Issue - meetings

Report No: CAB/FH/16/040

Portfolio Holder: Stephen Edwards            Lead Officer: Rachael Mann

RESOLVED:

That the write-off of the amounts detailed in the exempt Appendices to Report No CAB/FH/16/040 be approved, as follows:

1.           Exempt Appendix 1: Housing Benefit Overpayment totalling £9,812.86.

2.           Exempt Appendix 2: FHDC Debtor Write-Off totalling £2,971.92.

3.           Exempt Appendix 3: Business Rates (Urgent Decision)*

(a)         Delegated authority be given to the Head of Resources and Performance, in consultation with the Leader of the Council, to write-off an amount, as set out in Exempt Appendix 3.

(b)         Delegated authority be given to the Head of Resources and Performance to write-off the daily rate of business rates accruing for the next 14 days.

(*The settlement of this outstanding debt will be agreed, by consent, with funds only being available for a limited time.  Once settled, the agreement will not be open for change at a later stage legally and any call-in would be incapable of altering the Cabinet’s decision.  Therefore, due to this urgency, the Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee had previously agreed that this Cabinet decision should be exempted from the Call-in procedure, in line with Part 4: Overview and Scrutiny Committee Procedure Rules (paragraph 14.4) of the Council’s Constitution.

(Report No: CAB/FH/16/040)

The Cabinet received this report which set out the current revenue collection performance and also sought approval for the writing-off uncollectable debts, in respect of Housing Benefit Overpayments (Exempt Appendix 1) and a FHDC debtor (Exempt Appendix 2).

The Head of Resources and Performance also explained that since the publication of the agenda papers, there was now also an urgent item which needed to be considered by the Cabinet in relation to the writing-off of uncollectable debts in relation to outstanding Business Rates (Exempt Appendix 3).  As the detail of this write-off was contained within Exempt Appendix 3, the Cabinet discussions were held in private session (see Minute No. 231 below).