attached to this that cannot be quantified at the present time.  In addition, whilst the required activities may be perceived to be “best practice” officers have not identified that they will lead to substantial benefits.

b   Do not adopt the Protocol on the basis that the Council has a good working relationship with local advice agencies and for the most part fulfil the overarching aims of each section.

Details of any conflict of interest declared by the Leader or lead councillors and any dispensation granted:

None

In the absence of the Lead Councillor for Resources, the Leader introduced the report. The Leader took this report in advance of the Debt Recovery Policy report as he considered it a more logical sequence for discussion.

The Council Tax Protocol was initially developed in 2017 by the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) in partnership with the Local Government Association (LGA) and offered practical steps aimed at preventing people from getting into debt and outlined how to ensure enforcement agents acted within the law. By July 2021 the protocol had been adopted by 63 local authorities in England and 251 had not. At a meeting of full Council held on 28 July 2020, it was agreed that the Director of Resources would review the CAB and Local Government Association’s LGA “Revised Collection of Council Tax Arrears Good Practice Protocol” and report back to the relevant Executive Advisory Board (EAB) in regard to how the Council's approach differed from the protocol and if those differences should be reconciled by adoption of the protocol by this council. The Council already met the overarching aims of the protocol in regard to partnership working and fairness in the billing process, alongside information of where to get support and advice. Enforcement was the very last option open to the Council, vulnerability and hardship had been taken into account. The full differences between the CAB protocol and the Council’s current approach were set out in the report. It was noted that there would be a cost incurred to meet all of the CAB requirements within the protocol but the benefits of doing so not demonstrably clear.

A means by which the Council could move closer towards meeting all requirements in the CAB protocol would be to adopt a debt policy which would be considered as the next agenda item.

The Service Delivery EAB considered the existing arrangements to be comprehensive and robust but recommended that the matter be revisited as collaboration with Waverley Borough Council progressed. It was considered a review in one year’s time would be appropriate. It was noted that, to date, Waverley had not adopted the protocol either. The Vice Chairman of the Service Delivery EAB was in attendance and provided a verbal report of the recommendations made to the Executive.

The Executive commended the service for the support it provided to the borough’s more financially vulnerable residents, and

RESOLVED:

To not adopt the CAB Protocol now; but that officers revisit the issues (including cost of compliance) when looking at future working with Waverley to ensure consistency and best practice moving forward.

Reasons:

Having reviewed the protocol the benefits do not currently outweigh the cost of compliance, given that the Council already meets the overarching aims of the protocol and service levels are acknowledged as good.  However, reviewing the issues when looking at future working with Waverley will ensure consistency and best practice moving forward.

On 28 July 2020, the Council authorised the Director of Resources to review the Citizens’ Advice Bureau (CAB) / Local Government Association (LGA) ‘Revised Collection of Council Tax Arrears Good Practice Protocol’ and to report back to the EAB with details as to where the Council's current approach to the collection of Council Tax arrears differed from the Protocol.  This would enable the EAB to make an informed recommendation to the Executive regarding the adoption of the Protocol.

The Lead Councillor for Resources introduced a report regarding the outcome of the review which invited the EAB to recommend that the Council should not adopt the CAB / LGA Protocol and instead support the adoption of a Corporate Debt Recovery Policy.

The Revenues and Benefits Lead presented the report and highlighted various details including the statutory Council Tax recovery process and financial assistance available to people via the Local Council Tax Support (LCTS) Scheme.  The Protocol was divided into three sections: Partnership Working, Information and Recovery and the report considered the detailed requirements and identified the Council’s approach to each and where it differed.  The report concluded that the Council had a good working relationship with the local advice agencies addressing issues as and when they arose and that documentation and information available to the public via the Council’s telephone line and website were reviewed regularly.  Debtors were signposted to advice agencies through all channels and cases were passed to enforcement agents only when other avenues had failed.

The EAB was advised that the review of the Protocol had found that the related benefits did not outweigh the cost of compliance, given that the Council already met the overarching aims of the Protocol.  Although the adoption of a Corporate Debt Recovery Policy would not render the Council compliant with the Protocol, it would enhance the information available to Council Tax payers.

In addition to the report, the EAB received a Summary of LCTS Statistics as at 1 May 2021 for background information.  The Summary provided the numbers of live cases by Council Tax property band and by receipt of different percentages of LCTS reduction, the spread of working age claims across the Borough, the reasons for nil awards, working age household types and working age percentage of Council Tax reduction.

The following points for forwarding to the Executive arose from related questions, comments and discussion:

1.           In response to a question concerning the reason for 251 out of the 314 billing authorities not adopting the Protocol, it was felt that approaching the 251 councils to ascertain their reason for non-adoption would present a considerable amount of work with an anticipated low response rate.  An alternative of making enquiries of a selection of peer local authorities in Surrey and nearby counties was suggested to obtain their reasons for adoption or otherwise.  The Council was not under pressure from local advice agencies to adopt the Protocol.

2.           Ash and Guildford CABs had been approached by officers during summer 2020 and neither had expressed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36