Council Tax 2016 Main Message to Customers

Council Tax 2016– main message to customers:

The Council has set its Council Tax at £1,543.64 for a band D property, an overall increase of 1.96 per cent – once the GLA element, or precept, is included.

This will mean residents in a band D property will pay 57p per week more.

It is only the second time in six years that we have increased Council Tax.

This figure includes an increase of 1.99 per cent towards meeting our funding budget gap to limit the impact on our services, along with an extra 2 per centincrease to fund care for our most vulnerable adults in the Borough.

However, this isn’t reflected in the overall figure because the amount that residents have been paying to the Mayor of London for the Olympics is now coming to an end.

In Havering we are proud of our track record managing budget reductions while protecting front facing services, having saved around £40m in the last four years and looked set to save a further £24m in the next four years. However, without this increase the Council would have to consider making savings and cuts in other service areas.

The Council is continuing to provide its residents with a borough that is clean, safe and where residents are proud to live, despite the need to reduce budgets to balance the books.

Clean

Getting the basic services right is important. Residents said they wanted to keep the weekly rubbish collection, and we’ve done this. However, we are asking them to reduce the amount of rubbish they throw out to allow us to continue the service. By leaving out no more than three bags per week, with no limit on recycling we can save £1m over the next three years.

Safe

Havering is a safe Borough in which to live and work but we want to make it even safer. We will continue to work with the police and fire service to set up new safety zones in the Borough to help continue the reduction in crime.

Proud

What makes people proud of where they live? Is it excellent schools, a strong community spirit or good parks and facilities? In Havering we believe we have all of these and more.

Council Tax Frequently Asked Questions

Index

• General questions

• Empty Home Premium questions

• Payment questions

• Personal Circumstances

• Local Council Tax Support scheme and changes to Council Tax discounts and exemptions

COUNCIL TAX – FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

General questions

How is my Council Tax made up and what has changed this year?

The Council Tax is made up of two elements:

• Havering Council expenditure – eg social services, waste collection, libraries
• Expenditure related to the Greater London Authority (GLA) which is called the GLAPrecept – eg Metropolitan Police, Transport for London,and the Fire Brigade.

Your overall Council Tax charge includes the Mayor of London’s precept for running the Greater London Authority, which has been cut slightly. The Council has raised its share of the Council Tax by 3.99 per cent.

This year, Government has allowed authorities to increase the charge by 2 per cent specifically for Adult Social Care (this is before the GLA precept is added on).

Taking into account the Council increase, the 2 per cent precept and the reduced GLA precept, the final increase equates to a 1.96 per cent increase. So the overall charge including the GLA precept will be £1,543.64for a Band D property.

Did the Council consult with residents on the Council Tax increase?

The Council held two online consultations with residents. The first was on our budget strategy, which was aimed at saving £24m over the next three years. This would result in an increase of Council Tax by 1.99 per cent to help us meet our funding budget gap and maintain our frontline services.

The second consultation followed the Chancellor’s announcement that authorities that provide care for vulnerable adults can protect those services by raising Council Tax by a further 2per cent.

Having the largest elderly population in London, we took the unprecedented step of holding another consultation after the Government’s financial settlement for 2016/17 was revealed to be £10.8 million lower than this year’s grant.

What were the results of the budget consultations?

The first online consultation ran from 5 November to 17 December and 69 per cent of respondents said they agreed with the budget strategy. The second consultation was launched on 5 Jan to 2 February and 54 per cent of respondents said yes to a two per cent increase in Council Tax to provide care for our vulnerable adults.

Why didn’t we get to vote on the Council Tax increase when it has gone up by 2 per cent?

If the Council wants to increase its Council Tax by 2 per cent or more then the law requires it to hold a referendum for local Council Tax payers to decide whether this level of increase is allowed. Havering has increased its Council Tax this year by 1.99 per cent but the bill has to show the increase rounded to one decimal place i.e. 2 per centas the increase is below 2 per cent, no referendum is required.

Why are two amounts showing on the front of the bill for the London Borough of Havering?

Local authorities who are responsible for adult social care are now able to increase Council Tax by an additional 2 per cent from 2016/17 (and in future years until the end of the parliament) as long as the money is used entirely for adult social care.

