Agenda, decisions and minutes

Notification of substitute members were recorded as set out below:

·       Cllr Dalton substituting for Cllr Base

·       Cllr Lark substituting for Cllr Heslop

·       Cllr Thornewell substituting for Cllr Dean

In accordance with Council Procedure Rules 17.5 to 17.9 these Councillors had the same rights as the ordinary member of the committee for whom they were substituting.

Members are reminded of their obligation under the Council’s Code of Conduct to disclose any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests and Other Significant Interests in any matter(s) to be considered or being considered at the meeting. These are explained in the Code of Conduct on the Council’s website at Code of conduct for members – Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council (tmbc.gov.uk).

Members in any doubt about such declarations are advised to contact Legal or Democratic Services in advance of the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest made in accordance with the Code of Conduct.

To confirm as a correct record the Notes of the meeting of the Finance, Regeneration and Property Scrutiny Select Committee held on 15 November 2022.

RESOLVED:  That the notes of the meeting of the Finance, Regeneration and Property Scrutiny Select Committee held on 15 November 2022 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

The purpose of this report is to list sites in the ownership of the Borough Council and seek Members’ views in advance of correspondence from the Local Planning Authority in respect of the Local Plan.

In preparing the Local Plan, the Council, acting as the Local Planning Authority, would be writing to all landowners whose sites were identified in the Urban Capacity Study (UCS) to seek additional information about those sites, which would include the Council itself as landowner.

The joint report of the Leader, the Cabinet Member for Finance, Innovation and Property and the Director of Central Services & Deputy Chief Executive sought Members’ views on the list of Council owned sites, as set out in Annex A, which were suggested to be unavailable for development through the initial information gathering process.

Members had regard to the sites identified to be inappropriate for development at this stage, the legal implications and the financial and value for money considerations detailed in the report and sought clarity around the remaining Council owned sites as identified by the Urban Capacity Study.  In response, Members were advised that once the analysis of the remaining sites had been completed, a further report would be presented to the Committee for consideration.

RECOMMENDED: That all sites set out at Annex A to the report, be considered as unavailable for development when formally responding to the letter from the Local Planning Authority, once received, regarding TMBC owned sites identified in the Urban Capacity Study.

* Referred to Cabinet

A report giving details of two new discretionary rate relief schemes and a new council tax support scheme for 2023/24.

The report gave details of two new discretionary rate relief schemes and a new council tax support fund policy for 2023/24.

It was noted that in respect of the two discretionary rate relief schemes, the Government expected billing authorities to apply and grant relief to qualifying ratepayers from the start of the 2023/24 billing year, and with regard to the council tax support fund policy, the Government expected billing authorities to apply the reductions to the 2023/24 council tax bills.  Therefore, both the aforementioned schemes and the policy had been applied in accordance with the Government’s expectations.

RECOMMENDED: That

(1)      a scheme for the 2023/24 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Relief, as set out in Annex 1, be retrospectively adopted;

(2)      a scheme for the 2023 Supporting Small Business Relief, as set out in Annex 2, be retrospectively adopted;

(3)      a policy for the 2023/24 Council Tax Support Fund, as set out in Annex 3, be retrospectively adopted;

(4)      delegated authority be granted to the Revenues Manager to award, revise or revoke business rates reliefs in accordance with the adopted schemes subject to any disputed entitlement to relief being referred to the Director of Finance & Transformation; and

(5)      delegated authority be granted to the Director of Finance & Transformation to make technical amendments to the Council Tax Support Fund as per para 10.1 of the policy set out in Annex 3.

*Decision Taken by Cabinet Member  

A report detailing performance information in respect of council tax, business rates, council tax reduction and housing benefits.

Members noted the recent developments in respect of council tax, business rates, council tax reduction and housing benefits as detailed in the report of the Director of Finance and Transformation.

Collection rates for council tax and business rates were currently above target.   Despite expectations that the situation with rising energy payments and the general cost of living would have a detrimental impact on collection, the collection rates were ahead of the amount collected in the same period the previous year.

A number of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are presented to enable the Scrutiny Select Committee to assess and scrutinise performance.

Members received a list of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that were relevant to the committee.  A baseline covering April to June 2022 had been used, with the data for October to December 2022 representing the most up-to-date available statistics.  The KPIs would be monitored on a quarterly-annual basis and would be made available on an ongoing basis.  

Members were requested to submit any questions regarding the KPIs to the relevant Director/Chief Executive at least two days in advance of the meeting in order to ensure that a suitable response could be provided at the meeting.

The Work Programme setting out matters to be scrutinised is attached for information.  Members can suggest future items by liaising with the Chair of the Committee.  

The Work Programme setting out matters to be scrutinised during 2022/23 was attached for information.  Members were invited to suggest future matters by liaising with the Chair of the Committee. 

The Chairman to move that the press and public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting during consideration of any items the publication of which would disclose exempt information.

There were no items considered in private.