Purpose

Seeking permission to conduct a public
consultation on the proposed changes to our Council Tax Reduction
Scheme from 1 April 2026

Content

CTR was a scheme designed to
assist residents on lower incomes or in receipt of certain benefits
in reducing their Council Tax charge. Levels of support for
pension-aged households were determined nationally by the DWP, with
local authorities having had discretion since 2013 to design and
implement their own local schemes to support working age
households. The current harmonised scheme currently provided
support to 13,980 working age households with Council Tax receipts
of £19.7m forgone by the Council per annum.
 
Proposals have therefore been
developed for the introduction of a banded CTR from April 2026 with
a view to:
 
i.                   
Reducing volatility in CTR awards where households
saw changes in income levels, enabling households to better
anticipate levels of support and budget accordingly.
ii.                 
Simplifying calculation of CTR awards, enabling
households to better understand support being provided.
iii.               
Supporting more efficient processing of claims as
the Council was no longer reliant on cross-referencing with
Universal Credit applications made to the DWP – this was
expected to reduced processing times for new applications from 29
days to 10 days.

 
This would target CTR to the
lowest income households more effectively than the current scheme
which would reduce non payment by £0.4 million per annum from
2026/26; reduce the level of savings at which households were no
longer eligible for awards from £16k to £6k from 1
April 2026, which was estimated to result in additional Council Tax
receipts of circa £0.4m and harmonising the levels of income
at which households were no longer eligible for awards over a
three-year period from 1 April 2026, which was estimated to result
in increased Council Tax receipts of circa £0.7m by
2028/29.
 
Overall, the proposed CTR
scheme would therefore increase income available to support local
services by £1.5m, with £0.3m of this sum attributable
to Thames Valley Police and the Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes
Fire & Rescue Service and £1.2m available to support
Buckinghamshire Council services. In addition, efficiency savings
arising from streamlined administration were expected to deliver a
further £0.2m benefit to Buckinghamshire Council from 2026/27
onwards.
 
In 2026/27, 10,412 or 75% of
households currently in receipt of CTR would see their award either
maintained or increased, reducing the risk of non-payment of
Council Tax within this cohort. 3,500 or 25% of households would
see reduced CTR awards, with 772 or 5.5% of households no longer
meeting the criteria for CTR awards in 2026/27.
 
In order to help households
transition to a banded CTR scheme there would be  in changes in levels of support provided to
individual households, and it was proposed that a form of
transitional protection be provided to those households seeing
larger reductions (i.e. more than £10 per week) in their CTR
awards. There would be year 1 transitional protection so with
households with less than £6,000 this would limit reductions
to £12.50 per week or £650 per annum. Modelling
indicated transitional protection would be provided to 1,720
households at a cost of £0.8m in 2026/27.
 
The proposed scheme would
maintain provision for an exceptional hardship fund, recognising
that there would be individual household circumstances which could
not be fully reflected in the banding scheme assessment. No changes
in administrative arrangements for applications to this fund were
proposed.
 
Of 3,500 households the average
impact would be £538 per annum (£10 per week) in year 1
with the transitional relief rising to £777 per annum
(£15 per week) by year 3. The single largest impact was
£3,661 per annum (£70 per week) which related to a
household in a Band F property previously in receipt of CTR which
was in excess of £6,000. A total of 45 households in Year 1
would see losses of £40 per week which was £2080 per
annum. Households should be enabled to better understand support
being provided and anticipate levels of support and budget
accordingly and it should bolster lower income households reducing
the risk of them falling into arrears.
 
Should proposals ultimately be
adopted as currently drafted this would secure an additional
£1.5m of Council Tax income to the Council by 2028/29, which
would contribute towards meeting the growing costs of
“Critical Five” such as Children’s and
Adults’ Social Care.
 
Public consultation was
required ahead of Cabinet considering proposals in February 2026
which would enable an amended CTR scheme to be adopted from 1 April
2026 (subject to approval by Cabinet and Council). If approved,
consultation would be launched from 17 December 2025.
 
RESOLVED that a six-week consultation from 17 December 2026 with
local taxpayers and other key stakeholders on proposals for
amending the Council Tax Reduction Scheme from 1 April 2026 be
approved.
 
This decision has been
taken under the special urgency procedure. In order to
fulfil the statutory requirement to carry out a consultation, and
to ensure that the public and stakeholders have a proper and
reasonable opportunity to respond, it was determined that the
consultation should start on Wednesday 17 December and run until 2
February. This would then enable the Council to meet the relevant
steps and deadlines towards the setting of council tax. 
Cabinet would meet to consider the outcomes on 10 February 2026 and
would make recommendations to Council on 25 February.