Form

CTR2: Council Tax requirement return - guidance notes

Updated 8 February 2024

Applies to England

Notes for completion of the Council Tax Requirement return 2024-25 on DELTA by major precepting authorities.

This guidance note reflects the guidance provided for the 2024-25 collection collected on the DELTA form ‘ctr2-2024-2025-apr’.

You can register to use DELTA.

• Additional useful DELTA guidance (PDF, 1.22MB).

• It is important that all authorities return the information by the due date (Monday 11 March 2024) as the DELTA system will not accept submitted returns after midnight on deadline day without a manual extension from DLUHC. If you are unable to meet this deadline, then please contact [email protected]

• Forms can be saved before submission. Forms can also be saved as a pdf after the form has been saved or submitted (ready to certify).

• Forms will need to be certified by your Chief Finance Officer via DELTA. This is done once the form has been completed and submitted as ready to certify.

Important note

The DELTA form follows the same format as in the ‘CTR2_Form’ sheet within the Excel form which has been provided for ease of transition. This means that line references are the same in both the DELTA and Excel forms.

However the DELTA forms include validation checks after each section (as necessary) rather than setting them all at the end.

The DELTA form can either be completed manually (directly into DELTA) or by uploading the data compiled in the Excel form. This is compiled in the hidden ‘Data_Upload’ sheet. Instructions are provided in a separate Word document called ‘CTR 2024-25 Bulk upload guidance’.

Notes for completion

The Local Government Finance Act 1992 (“the 1992 Act”) as amended by sections 72 to 79 of the Localism Act 2011 governs the calculation of council tax in England. In setting its council tax requirement, an authority will have taken into account any funding from reserves, income it expects to raise and general funding it will receive from the Government.

Unless specified to the contrary, all data should be shown to the nearest £.

NB: data for 2023-24 are pre-populated. Please contact DLUHC if you want to amend this data.

Part 1a: Council tax requirement

Line 1: the Council Tax Requirement is the aggregate of the amounts stated in the precepts issued by the authority in accordance with section 42A of the 1992 Act as the amounts payable by billing authorities to the precepting authority for the year.

This amount should include the value of any levies received, including amounts (‘special items’) calculated in accordance with sections 45 and 46 of the 1992 Act. These should be shown to the nearest £.

In calculating the amount under s42A for 2024-25 income estimated to be gained from the use of reserves, compensation for the impact of council tax reduction schemes, or the receipt of other specific grants etc should be taken into account. In other words, these amounts should reduce the level of an authority’s council tax requirement for 2024-25.

Line 1a: the amount of any levies and special levies issued to the authority for the year or anticipated in pursuance of regulations under section 74 or 75 of the 1988 Act. These amounts should have already been included in line 1.

The main levying and special levying bodies include crematorium boards, conservators, drainage boards, the Environment Agency, garden committees, harbour boards/conservancies, park authorities, passenger transport authorities, combined authorities, sea fisheries committees, joint waste disposal authorities and the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority.

These are just examples, and the list is not exhaustive. It is for each individual authority to identify the levies which are raised on them by levying bodies. Most authorities should be familiar with the levies and special levies with which they have to deal with, given that levies are demands for (in some cases) large sums of money which have been issued to the authorities by statutory bodies, which have been taken into account in local authorities’ calculations of council tax, and which have previously been paid by the authority to the levying bodies.

Line 2: the council tax base figure for 2024-25 determined for the purposes of section 42B of the 1992 Act (calculation of basic amounts). The figure should be shown to one decimal place and must reflect any decisions made by billing authorities under sections 11A and 13A of the 1992 Act to reduce the amount of tax payable by granting exemptions or locally financed discounts including the locally funded council tax reduction scheme and it should also reflect any changes to the tax base as a result of any anticipated income derived from the empty homes premium under section 11B of the 1992 Act. The tax base should also reflect any reductions in council tax for annexes under the Council Tax (Reductions for Annexes) (England) Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/2977).

This part will be followed by validations on lines 1a and 2.

Part 1b: Council tax

Authorities will be required to hold a referendum if their relevant basic amount of council tax (i.e., the average Band D figure having excluded local precepts) for 2024-25 is in excess of the council tax referendum principles which apply to them.

No referendum principles have been set for local precepting authorities or for mayoral combined authorities (MCAs) other than the police component of the Greater Manchester Mayoral Combined Authority and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority precepts.