If there are two increases for Havering that total 3.99 per cent shouldn’t we have had a referendum?

No.The Council can increase its Council Tax by up to 2 per cent in respect of adult social care expenditure and up to (but not including) a further 2 per cent in respect of other expenditure. As long as the overall increase is less than 4 per cent and 2 per cent of the increase is for adult social care then no referendum is required.

Other councils are closing their libraries to save money does the Council plan to close any in Havering?

No. We are proud that we are one of the few councils in the country which is building new libraries, and the new Harold Hill library is due to open in the summer. Unlike many councils, Havering has kept all of its libraries open although opening hours have had to be reduced.

What’s happening to our Youth Service?

Changes to our youth services, which includeclubs, sports, youth centres and support for privately run groups, will deliver over a £1m of savings in the next two years. The future service will aim to take a more targeted approach, focusing on individuals requiring support and vulnerable groups. The Council will maintain a budget of £250k a year to fund youth services, but they will be run by an external organisation, rather than the Council. One of the main reasons for this approach is that an external organisation could have access to a range of other funding that is not readily available to a local council.

Is the Olympics legacy still costing me on my Council Tax?

The GLA precept has included an annual payment of £20 (for a band D property) towards the cost of the Games since 2006. This amount is reducing to £8 and this is the last year that a charge will be made to cover the cost of the Olympics. This money goes to the GLA, not Havering Council.

I have heard you are going to share your services with Newham and Council Tax will go up as a result?

We have been sharing support services like HR, lawyers and IT for some time now – which is saving a considerable amount of money that would otherwise have to come from frontline service budgets like social care and street-cleaning.In fact Bexley Council has now come on board and even more savings will be achieved.

Is the Council making the most of new technology available to provide a greater number of services online?

It is a priority of this Council to make sure our residents have access to our services, where possible, 24 hours a day. With more and more Council transactions now taking place online, we are making it easier and more efficient for customer to use their PCs and mobile devices to pay, apply, report and access a wide range of services online through Simply by setting up a My Havering Account our customers have access to more than 100 Council services, and can track enquiries and their progress. A publicity campaign to encourage more residents to Contact the Council online is currently taking place in the Borough.

How much would the Council save if people contacted the Council online?

On average, an online service is 20 times cheaper than a phone transaction, 30 times cheaper than by post and 50 times cheaper than face to face.

Can I renew my green bin online?

During March, residents with Garden Waste (Green Bins) are being sent letters to renew their contract online, the deadline for payment to reach us is 31 March 2016. To renew residents should be directed to Subscriptions are priced at £35 per bin for all residents. Subsidies have been removed to fully recover the cost of the garden waste service. Any queries should be directed to

Parking permits

Residents can now apply online for parking and visitor permits online. Full information about how to do this can be found at

What is the easiest way for me to contact the Council?

You can now set up your own My Havering account where you can access Council services more quickly and easily at a time that suits you. Over 100 services are now available across the Council and Council Tax services include:

• Setting up a Direct Debit

• Reporting a change of address
• Applying for a single resident discount
• Requesting a copy bill
• Requesting a payment arrangement.

Why do we pay more Council Tax in Havering than some other boroughs?

We have always recognised that the overall Government grant per head of population in Havering is one of the lowest in London, because Havering is seen by the Government as an area of low need. Every year, we argue that we should receive more funding.

As things stand, in order to meet the costs of providing vital local services, the Council needs to raise more money through the Council Tax. Our Council Tax would be considerably lower if we received a similar Government grant to some of our neighbours.

Was our Government grant cut again?

The Government’s financial settlement for 2016/17 was £10.8 million lower this year. This was as a result of a change in the formula which saw Havering’s Revenue SupportGrant reduced much more than others, the third lowest in London. The Council lobbied the Government and as a result Havering was awarded a £1.4m transitional grant each year for two years.

Will we be losing the weekly bin collection like other boroughs?

No. We want to keep our weekly bin collection. We are committed to weekly rubbish collections, but need to lower the amount of waste we collect. We are asking residents to put out no more than three black bags per week. This should save £1m over the year. There is no restriction on the amount of recycling a resident can put out each week.

We’ve been promised a swimming pool/ice rink in Romford, but is it ever going to happen?

Yes. Work is planned to start on the land in the next few months.

