Form

CTR4: 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 the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and West Yorkshire Combined Authority only.

This guidance note is provided for the 2024-25 collection, adapted for the CTR4 DELTA form ‘CTR4-2024-25-apr’.

You can register to use DELTA.

Additional useful DELTA guidance (PDF, 1.22MB).

It is important that your authority returns 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 (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities). 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.

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 £.

Part 1a: Council Tax Requirement

Line 1: for column 3 the Council Tax Requirement is the aggregate of the amounts stated in the components of the precept issued in accordance with section 42A of the 1992 Act as amounts payable by billing authorities to the precepting authority for the year (column 1 and column 2). 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. The authority should enter data in columns 1 and 2, column 3 will then be automatically calculated. 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 2: 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. This is the amount that was anticipated in pursuance of regulations under section 74 or 75 of the 1988 Act in the calculation of a constituent body’s council tax requirement in 2024-25. These amounts should have already been included in line 1.

A validation on Line 2 is included after this part.

Part 1b: Taxbase

Line 3: the council tax base figures for 2024-25 determined for the purposes of section 42B of the 1992 Act (calculation of basic amounts). Each amount should be shown to 1 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 (Statutory Instrument) 2013/2977).

A validation on Line 3 is included after this part.

Part 1c: Council Tax

Line 4: the figure in column 1 is automatically calculated from line 1 divided by line 3 for the Combined Authority’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Functions component.

The figure in column 2 is automatically calculated from line 1 divided by line 3 for the Combined Authority’s General Functions component.

These should be the same as the basic amount of Council Tax calculated by the Combined Authority for each component. The amount in both columns should be shown to the nearest penny. The figures for 2024-25 Combined Authority PCC Functions component should be checked to establish whether they have exceeded the referendum principles applicable for the year.

Line 5: this is the amount of Band D Council Tax for 2024-25 notified to the billing authorities in the Combined Authority’s area in accordance with section 40(2)(a) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992. The amount should be shown to the nearest penny. This is calculated automatically as sum of Line 4’s column 1 and 2.

Part 1d: Referendum

Line 6: The Combined Authority will be required to seek the approval of their local electorate, in a referendum, if they set council tax increases that exceed the principles set out in a report to the House of Commons and approved in parallel with the Local Government Finance Report.

The referendum principles are that their relevant basic amount of council tax would be excessive if the Combined Authority set increases of:

• More than £13 for the Combined Authority’s PCC functions component

There is no referendum principle applied to the combined authority’s general function.

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. 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 that we can reopen your DELTA form.

If the electorate votes 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 votes 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 Requirement of the Combined Authority

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

In column 2 enter the council tax requirement from each billing authority relating to the Police (PCC) element, 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 £.

In column 3 enter the council tax requirement from each billing authority relating to the general functions element, 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 £.

The figures given in the total lines of each column should add up to the figures given in line 1. A validation on this follows this part.

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

Submission

Data should be entered directly into the DELTA form. 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. 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 at the latest.

Queries

Any queries about the completion of the form should be sent by email to [email protected] and addressed ‘CTR4 DELTA QUERY 2024-25’.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
February 2024