The Committee received a report which set out progress of the Allotment Rent Review and a consultation on changes to allotment discounts and rents. 

Since 2020 the service had sought the opinion of tenants on potential rent and discount changes through the August 2020 Allotment Consultation and ongoing work on the Allotment Self-Management Project while calculating what charges would meet service needs without causing major hardship to low-income tenants.

It was reported that Council currently subsidised the service by £45k per year and rental received was dependent on the two levels of discounts that plot tenants could claim via the Your Reading Passport (YRP) scheme.  The discounts were:

·         General Discount (10%). Tenants claim the 10% discount by virtue of residency in the Borough being a YRP holder.

·         Concessionary Discount (74%). In addition to the General discount, YRP holders who were aged 60+, on low income or with a disability could also claim for this additional discount giving them a total discount of 84%.

Of the Council’s 1,413 current allotment tenants, 509 (36%) claimed one of two discounts available.

The aims of reviewing allotment discounts were as follows:

·         To continue to use Discounts to support tenants in financial hardship.

·         To simplify the Rent Matrix. Removal of the 10% General Discount would cut three lines from the Rent Matrix and simplify the application and billing processes.

·         To standardise the number of Discount levels with other Council Discount schemes, which only offered a single level of discount.

·         To align Discount levels with national averages.

·         To contribute to the Council Medium Term Financial Strategy.

It was considered that the 84% concessionary discount was generous when benchmarked against discounts offered by other local authorities.  A consultation would be undertaken on two future discount schemes which would bring Reading in line with other local authorities and simplify the rent matrix. The consultation would begin in July 2023 for 6 weeks and a report would be brought to the Committee in November 2023 advising of the consultation results and recommending a rents and discount option to be applied from 1 April 2025.

Resolved:      

(1)          That the proposed rationale for increasing allotment rents and reducing related discounts be noted;

(2)          That the Allotment Rent & Discounts Consultation Plan to commence in August 2023 be approved;

(3)          That a further report be brought back to a future HNL Committee for approval on the new proposed Allotment Rent & Discount structure following the consultation exercise being completed. This is required to give plot holders 12 months written notice of the new rent/discount structure to be implemented.