Minutes:
The Chair introduced item 7 and explained that following the recommendation of Resources Board in November 2018, the LGA had commissioned WPI Economics to explore the potential design and benefits of an e-commerce levy. The research had now been concluded and so he welcomed James Edgar and Steve Hughes from WPI Economics to the meeting and asked them to present their findings.
James explained that they had been asked to:
· Summarise the debate on levying taxes on online business within the context of the current debate around business rates.
· Examine the case for a local e-commerce levy as part of a future tax system.
· Model what a local e-commerce levy would look like, the potential tax yield and how it could be implemented.
There followed a discussion amongst Board members on the content of the presentation.
Following the discussion, the Chair thanked James and Steve for presenting their research. He suggested to the Board that this should now feed into a wider debate about how local government was funded. He referred to the decision by the LGA Executive on 31 October that the Resources Board should “take forward work looking into alternative methods of local government funding”. He said that there were already a number of work strands ongoing at the LGA on fiscal devolution and so this would provide a good opportunity to bring this work together and to start a public debate. Board members agreed with this approach.
Decision:
· Resources Board noted the presentation by WPI Economics, approved the next steps outlined in paragraphs 9-13 of the report and agreed that the work should be published at an appropriate time following the General Election.
Actions:
· Officers to set up a joint meeting between the Lead Members of People and Places, City Regions and Resources Boards to discuss the outcome of this work and next steps in the LGA’s work on fiscal devolution and to report back to Resources Board on 3 March 2020.
· Officers to prepare a report drawing together the work the LGA has done on different or additional ways of raising resources to fund councils