Purpose

Summary

A Business Planning Report was received by
Cabinet on 16 September 2025 outlining the council’s updated
Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) to 2030/31 and the future
financial risks and challenges facing the council. 
The report also outlined the review of fees
and charges for 2026/27 and detailed that the council will review
fees and charges on an annual basis, and subject to consultation
and consideration of equality impact assessments, all revised fees
and charges should be at full cost recovery, where consideration is
given for those driven by inflation, or statute.  Legislation may also prescribe for a different
basis for charging, such as for charges to be set at a prescribed
rate, or at a reasonable charge
Cabinet on 16 September 2025 recommended that
Council approval delegation of the proposed executive fees and
charges, for implementation from 1 January 2026 to the Cabinet
Member for Financial Sustainability in consultation with the Chief
Finance Officer, and to consider them for approval with the benefit
of the consultation responses and equality impact assessment.
Please note under Land Charges, reference LC3
– Certificate of Search (LLC1) fee and reference LC6 –
CON29 ONLY fee have been slightly amended post consultation, in
line with benchmarking completed with management consultants. The
overall Full Search fee (reference - LC1) is remaining the same and
is the service used by the majority of customers. There were no
specific comments on these charges throughout the
consultation. 
This report requests authorisation for the
proposed executive fees and charges as set out in Appendix A, for
implementation from 1 January 2026.

Decisions

1.   
To authorise the proposed executive fees and charges for 2026/27
set out in Appendix A considering any consultation responses and
equality impact assessments.