Moray Council unveil default service charges increases until 2027
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
MORAY Council has agreed to set a default increase for charges for some services for the next three years to assist with service planning.
For the period 2024-25 to 2026-27, the increase will be the Consumer Price Index, including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH), plus one per cent as measured for October of the year before the increase takes effect.
The principles behind the council’s charging policy are to fully recover the cost of services people can choose to use, generate income from council assets and to maximise income from charges in line with the financial strategy for 2023-2026 and agreed approach of using increased income to protect services. Previously these charges were agreed on an annual basis and will continue to be reported to council annually.
This will allow for an increase in real terms to levels of income for Moray Council, with an additional £70,000 estimated to be raised for the council budget if service usage is maintained at current levels.
Leader of Moray Council, Councillor Kathleen Robertson, said: “We need to get Moray Council’s budget onto a stable and sustainable footing, having the default increase to charges in-line with inflation, and known in advance, means we can plan more effectively for future service delivery rather than a year-by-year basis.
“The rationale behind doing this for those services that residents choose to use is to avoid other service users or council tax payers effectively subsidising the cost of others’ choices. We’ll publish a full list of charges for 2024-25, once agreed, on our website in the new year.”
The default increase cannot be applied to all charges, for example those set or limited by statue or where small charges make it impractical to increase.
The full cost of providing a service is defined as including staffing and materials costs, any related property costs and an element of overheads relating to central council functions which support that service.
To make sure full cost recovery charges are reasonable, benchmarking exercises will be undertaken periodically with other local authorities. If a significant (for example, substantially above inflation) increase in charges is to be proposed further impact assessments may be needed. For some services it may be appropriate to set concessionary rates for some individuals or organisations using the service.
