Agenda and minutes

Attendance by NNDR Representatives:-

      Susan Hall                  -     Chair, Wealdstone Traders’ Association

      Mr S Parsons            -     Harrow Music

Mr D Greenwood}    -     Harrow and Hillingdon Branch, Federation of Small

Mr R H Morse       }          Businesses

To note the appointment, at the Cabinet meeting held on 11 November 2004 under the provisions of Committee Procedure Rule 7.2 of the Council’s Constitution, of Councillor Choudhury as Chair of this Panel for the Municipal Year 2004/05.

RESOLVED:  To note the appointment of Councillor Choudhury as Chair of the Panel for the Municipal Year 2004/05.

To consider the appointment of a Vice-Chair to the Panel for the Municipal Year 2004/05.

RESOLVED:  That no Vice-Chair be appointed for the remainder of the Municipal Year 2004/05.

To note the attendance at this meeting of any duly appointed Reserve Members.

Reserve Members may attend meetings:-

(i)                 to take the place of an ordinary Member for whom they are a reserve;

(ii)               where the ordinary Member will be absent for the whole of the meeting; and

(iii)             after notifying the Chair at the start of the meeting.

RESOLVED:  To note the attendance at this meeting of the following duly appointed Reserve Member:-

To receive declarations of personal or prejudicial interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from all Members present.

RESOLVED:  To note that there were no declarations of interests made by Members in relation to the business transacted at this meeting.

To consider whether any of the items listed on the agenda should be considered with the press and public excluded on the grounds that it is thought likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted, that there would be disclosure of confidential information in breach of an obligation of confidence or of exempt information as defined in the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985.

RESOLVED:  That all items be considered with the press and public present.

That the minutes of the meeting held on 5 February 2004, having been circulated, be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 5 February 2004, having been circulated, be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

[Note: There were a number of matters arising from the minutes of the last meeting; these are set out under Minute 28 below].

The Council’s Constitution provides for Panel meetings to receive Petitions, Deputations and Public Questions (Committee Procedure Rules 15, 16 and 18).

(It is not anticipated that these will arise at this Consultative meeting).

RESOLVED:  To note that no petitions, deputations or public questions were received at this meeting under the provisions of Committee Procedure Rules 15, 16 and 18 respectively.

Summary and report of the Executive Director (Business Connections)

The officer report to the Cabinet meeting on 16 December 2004 is enclosed, together with Recommendation 1 and Minute 658 arising therefrom.

N.B. This Consultative Panel meeting is invited to consider the documentation at item 7 above and in discussion to receive any comments/representations from the NNDR Representatives for referral to the Cabinet meeting on 17 February 2005.

The Chair welcomed the National Non-Domestic Ratepayer (NNDR) Representatives to the meeting, and invited them to express their views on the Council’s budget proposals for 2005/06 to Council Members. The Chair referred to the document entitled ‘Harrow Vitality Profiles’, which had been tabled at the meeting, and explained that it provided a portrait of Harrow and its people in statistics. He also mentioned that Harrow Council received more back from the Government in National Non-Domestic Rates than they paid to the Government.

At the invitation of the Chair, the Council’s Director of Financial and Business Strategy provided the Panel with an overview of the Authority’s draft budget proposals for 2005/06. In the course of the presentation, the following elements were covered:

§         details of expenditure and sources of funding in 2004/05, including an outline of the services provided by the Authority and their cost, and National Non-Domestic Rate contributions to the overall funding;

§         the recommended increase of £12m (4.9%) on the current net budget, and proposed areas of growth and efficiency savings;

§         details of the final settlement, announced at the end of January 2005, in which the Government had granted approximately £200k more than had been anticipated in the provisional settlement;

§         the requirement to passport increases in education funding directly to schools;

§         the Council Tax increase of around 1.48%, based on the provisional settlement from the Government;

§         an overview of the consultation process employed to engage stakeholders, and the survey undertaken with some 250 businesses, specifically on the budget, which had unfortunately elicited a poor response.

The Director of Financial and Business Strategy informed the Panel that Cabinet, at its meeting on 17 February 2005, would be provided with feedback from all the consultations carried out prior to making a recommendation to a meeting of full Council, which would approve the final Budget and set the Council Tax for 2005/06 on 24 February 2005.

The Director of Financial and Business Strategy also briefed the Panel on business-orientated work being carried out by the Council.

The Panel was informed of the basis for the National Non-Domestic Rates (or Business Rates). It was explained that the Non-Domestic Rate, the means by which local businesses contributed to the cost of providing local authority services, was collected by Local Authorities and passed to the Government, which then redistributed the monies to Authorities in line with the financial settlement. The Panel was informed that the rate was calculated by applying a national business multiplier to the rateable value of each business, and that this rateable value might be altered following revaluations to begin in April 2005.

She also explained the potential impact of a new government initiative called the Local Authority Business Growth Incentive (LABGI), to be introduced from 1 April 2005. The Panel was informed that the initiative aimed to encourage local authorities to foster new business growth in their area and that a grant of £700k should be available to Harrow in 2005/06. She explained that if the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27.

Prior to the presentation by the Director of Financial and Business Strategy, National Non-Domestic Ratepayer (NNDR) Representatives expressed their disappointment that their questions raised at the Panel’s meeting on 5 February 2004 had not yet been addressed by officers. It was agreed that the Director of Financial and Business Strategy would respond in writing to all the questions set out in the minutes of the last meeting and any additional questions arising from the meeting that afternoon. In addition, it was agreed that additional meetings of this Panel would be held in order to improve dialogue with local businesses, and that a date would be decided at the end of the current meeting. An apology was made that this had not yet happened.

The Director of Financial and Business Strategy provided the following information in response to specific questions asked by the NNDR Representatives concerning the minutes of the previous meeting:

§         that the Council was on target to achieving the estimated £370k saving arising from the NHP restructuring;

§         that the review of consultation with business representatives described had unfortunately not yet occurred, and that officers would be requested to take action on this review;

§         that the Local Authority Business Growth Incentive described in the February 2004 minutes had been introduced, and would generate an expected additional income of £700k in 2005/06;

In addition, a representative submitted to the Panel a list of thirty questions that he had compiled. It was agreed that the Director of Financial and Business Strategy would arrange for written responses to be sent to all Council Members and NNDR Representatives present at the meeting.

Further to the presentation from the Director of Financial and Business Strategy, the contributions and comments set out below were made by NNDR Representatives, to which responses were provided by the Director and Members.

Local Authority Business Growth Incentive

NNDR Representatives enquired as to how increases in business growth would be measured in the above government incentive. They were informed that growth was measured through increases in the rateable value of local business premises, not through the amount of revenue generated by the business, and that increased rateable values would lead to greater NNDR payments and consequently greater government funding. Representatives were further informed that the Inland Revenue, not the Local Authority, determined the rateable value of premises.

Specific questions relating to the additional amounts of funding that would be received for a defined increase in NNDR contributions could not be answered at that time, as detailed calculations would have been required. At the request of a representative, the Director of Financial and Business Strategy agreed to provide in writing details of the impact of NNDR contributions falling below the prescribed baseline level for Harrow.

An NNDR Representative expressed concern that the incentive would make the Council more interested in larger businesses, which had a greater potential for increasing rateable values, and would cause them to neglect, for example, businesses that operated from home. This led into a discussion  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28.