STANDING ORDERS Appendix N - Restrictions on voting for those in council tax arrears

Restrictions on voting for those in Council Tax arrears     Members with two or more months of Council Tax arrears lose their right to vote on budgetary matters at meetings of the Council or its committees.   The Association of District Councils has advised that Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 casts its net very wide and relates to all matters concerning budgets and the level of Council Tax, whether the calculation is for the current financial year or a subsequent financial year.   Under this legislation Members are responsible for declaring their arrears at a meeting and for abstaining from voting.   Members were initially advised of this at the August meeting of Council in 1992 (Minute Number C44/ 92) and this chapter of the Member's Handbook serves to provide the same advice up to the present day.  

1  Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 applies at any time to a member of an authority, if at that time the member is due to pay council tax payments which have remained unpaid for at least two months.

2 The payments to which the section applies are any type of either sole or joint and several liability for council tax, and any failure to pay any agreed sum of council tax, even if they have made special contractual arrangements with the council to pay off the arrears.

 

3 If this section applies to any member, he/she, as soon as practicable at the relevant meeting, must disclose the fact that the section applies and not vote on any budgetary question.

 

4 The relevant meetings are those at which any of the following are the subject of consideration, namely:

  (a) “any calculation required by chapter 111, 1V, V of part 1 of the 1992 Act”. In particular, Chapter 111 calculations include the calculation of the budget requirement, basic amount of tax, the calculation of the tax for the different valuation bands and the basic amount of council tax to be set under Section 30.  This is a matter that normally comes to Policy and Resources in February of each year and to a Special Council in early March.   (b)   “Any recommendation, resolution or other decision which might affect the making of any such calculation”         This is an extremely wide wording and would extend well beyond merely setting the budget. It applies to virtually any matter where the financial implications directly or indirectly might affect the calculations concerning the council tax. It would therefore apply to decisions (including committee decisions) concerning the level or extent of services as well as the expenditure, receipt or forgoing of any money. (c)   “the exercise of any function under Schedules 2-4 of the 1988 and 1992 Act”

        These functions under either the 1988 or 1992 Acts concern the administration and the enforcement of council tax respectively.

 

5  Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 makes it a criminal offence for a member to vote when prohibited from doing so or to fail to make the necessary disclosure. There is a statutory defence, with the onus of proof on the member, to prove that he did not know that the section applied to him or her at the time of the meeting or that the matter in question was the subject of consideration at the meeting. Prosecutions may not be instituted except by or on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions.