Agenda item

To consider the attached report of the Strategic Director (Corporate Resources).

The Strategic Director (Corporate Resources) introduced the Fees and Charges 2019/20 report.

In response to a question from Councillor M R Eddy concerning the increase in local land charge fees it was stated that the search fees had been revised following a time monitoring exercise undertaken as a result of an audit recommendation. As a result of this exercise, whilst overall cost of a standard search (LLC1 and CON29) did not change greatly the cost of individual CON29 questions did. However, this was a better reflection of the actual time taken to produce and provide the information. As part of this it was considered no longer appropriate to charge the administration fee as a separate fee and that each question would be costed to include the relevant element of administration. This was consistent with the current practice for the majority of Kent Authorities and resulted in more competitive fees for the individual questions. In view of this it was possible that the authority would see an increase in business.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.