Cabinet to discuss fees and charges

Hastings Borough Council's Cabinet is due to discuss fees and charges for 2023-24 at its meeting on Monday 5 December.

The fees and charges set by the council are reviewed every year. The council relies on the income to provide services and supplement government funding which does not cover the total cost of these.

This year the increase will generally be 10%, which is less than the current rate of inflation. Some services will see larger increases where it has been decided that these are necessary to cover their costs, for example for electric vehicle charging points due to the increase in electricity prices. There are limits to the amount that councils are allowed to charge for some services and so costs have not increased for these services. These include most planning and licensing charges which are at the maximum level allowed by government.

Cllr Simon Willis, lead councillor for finance, said: "This year's review of our fees and charges has been a very challenging process. As a council our costs have increased significantly, due to inflation, which means we need to increase fees and charges so we can cover these costs, but we are also aware of the need to balance these increases with the financial situation many of our residents will be in. As a result, proposals being discussed by Cabinet are mainly below the current rate of inflation."

A full list of the proposed fees and charges is available as part of the Cabinet agenda. You can watch the meeting online from 6pm on Monday 5 December.