Issue - meetings

The Chairman invited the Revenues Manager to introduce the first of the public reports for the evening. The Revenues Manager explained the purpose of the report was to seek to clarify the Council’s policy relating to debt management of all the Council’s debts. The existing policies had been collated into this one policy for ease of use and consistency across the board.

Members enquired as to what actions had been taken regarding debt recovery during the pandemic as it was felt it was important to be somewhat lenient given the circumstances. It was confirmed that all recovery action had been postponed until the end of May 2020, at which point reminder letters had resumed. However, these had been reminder letters rather than statutory action letters. The Revenues Manager explained that in some cases, particularly for those who had been long-term furloughed or made redundant, payment terms had been extended or payments had been reduced. It was also possible for those really struggling to apply for hardship relief.

A Member of Committee enquired as to whether it would be possible to see a snapshot of the figures coming through the performance management indicators, not as a target figure but to give Members an overview of recovery action taken. The Revenues Manager confirmed this could be undertaken. There was discussion as to action to be taken should there be any concerns about Council Members not paying, for example, Council Tax. The Monitoring Officer confirmed there were options available should the situation arise.

With no further discussion it was

            RESOLVED that:

a)    the Debt Management Policy be approved; and

b)    minor policy changes be authorised by the Section 151 Officer under delegated powers.