The Shared Revenues Partnership Joint Committee met to discuss a service report, a forward plan, and a revenues update. Some of the discussion was expected to be held in exclusion of the public and press.

Shared Revenues Partnership Service Report

The committee was scheduled to review the performance, finances, and key achievements of the Shared Revenues Partnership (SRP) ¹ from 1 April to 31 July 2025, according to the SRP Service Report.

The report included updates on:

• Benefits Team Performance: The report pack included a review of the Benefits Team's performance, with data on the average time to process new Housing Benefit claims and changes of circumstance. The report stated that performance remained within target, though there had been an increase in processing times due to resource reductions.
• Council Tax Reduction (CTR) Claims: The report stated that the year-end position for 2024/25 showed an improvement against the previous year, with in-year performance showing further improvement due to automated changes made possible by the Local Council Tax Reduction scheme.
• Financial Accuracy: The report stated that year-to-date performance was exceeding the target for 2024/25, with all partners currently at 100% financial accuracy.
• Local Authority Error (LAE): The level of LAE as of 31 July 2025, was said to be below the threshold level of 0.48% for all partners.
• Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP): The report stated that while the funding level for 2025/26 was the same as for 2024/25, the spend in 2025 when compared to the same point last year, was noticeably higher.
• Benefit Caseload: The report included the current caseload for CTR and combined Housing Benefit and CTR.
• Housing Benefit Award Accuracy (HBAA) Initiative: The report stated that SRP suspended work on Full Case Reviews (FCR) in June and July due to workloads arising from 2025/6 Annual Billing, but had resumed work in August.
• Council Tax Support for residents of Mid Suffolk District Council: The report stated that Mid Suffolk Council had agreed to an award of Council Tax Support to residents in receipt of Council Tax Reduction who still had a balance of Council Tax to pay, using discretionary powers from Section 13A 1 (c) of the Local Government Finance Act.
• Universal Credit (UC) Update: The report stated that the programme to move customers to Universal Credit had continued and was now migrating those on income-based Employment and Support Allowance (ESA-IR) and ESA-IR customers with Housing Benefit.
• Council Tax: The report stated that performance for the 2025/26 financial year at the end of July 2025 continued to mirror performance for 2024/25 with negligible variance across all sites, and that this would be stringently monitored as the financial year progresses.
• Business Rates: The report stated that at the end of July 2025, performance for the 2025/26 financial year had exceeded the 2024/25 position for all areas, due to the early receipt and allocation of ESFA payments.
• Business Rate Appeals: The report included an update as at 31 July 2025 in respect of checks and challenges registered and how many were still outstanding in respect of the 2017 and 2023 rating lists.
• Digital Transformation: The report stated that the volume of Council Tax move notifications notified through the online customer portal (CA-R) had remained steady, and that the number of customers who are switching to online billing continues to grow.
• SRP Finance Report: The report set out the current financial position of the Shared Revenues Partnership for the financial year 2025/26, as at month 5 (up to the 31st August 2025).

The report pack included two appendices:

• Appendix A - Performance Statistics
• Appendix B - TelSolutions pilot results

Forward Plan

The committee was scheduled to discuss a Forward Plan, outlining the schedule of committee items and proposed agenda items for future meetings.

The following items were listed in the forward plan:

• 19th November 2025: Service Report, Revenues Update, and Forward Plan
• 21 January 2026: Head of Service Report, Revenues Update, and Forward Plan
• 11th March 2026: Head of Service Report, Revenues Update, and Forward Plan