Question from Councillor Williams to the Leader of the Council:
‘Further to the Motion put forward at Full Council on 10th February 2022 which proposed increasing Council Tax (CT) payments for dwellings that are unoccupied and substantially unfurnished for more than five and ten years – which was defeated, and reports indicating that there is difficulty experienced when collecting CT from the owners of unoccupied dwellings that are required to pay 150% of CT, could the Leader of the Council tell me what the collection rate is for those CT payers who have empty properties, and who are required to pay CT at 150% of the normal charge?’
Question from Councillor S Whyte to the Leader of the Council:
‘The last formal monthly update to Members on the status of all outstanding Planning Enforcement cases across the Borough, was received in October 2020. Now that the Enforcement Team has increased from 3 to 5 Officers when will monthly updates recommence?’
Minutes:
Councillor Williams asked the Leader of the Council the following question:
‘Further to the Motion put forward at Full Council on 10th February 2022 which proposed increasing Council Tax (CT) payments for dwellings that are unoccupied and substantially unfurnished for more than five and ten years – which was defeated, and reports indicating that there is difficulty experienced when collecting CT from the owners of unoccupied dwellings that are required to pay 150% of CT, could the Leader of the Council tell me what the collection rate is for those CT payers who have empty properties, and who are required to pay CT at 150% of the normal charge?’
The Leader of the Council responded as follows:
‘As at 31st March 2022 there were 148 Properties that were recorded as paying the additional charge of 150%.
Out of those, 26 are Runnymede Borough Council owned and go via Commercial Services (All paid in full).
11 are Runnymede Borough Council Owned (All paid in full).
1 is Leisure Services (Paid in full).
So remaining 110 Accounts of which only 4 are not paid in full at the end of the financial year and recovery action is progressing.
How this affects our collection rates:
Net debit for 2021 at year end is £2,507,460.52.
2021 debt for Empty Premium accounts at year end £10,224.58 2020 and older debt for Empty premium Accounts at year end £10,807.18 (same accounts as 2021).
Empty Premium debt for 2021 is 0.41% of the net collectable debit outstanding and for both 2021 and older is 0.84% of the net debit. Whilst a small % overall, for those properties where owners are abroad, there is very little the Council can do to recover the money until it gets to over £5000 where we can put a charge on the property but cannot force a sale’.
A Member commented that from the figures reported there did not appear to be a difficulty in collection of Council Tax on unoccupied properties.
Councillor S Whyte asked the Leader of the Council the following question:
‘The last formal monthly update to Members on the status of all outstanding Planning Enforcement cases across the Borough, was received in October 2020. Now that the Enforcement Team has increased from 3 to 5 Officers when will monthly updates recommence?’
The Leader of the Council responded as follows:
"The Council has recently grown the Enforcement team to 4.7 FTE including two new trainee Enforcement Officers. This is an important milestone for the service, and staff training is underway and it is considered that the service will approach full capacity in the Summer.
Now that the staff growth has been achieved, the service will now review various Enforcement processes and procedures including the adopted Enforcement Policy as well as considering appropriate updating mechanisms for elected Members and the public on key cases.
The most appropriate mechanism for reporting updates on key cases will be discussed with the Planning Committee by the Corporate Head of Development Management and Building Control in the coming months with a view to finding the right balance for providing an appropriate level of updates without using up significant enforcement officer capacity doing so."
Cllr S Whyte hoped that the most appropriate mechanism for reporting updates would be discussed sooner rather than later.
The Leader of the Council responded that the most effective ways of reporting accurate information to Members would be looked at as soon as possible after the Election.