Purpose

To approve the refreshed Council Tax
Discretionary Relief Policy.

Decision

ROTHERHAM METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL

 

RECORD OF OFFICER EXECUTIVE DECISION

 

Date of Decision:

24th October 2023

Title:

Council Tax Empty Charges
 

Decision Maker:
(Including Job
Title)

Judith Badger
Strategic Director of Finance and Customer Services

Details of Specific Cabinet
Delegation
or Delegation contained in the
relevant Sub-Scheme of Delegation.
 

Section 9 of the constitution, sub-section 4C.5
 

Decision:

To
approve the refreshed Council Tax Discretionary Relief
Policy
 

Reasons for the
Decision:

The
existing Council Tax Discretionary Relief Policy was produced in
2013. A refresh of the qualifying criteria was required to allow
awards to be made in a small number of exceptional cases where the
Council may wish to award relief, but which were not covered by the
existing policy as they did not meet the exceptional financial
hardship criteria (section 3.1).
 
Additionally, the section regarding appeals needed to be updated
due to changes to guidance and the section on equality inserted to
bring it up to date in line with Council practices and procedures
(section 7 & 8).
 

Details of alternative
options considered and rejected:

Different qualifying criteria options were considered however
these were ruled out as they would potentially open relief to a
wide range of empty properties the council would not wish to
support.
 

Conflicts of interest
declared by any Cabinet Member consulted by the decision maker
which relates to the decision:

No
conflicts of interest

Dispensations
Granted:
(If any)

None
 

Reports or parts of
reports considered

Council Tax Empty Charges
 
Robert Cutts,
Head
of Service, Revenues, Benefits & Payments

 
I certify that this is a true
record of the executive decision toapprove the refreshed Council
Tax Discretionary Relief Policy
 
Signed by the Decision Maker  
Dated:
24/10/2023 
 

 
Name:
Judith Badger                            
Job
Title:Strategic Director of Finance
and Customer Services