Clause 25
10:45 am
Bob Neill (Shadow Minister, Communities and Local Government; Bromley and Chislehurst, Conservative)
I do not disagree with the Minister’s comments, and I take his point about the safeguards. However, subsection (3) makes provision for charging a fee on a discretionary basis. Does the Minister envisage a covering of costs by the billing authority? Since it is all council tax payers’ money at the end of the day, I should imagine anyone will welcome any degree of cost shunting between the two tiers of authority. I hope that that will be made clear in the guidance, and dealt with on a sensible basis.