Why spend the money on the leisure centre, there are probably a lot more front-line services that need it more? And it isn’t really for everyone is it? It’s mainly for sporty people.

Everyone will benefit from this leisure centre, directly or indirectly. As well as the health and fitness benefits of having a facility like this, the regeneration impact it will have on Romford will be enormous. Having the leisure centre here will boost the local economy. So we do believe that everyone will benefit from having the leisure centre in Romford.

The project is mostly funded by a land-swap deal with Morrison’s supermarket and some funding from Sport England, so it isn’t taking money out of other projects.

What will Crossrail mean for us?

Crossrail, which will be called the Elizabeth Line, will offer better commuting and business connections to the city and boost growth in the Borough. And as aresult of a very successful funding bid by the Council, TfL has awarded Havering around £4m to transform areas around Havering’s Crossrail stations. The funding will improve the spaces around the stations in Romford, Gidea Park and Harold Wood, which will include improvements to pavements, roads and other public areas near to the station entrances and car parks. Gidea Park and Harold Wood are in line to receive £1.4m each and Romford should receive £1.3m to spend on the improvements. During the design process amounts may change. The improvements will be made by 2019.There will also be improvements to the stations themselves and new trains.

Why do we put extra money into roads and pavements?

Potholes in roads, particularly those in smaller, local roads are often highlighted as a priority by residents, which is why this year we will continue to invest in repairing our roads and pavements with £1.6 million.

Will the cleaning of our streets suffer as a result of budget cuts?

No. We are investing £500,000 more in keeping our streets clean with dedicated autumn leaf and gum removal teams, the latest mechanical sweepers, increased enforcement around abandoned trolleys, and more technology to allow us to respond to fly-tipping incidents quickly. Our crack-down on people who fly-tip in the Borough has already led to several successful prosecutions.

What is the Council doing to help local people find homes in the Borough?

Housing is a big priority, and we are committed to providing more social housing for local people, including plans to build 1,000 new homes in the Borough in the next 10 years. We’ve also created an arms-length firm, Mercury Land Holdings, owned by the Council, which will create properties for market rent and some for sale, aimed at those struggling to get on the housing ladder.

What is Liberty Housing?

The Council set up its very own lettings agency in January 2015 called Liberty Housing in Hornchurch Town Centre. The Council hopes that by encouraging more landlords to sign up to the new scheme they can create more opportunities for local people struggling to access high quality private rented accommodation.

How do you consult with residents to make sure you know what we want?

We run a number of consultations to ensure we have our priorities right. The most recent was held as a budget consultation in November/December. As part of the process residents were asked to pick their top three priority servicesfor the Council to focus upon. Their top three were: Crime reduction and public safety – 49 per cent, Cleaning and streets – 36 per cent, Road and pavement repairs – 33 per cent, and

Rubbish and recycling – 33 per cent.

I read somewhere that some of the money the Council lost in the Icelandic Banking System has been paid back is this true? How much is still frozen?

Yes, we have now received all of it back. Because of the way we structure our cash flow, the situation did not impact on Council Tax.

Empty Home Premium Questions

Why is the Council able to add an empty home premium on empty properties?

Since April 2013, councils have been given the power to charge an additional amount of council tax of up to 50% where properties have remained unoccupied and substantially unfurnished for a period in excess of two years. Following a period of consultation, the Council decided to introduce the long-term empty premium from 1 April 2015.

Do I still have to pay the empty home premium if the property is uninhabitable as it is being renovated?

There are no longer any reductions at Havering for properties which are undergoing building work or structural alteration. The two year period will be calculated from the date the property became empty.

The property is derelict, do I still have to pay the empty home premium?

If you consider the property to be unfit to live in because it is derelict, eg because it’s been damaged by weather, rot or vandalism or would need major structural works to make it ‘wind and watertight’ again. You can apply to get a derelict property removed from The Council Tax valuation list. Follow the process for making a formal challenge to the VOA at

The unoccupied property is a caravan, do I still have to pay the premium?

The premium will not apply in this instance but please contact us to arrange an inspection so that our records can be updated.

What if the property has been occupied?

Please provide full details of who has occupied the property and the date they moved in. If you have let the property please provide a copy of any tenancy agreements. We will arrange for an Inspector to call to confirm the occupation.