Budget Proposals 2025/26: Create a voluntary charitable contribution (via Council Tax payments) scheme
Help us balance our budget.
Consultation status Open - 35 days left
Background
West Berkshire Council is required to collect council tax from the households within the district. The revenue collected is used alongside grants and business rates revenue to fund both statutory and discretionary services.
Find the current arrangements for council tax charging and collection here.
Statutory services are services which the council must fund, for example, education, elections, licensing, waste collection and disposal. You can find a summary of these statutory services here.
Discretionary services are services that individual councils choose to fund based on local decisions and need, for example, economic development, maintain parks and open spaces.
In light of the Council's financial position and well-documented funding challenges across local government, there is a need to identify new ways of generating additional income in support of local services, in particular those which are discretionary.
Legislative and Statutory Requirements
Council tax is a compulsory charge levied on all residential properties within the district and contributes to the cost of local services.
What we are proposing
To create a voluntary scheme which would allow residents to make an additional charitable contribution on top of their council tax payments.
A charitable trust, whose board will comprise both local authority and community members, will be established to collect all voluntary contributions. These contributions will be ringfenced and will only be used to finance the discretionary services which are identified and selected for support on an annual basis by the charitable trust.
The principle of this scheme was inspired by Westminster Council, which introduced a scheme whereby residents in Band G and H properties make a voluntary contribution to an arms-length charity. The Council administers the charitable scheme on behalf of the charitable trust (including communications, engagement, information letters etc as well as finance and legal support). Now in its sixth year, the scheme has raised just under £2m and generates approximately £300,000 per year.
Although it is not possible to calculate the likely revenue generation in West Berkshire, we believe this scheme has the potential to have a positive impact on the whole district, as any monies raised will be used to enhance discretionary services identified by the charitable trust established in support.
What we think the impact will be
The introduction of a voluntary scheme will not have a negative impact as only residents who choose to make a contribution, and can afford to do so, will be impacted.
Please refer to the Equity Impact Assessment to see what has already been identified [260KB] .
What else we have considered before arriving at our proposal
No other options to increase income in this area have been identified.
Why we want your views
We'd like to know what you think about our proposal and, if we decide to proceed with the scheme, what discretionary services the voluntary contributions collected should help fund.
How to take part
If you'd like to comment on our proposal, please complete our survey by midnight on Monday, 23 December 2024. It should take about 10 minutes.
If you have any questions about the consultation, please email our Transformation Team.
You can find out how to play our West Berkshire Lottery here. From every £1 ticket you buy, 60p will go to local good causes in West Berkshire and improving our community.
What happens next
All feedback will be analysed by the service, and a recommendation made to elected Members as part of the budget papers for 2025/26 at the Executive meeting on Thursday, 13 February 2025. A final decision whether to proceed with the proposal will then be made by elected Members at the meeting of Full Council on Thursday, 27 February 2025.
The recommendations will also be reviewed and discussed by members of the Scrutiny Commission on Tuesday, 11 February 2025.
Shortly after the Full Council meeting, a summary of the responses we received and the decisions taken will be published on this page.
All meetings will be open to the public, and residents can attend either in person at the Market Street Offices or online. If you'd like to ask a West Berkshire Councillor a question at a public meeting, find out what can and can't be asked, and how to submit your question here.
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