Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health Integration introduced the performance report covering the first quarter of the 2022/23 financial year in respect of the Council’s debt management functions.

The Cabinet Member commented that, following on from the discussions earlier in the meeting, it was clear that the cost-of-living crisis was already starting to impact on the local community, as evidenced by a downturn in collection rates in areas including Council Tax, commercial and residential rents, General Income and Homecare.  While the Council had been proactive with the range of support and intervention measures that it had already introduced, it was apparent that the situation needed to be closely monitored to ensure that there was an appropriate balance between supporting the local community through the cost-of-living crisis and ensuring that residents and businesses made every effort to pay monies due to the Council, in order to protect local service provision.

The Cabinet Member also alluded to the proposed amendment to the Council’s uncollectable debts write-off arrangements to reflect responsibility changes at Head of Service level and confirmed that the proposal did not vary the authorisation levels previously agreed by Cabinet.

Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Note the performance of the debt management function carried out by the Council’s Revenues service, including the pressure on collection rates as a result of the cost-of-living crisis;

(ii)  Note progress of the £150 energy rebate distribution to residents and actions taken to ensure maximum uptake, as described in paragraph 3.5 of the report; and

(iii)  Approve the amendment to the Council’s uncollectable debts write-off arrangements to reflect the renaming of the Revenues and Benefits service to the Collections and Welfare service, as set out in paragraph 11.4 of the report.