The Chairman of the Council, Chairs of Committees and Sub-Committees and Portfolio Holders to answer any questions on any matters in relation to which the Council has powers or duties or which affect the District of which due notice has been given in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 13.
Minutes:
Question 1 Councillor Penny Otton to Councillor Whitehead, Cabinet Member for Finance.
Whilst the government grant of £150 may go a very small way to offset the unprecedented rise in energy bills it will only be paid to those who pay council tax by direct debit. How many are not and could lose out?
Response Councillor Morley on behalf of Councillor Whitehead, Cabinet Member for Finance.
Thank you for your question, Cllr Otton. I must advise you that the basic premise behind your question is incorrect. The Government will be providing the Council £5,199,300 in funding to support the payment of £150 to households in Council Tax bands A-D that meet the qualifying criteria. This includes not only households who pay their Council Tax by direct debit but also those households who do not.
Where the Council holds bank details on its Council Tax records,
we can easily and automatically pay qualifying households the
£150.
Paying the £150 to qualifying households who do not pay by direct debit is not as straightforward and a process to do this is being developed. The current estimate is that this is in the region of 8,500 households. Once this process is finalised, a letter will be issued to those households outlining the process that they will need to follow to obtain the grant. We have always encouraged all households to pay by direct debit and any household setting up a new direct debit before 1st April can, and will be included within the automatic process and therefore be in earlier receipt of this grant.
Alongside the main scheme the Government will also be providing the Council with £161,250 discretionary funding. The Council will be developing a discretionary policy for the administration of this limited funding to support vulnerable households who fall outside of the main scheme.
Question 2 Councillor Scarff to Councillor Brewster, Cabinet Member for Economic Growth.
What steps if any, are M.S.D.C. taking on behalf of residents to express their disappointment of the news that H.S.B.C. are closing their Stowmarket Branch affecting users of the bank locally and wider than just Stowmarket?
Response Councillor Brewster, Cabinet Member for Economic Growth.
The Council will be writing to HSBC to advise of its disappointment about the closure of this high street bank and to urge the bank to re consider this closure. As Stowmarket is the economic centre for many rural areas, it is important that we work with the banking sector to ensure provision is made for local customers.
Supplementary Question
Why the Council did not write to NatWest when it closed the branch in Stowmarket.
Councillor Brewster replied that it was a challenging situation having recently lost the NatWest, Santander and Barclays bank for ‘commercial’ reasons which will leave just TSB in Stowmarket and it is assumed that the excuse for HSBC’s closure will be the same as those banks already closed and unfortunately this does nothing to support those wishing to use the bank in person, those who don’t wish to use online banking for various reasons and those who are elderly or disabled and also those businesses in town. The question is what are the next steps we are taking, at this time I am able to confirm again that the letter is being sent and I have asked for it to be done in the strongest terms. Following which, if the bank takes no notice of that letter and given the pressure and accessibility problems of the post office in Stowmarket, I have asked that we should research another way in Stowmarket of serving banking for the public.
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