Issue - meetings

To consider a report by Councillor Julian Thompson-Hill, Lead Member for Finance, Performance and Assets (copy enclosed) seeking Cabinet approval of the Corporate Policy: Income, Fees and Charges.

RESOLVED that Cabinet approves the ‘Corporate Policy: Income Fees and Charges’ document attached as an appendix to the report.

Councillor Julian Thompson-Hill presented the report seeking Cabinet approval of the Corporate Policy: Income, Fees and Charges setting out the Council’s approach to income generation and charging for services.

The Council raised approximately £48m annually in various fees and charges.  Whilst procedures and responsibilities for the management of income were clearly set out in Financial Regulations, a corporate policy with strategic principles would strengthen the Council’s approach and be beneficial to budget planning.  Councillor Thompson-Hill briefly outlined the policy highlighting particular areas within the document including the scope of the policy; key charging principles and concessions.  He particularly highlighted the key principle that the assumption going forward would be to legally charge for a service unless there was a specific reason for not doing so, and that the charge would rise annually in line with inflation. 

Cabinet noted that the creation of a corporate policy relating to fees and charges had been raised in by the Wales Audit Office in previous Annual Improvement Reports with a view to strengthening its approach to income generation.  It was recognised that the policy was predominantly about bringing all the elements together in a corporate document for transparency and to ensure that all services were working to the same basic principles.  In terms of the introduction of new charges, such as for social care services, it was considered vital that an appropriate public engagement strategy was employed and to be sensitive to the needs of the public.  Some discussion focused on the need to benchmark the level of charges against other service sectors to ensure they reflected the current market value and it was confirmed that this element had already been written in to the policy.

Councillor Meirick Davies raised concerns about additional charges imposed by the Council when paying in cash for services.  The Head of Finance advised that it generally cost less to collect payments via direct debit and therefore electronic payments were encouraged.  He agreed to look further into the matter and report back to Councillor Davies directly thereon.

RESOLVED that Cabinet approves the ‘Corporate Policy: Income Fees and Charges’ document attached as an appendix to the report.