Agenda item

To set out the Public Protection Partnership’s (PPP) draft revenue budget for 2025/26 including discretionary fees and charges for 2025/26 and seek approval of the amendments to the Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme.

The Committee considered the report (Agenda Item 4) which set out the Public Protection Partnership’s draft revenue budget for 2025/26, including discretionary fees and charges for 2025/26.

The report sought approval of the draft budget, and draft fees and charges schedule prior to submission to Bracknell Forest and West Berkshire Councils as part of their budget setting process in accordance with the Inter-Authority Agreement.

Agreement was also sought of the figure that would form the basis of the recharge to Wokingham Borough Council with respect to the services shared with Wokingham Borough Council under the shared service agreement effective on 1 April 2022.

Approval was also sought of the amendments to the Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme (ARIS).

The Committee’s role with this report was to propose a budget to the individual Councils based on a percentage split. The proposed budget for 2025/26, including the percentage split, was outlined in the below table.

A 3% uplift was proposed on discretionary fees for 2025/26, but this could be adjusted prior to the fees being set. However, statutory fees had not been increased since 2011 and were therefore well behind inflation.

It was clarified that the grant funding received from ARIS did not form part of the revenue budget. The appendix to the report proposed areas of use for this funding, which included victim support.

Councillor Iskandar Jefferies thanked officers for all their hard work in producing this report. Budgets continued to be under pressure, but officers were commended for maintaining the PPP’s services despite the pressures being felt.

Returning to the statutory fees, Sean Murphy explained that a significant financial gap had been identified in the absence of any inflationary rises since 2011. A Bank of England calculation tool had been used to identify this.

Councillor Justin Pemberton agreed that statutory fees were far behind where they should be and explained that Councillor Jeremy Cottam (Chairman of West Berkshire Council’s Licensing Committee) would be bringing a Motion to a meeting of West Berkshire Council to seek agreement to lobby the Government on this matter.

Sean Murphy added that should licensing fees be increased to a similar level as the recent increases agreed for planning fees, then this could result in an increased income of £80-£100k.

Councillor Jefferies agreed it was important to seek to increase fees in line with inflation in future years.

RESOLVED that:

·       The draft revenue budget, including the fees and charges, had been considered.

·       The contributions set out in column three of the table at 5.27 of the report be recommended to partner Councils to form the basis of the 2025/26 net revenue budget contributions.

·       The pressures set out in columns four and five in the table at paragraph 5.27 be noted.

·       The fees and charges set out in Appendix A be approved.

·       The contribution request from Wokingham Borough Council be approved as set out in paragraph 5.27.

·       The revised Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme be approved and that funds be allocated in accordance with this policy. It was noted that this funding did not form part of the revenue budget