Issue - meetings

To set out the Fees and Charges to be introduced for the financial year 2026/2027.

Members considered a range of fees and charges for 2026/2027. These had previously been considered at the Budget Joint OSC on 13 January 2026, and there were two changes made to the proposals presented at that meeting:

·       House in Multiple Occupancy (HMO) licences – a ‘sliding scale’ for HMOs was discussed at Budget Joint OSC, linked to the number of bedrooms within each HMO.

·       Green waste service – a possible reduction in service was discussed at Environment OSC on 13 January 2026. Whilst this reduction was supported through a vote, having considered the feedback from this committee this proposal was dropped. Therefore, the increase for the green waste service would be £2 per household for the first bin, and £1 for each subsequent bin.

The Fees and Charges report was split into different sections to allow as many members as possible to take part in decision making, as several of them may declare pecuniary interests and leave the Council Chamber at different points. Page 114 of the reports pack (taxi licence fees) were considered first.

Note:  Councillors Tim Harrison, Habib Rahman, Nick Robins, and Penny Robins left the Council Chamber. Councillor Jane Kingman joined the meeting.

Having been moved and seconded and following a vote the taxi licencing fees were AGREED.

Note:  Councillors Tim Harrison and Habib Rahman rejoined the Council Chamber.

Debate ensued on HMOs specifically, and an amendment to the printed fees and charges was proposed by the Conservative group and circulated:

To adopt the South Holland fee structure for HMO licencing. Application fee to be £300 + (number of rooms * £150). For example, a five-bedroom HMO would be £300 + (5*£150) = £1,050.

This proposal was seconded.

The following points were highlighted during the debate on this topic:

·       The Cabinet Member for Housing had attended a meeting with the Cabinet Member for Corporate Governance and Licensing, the Assistant Director (Leisure, Culture and Place) and the Head of Service (Public Protection). In that meeting, officers outlined that the HMO fee structure had been compared against neighbouring councils. To place SKDC in the best possible position for their fee structure, similar sized councils were also used to benchmark against.

·       On first glance, the fees at South Holland District Council were at a level that would discourage the creation of HMOs.

·       The proposed SKDC fees were already a considerable increase on current levels.

·       There have been a tremendous number of HMO applications in SKDC, particularly in Grantham. It was pointed out that South Holland District Council was a close neighbour, which was why it had been included in the Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) bid along with North Kesteven District Council and SKDC.

·       A deterrent could be useful in those wards that encountered high numbers of HMOs.

·       Any fees attached to HMOs had to be for cost recovery purposes only, the income as a result of licence fees must not exceed the cost of the provision of the service. SKDC was roughly in line with NKDC on its fees.

·       NKDC’s  ...  view the full minutes text for item 95

Purpose of report

To set out the proposed fees and charges for the financial year 2026/27.

Decision

Cabinet recommended to Council:

1.    The discretionary Fees and Charges for 2026/27 set out at Appendix A of the report.

2.    The statutory Fees and Charges for 2026/27 set out at Appendix B of the report.

3.    That HMO licence fees were not part of recommendations 1 and 2 above, as they were subject to further work by officers. An updated schedule of charges would be presented to Council on 29 January 2026.

4.    The charging policy set out in Appendix C of the report.

5.    That the annual bin collection charge for green waste increase by £2 to £55 and that each subsequent bin is increased by £1 to £45 for the 2026/2027 financial year.

6.    To delegate authority to the Deputy Chief Executive and s151 Officer in consultation with Leader of the Council, Cabinet Member for Finance, HR and Economic Development to set the commercial charges for Building Control.

Other options considered

There were a number of options outlined within section 2 of the report.

Reasons for the decision

Fees and charges were an integral part of the budget setting process and were reviewed on an annual basis.

The report had been considered by the Budget Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC) on 13 January 2026.

The following information was highlighted during debate:

·       Some authorities had a ‘sliding scale’ of charges related to houses of multiple occupancy (HMOs) but this was not the case in SKDC where all HMOs were charged the identical fees and charges regardless of the number of rooms. Officers were investigating the possibility of introducing a sliding scale and therefore Cabinet made an additional recommendation to Council.

• A detailed discussion about the future of the green waste service took place at Environment OSC on 13 January. The debate informed Cabinet’s recommendation to Council that the annual collection charge for green waste increased by £2 to £55 for a first bin, and by £1 to £45 for a second or subsequent bin. The original proposal seen by Environment OSC was a slightly lower amount per bin, but this included the cessation of green bin collections in January and February.
  • There was a series of analyses on the costs the waste service incurred, this was in the process of being translated into a more user-friendly format.
  • There was a higher recommended cost for the first green bin rather than subsequent bins due to economies of scale. There were c31,000 customers in receipt of a green bin, of which c,5,000 have a further bin. Further information would be received by Environment OSC in due course.
  • The money raised from green bins provided a significant contribution towards the cost of the service; however, it did not cover the whole amount.
  • The cost of collecting a 2^nd or subsequent bin wasn’t equal to the first as the waste lorries were already on the premises to collect the initial bin.
• Building control fees  ...  view the full minutes text for item 83