The referendum principles are that an authority’s relevant basic amount of council tax would be excessive if they set an increase of:

• 5% or more than 5% [comprising up to maximum of 2% for expenditure on adult social care and 3% on other expenditure] for authorities with responsibility for adult social care services.

• 5% or more than 5% [comprising up to maximum of 2% for expenditure on adult social care and 3% on other expenditure] for unitarising authorities with responsibility for adult social care services which are equalising different council tax levels across their predecessor areas. The principle may be applied to either the increase in each individual predecessor area, or to the tax base-weighted average band D figure of all the predecessor areas.

• More than £5, or 3% or more than 3%, (the greater of the two) for district councils in 2 tier areas.

• More than £13 for Police and Crime Commissioners.

• More than £13 for the police component of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and The West Yorkshire Combined Authority precept.

• 3% or more than 3% for fire and rescue authorities.

• More than £37.26 for the adjusted relevant basic amount of council tax of the GLA.

• More than £24.26 for the unadjusted relevant basic amount of council tax of the GLA.

The referendum principles are applied to the increase to the relevant basic amount of council tax in 2024-25 as compared with the same amount for 2023-24.

Line 3: the first column indicates the average Band D council tax set by the authority in 2023-24 whilst the second column automatically calculates this for 2024-25 as line 1 divided by line 2. This should be the same figure as the basic amount of Council Tax calculated by the authority under section 42B of the 1992 Act for 2024-25. The amount should be shown to the nearest penny.

A message will appear under line 3 if it is possible that a referendum may be required. Local authorities are requested to check their figures and obtain their own legal advice as to whether a referendum is required.

Part 1c: Adult social care

Lines 4 & 5 are for authorities with Adult Social Care responsibilities only.

Line 4: if the authority has Adult Social Care (ASC) responsibilities and is intending to utilize their ASC precept flexibility (maximum 2% in 2024-25) for ASC, please state the total Adult Social Care precept that will be raised to the nearest £.

If the authority has Adult Social Care responsibilities but does not intend to utilize the precept in 2024-25, please enter zero in this line.

Line 5: this line automatically calculates how much of the increase on a Band D bill is being used exclusively to fund Adult Social Care. The cash figure is calculated by dividing the total Adult Social Care precept cash figure by the council tax base for tax setting purposes (Line 4/Line 2).

The percentage figure in the second column shows the cash figure in the first column as a percentage of the 2023-24 average Band D council tax. This shows how much of the maximum 2% increase for ASC has been utilized by the authority. This figure should not exceed 2%.

Part 1d: Referendums

Line 6: You must inform this Department if you are required to hold a referendum due to the increase in your relevant basic amount of council tax (see line 3). You should select either “No” or “Yes – to be held” from the drop-down box when this form is initially returned.

If you select “Yes – to be held” you must submit a revised form immediately following the result of the referendum. To resubmit, you will need to contact us at [email protected] so we can reopen your DELTA form.

If the electorate vote to accept the council tax that was set, when submitting the revised form please select “Yes – resulted in no changes” as the data submitted in your original form will be correct.

If the electorate vote for a lower, non-excessive increase, when submitting the revised form please select “Yes - changes made to form” and reflect the changes in the data throughout the form.

Part 2: Council tax requirements of major precepting authorities

Please ensure the correct information is entered against the named billing authority. The name of each billing authority in your area will be pre-populated.

Enter in column 2 the Council Tax Requirement from each billing authority listed in column 1, which is the amount stated in the precept in accordance with section 40(2)(b) of the 1992 Act as the amount payable for 2024-25. These should be shown to the nearest £ and should add up to the figure given in line 1 (this check is included in the validation part following this part).

These figures will be compared by DLUHC to those submitted by each individual billing authority. We will query these with both parties if they do not match.

Submission

Data can be entered directly into the DELTA form or data from the Excel form can be uploaded into DELTA. Instructions on how to upload are provided in a separate document ‘CTR 2024-25 bulk upload guidance’. Once data is in the form, it should be checked, and any outstanding validations resolved. The form can be saved at any time in the process.

Once the form is complete it should be submitted (submit for certification). At that point it will be ready for the Chief Finance Officer to certify.

Forms should be submitted and certified by the deadline of Monday 11 March 2024.

Queries

Any queries about the completion of the form should be sent by email to [email protected] and addressed ‘CTR2 2024-25 DELTA QUERY’.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

February 2024