Slough council to make reductions to council tax support scheme over financial issues

Slough council has said it needs to make reductions to its council tax support (CTS) scheme due to the on-going financial issues.

The move, discussed by cabinet members at a meeting on Monday at Observatory House, could see the cash-strapped council save about £1.468million.

Currently, the authority provides 100 per cent discounts to some households as part of its support scheme.

But under the new plans, the authority will provide 80 per cent discounts, but the CTS Hardship Fund will be doubled from £135,000 to £350,000 to support residents in need.

This is in line with neighbouring councils such as the Royal Borough 80 and Bracknell who provide 80 per cent.

The proposed changes follows feedback from a consultation on the matter.

In total 6,500 households will be affected by the changes.

Council leader Dexter Smith said: “We were an anomaly last year in offering a full 100 per cent rebate to people with zero income.

“We were more generous than any of the other Berkshire local authority councils.”

Cllr Smith said during the consultation on whether the council should reduce its support percentage, some people said it would see an ‘increase in hardship’.

He said the council has responded to this by doubling the hardship fund.

“We’ve only really changed from being the most generous to in the middle of the range here.

“I think it really is important that people understand we did listen, we take this very seriously.”

Cllr Wal Chahal (Con, Langley Marish), said: “We don’t want to cause any hardship to any of our residents.

“[But] we are in a very difficult position. We are functioning on a handout basis from the Government.

“The Government are giving us exceptional support and they want us to take difficult decisions.

“They want us to make sure we’re not on the boundary in terms of being very generous with our handouts.

“We consulted, we looked at the results from the consultation and what we decided to do was rather than go for 70 per cent we went for 80 per cent.

“We will not be turning away anybody that’s vulnerable and in need, we will find a way of supporting them.

“That is our pledge, we are not here to try to punish people, in these tough times. We’re here to support them where we can but to achieve the support from Government, we have had to take some of these hard decisions.”

The meeting was told that partnership work also needs to be done to develop the CTS Hardship Fund Policy to ‘make sure it reaches the people who really need the support’.

Cabinet agreed to recommend the new council tax support scheme for 2025/26 to full council, alongside an increase in the CTS Hardship Fund and that a new CTS Hardship Fund Policy will be developed.

The recommendations were approved at full council on Thursday and the changes will come into effect from April, 1.