Issue - meetings

Report FSD24003

The report provided information regarding the performance of the Revenues Services provided by Liberata for the period 1 April to 30 November 2023. A letter from Bola Odunsi, Liberata’s Regional Director (London and the Southeast), provided an update on each of the individual services and was attached at Appendix 1 of the report with statistical data relating to the Revenues Service attached at Appendix 2.  

In response to a question, the representative from Liberata confirmed that where mistakes occurred they were reviewed and lessons learnt with the aim of ensuring that mistakes were not repeated.  A Member suggested that it would be helpful for the next report to have a short update covering mistakes that had been made and what had been done to correct the mistakes.

In response to a question about the drop in the rates of collection in respect of Nightly Paid Accommodation Charges, the Liberata representative confirmed that there was little expectation that things would improve in the short term as household budgets were finely balanced and households were having to prioritise their expenditure.

Concerning the reference to “propensity to pay”, representatives from Liberata explained that the tool analysed customers’ ability to pay and would allow the service to initially focus resources to enable a higher return.  The tool would also enable the right intervention or solution at the right time.

RESOLVED: That the Portfolio Holder be recommended to agree a temporary revision to the Council Tax Arrears Incentive Scheme for years 2024/25 and 2025/26 with a review at the beginning of 2026/27.  The details of the proposal are set out in the accompanying Part 2 Appendix.

The Committee noted and discussed the Part 2 information.