|
Title |
Fees and Charges budget for 2025/26 |
|
Purpose of the report |
To review and agree the Fees and Charges for 2025-26 |
|
Report Author |
Mahmud Rogers Joint Financial Services Manager |
|
Ward(s) Affected |
All Wards |
|
Exempt |
No |
|
Exemption Reason |
n/a |
|
Corporate Priority |
Resilience |
|
Recommendations
|
Committee is asked to review and agree the Fees and Charges for 2025-26 |
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Reason for Recommendation |
Councils have a statutory duty to balance their budgets. |
1. Summary of the report
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What is the situation |
Why we want to do something |
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• A robust budget planning process helps organisations to manage their resources with economy, efficiency and effectiveness |
• To have a robust and sustainable 2025/26 budget that meets the needs of the service and provides a resilient financial position to the Council as a whole. • The 2025/26 Budget planning process commenced in May 2024 and must be completed and approved by Council in February 2025. |
|
This is what we want to do about it |
These are the next steps |
|
• Committee reviews and agrees provisionally the Fees and Charges |
• Agree Fees and Charges for the Committee to put forward to the Council for 2025-26 |
1.1 This report seeks to present the Fees and Charges for 2025/26.
2. Key issues
2.1 The attached appendix gives a list of Fees and Charges broken down by Committee. The Fees and Charges in the schedule reflect the fees and charges which have been considered and agreed by individual service committees in the previous committee round.
2.2 Fees and charges proposals have been rounded in line with previous guidance from this Committee. The Community Wellbeing and Housing Committee had a robust debate around whether and by how much the fee for meals for the Meals on Wheels service should be increased. The Committee agreed to increase the price by £1, to reduce the level of subsidy, catch up with the impact of inflation (the fee had not been increased since 2020) and to protect the viability of the service.
2.3 Markets on High Streets are generally in decline and have been for a few years. Staines Market continues to operate against this backdrop and a range of other pressures, and benchmarking has identified that our current market fees are already higher than some other comparable markets. Market fees are therefore not proposed to be increased this year but will be kept under review for future years.
3. Options analysis and proposal
3.1 The Committee has the opportunity to comment on any of the fees and charges
4. Financial management comments
4.1 Proposed fees and charges have been included in the detailed budget. The overall budgeted increase in income from fees and charges is expected to be £264,200, a rise from £8,191,400 for 2024/25 to £8,455,600 for 2025/26. If the Fees and Charges increases proposed were not agreed, this would then create a Budget gap which would need to be addressed by offsetting savings.
5. Risk management comments
5.1 Increases in fees and charges may fail to generate a desired increase in revenue of the volume of customer demand falls.
6. Procurement comments
6.1 n/a
7. Legal comments
7.1 Councils have a statutory duty to set a balanced budget.
8. Other considerations
8.1 n/a
9. Equality and Diversity
9.1 n/a
10. Sustainability/Climate Change Implications
10.1 n/a
11. Timetable for implementation
11.1 Fees and Charges for 2025/26 should be agreed with final budget and Council Tax resolution by Council 22nd February 2025
12. Contact
12.1 Mahmud Rogers, Joint Financial Services Manager m.rogers@spelthorne.gov.uk
Background papers: There are none.
Appendices:
Appendix 1 – SBC Fees and Charges by Committee
Appendix 2 - E&S Fees and charges budget summary
Appendix 3 - Business Infrastructure & Growth - Fees and Charges budget summary
Appendix 4 - CWHC Fees and charges budget summary
Appendix 5 - CPRC Fees and charges budget summary