Lawley Village - Community Charge 2025

Community Charge 2025

In this section

In November the resident-led Lawley Management Committee met to review the budgets for 2025. During the meeting, the committee considered the rising cost of managing, maintaining and improving the Village and delivering the community events, activities and partnership working. In addition, it also considered that the Estates and Stewardship service BVT provide has been operating at a deficit for two years (with the shortfall being drawn down from a limited reserve fund).

As a result, it was agreed by committee that the Community Charge for 2025 should increase by 3.2% to meet the increasing costs in delivering the Estates & Stewardship service for Lawley residents.

The new annual Community Charge rate for 2025 will be:

	2024 charge	2025 charge	Increase
Community Charge (Paid by every household in BVT Lawley)	£243.75	£250.52	£7.77

The audited accounts for 2024 will be available in June 2025 and will be published on this website. In the meantime, as requested by the committee, the estimated 2025 budget is below. This details how the money from the Community Charge will be spent.

v5-FINAL-Lawley-Charge-flyer-A4-Landscape Download

Below are some FAQ’s regarding the Community Charge, if at any time you would like to discuss this with the Estates & Stewardship Manager, please either pop into the Lawley Community Hub or email [email protected]

FAQ’s

Bournville Village Trust were appointed as the long-term stewardship provider for Lawley Village by the Lawley Village Developer Group in 2007, to deliver Estates and Stewardship services that go beyond what would be provided by a local authority or other agency.

The requirements of the Estates and Stewardship Service are detailed in the Transfer Document (known as a TP1 or TR1) that you signed when you bought your home.
This includes the ability for the long-term stewardship provider to recover all costs for delivering the service.

Long-term stewardship can be broken down into four main areas:

Community Development & Partnerships.
Estate Management.
Grounds Maintenance.
Wear & Tear Fund.

You can find out what is included in each of these services on our website www.bvtlawleyvillage.org.uk

The level of the charge is reviewed and set every year by the resident-led Lawley Management Committee. Cost of living is always considered by committee, as well as market rises, for example looking at the increasing cost of grit and materials.

They consider these changes to costs and the work that needs to be done in managing, maintaining, and improving Lawley and delivering community events, activities and partnership working.

Any changes to costs are carefully considered in the budget work that takes place before decisions are made in the November committee meeting each year.

Every year part of the Community Charge is set aside and added to a Wear and Tear Fund to cover the cost of future repairs and maintenance in areas we manage and maintain. This is done in line with our 30-year asset management plan that looks at the lifecycles of all of the components and estimates the future costs to repair or replace them.
This includes:

• Replacement of hard surfaces, such as tarmac and block paving.
• Replacement of lampposts.
• Replacement of street furniture, such as litter bins.
• Regular maintenance of trees.
• Regular maintenance of drainage systems/replacement of drainage systems.

Adding money to the Wear and Tear Fund means that we can avoid large spikes in the charge to cover these costs in the future.

At the end of 2023 there was £906,000 in the Wear and Tear Fund. The value remains the same throughout the year and a transfer is made into it at the end of the financial year (31st December) including interest paid at the Bank of England base rate minus 1% as set by the Long-Term Stewardship Agreement.

We provide services to residents as soon as their home is occupied. Alongside the amount of green and open spaces that we manage and maintain, we also provide guidance on home alterations and applications, covenants and breaches and community development activities for everyone in Lawley.

Our team is available to all Lawley residents to provides help and advice for any concerns you may have. We know it can be confusing to understand who may be responsible for each piece of land and we are always happy to advise. If an area doesn’t fall within our responsibility, we will raise issues on your behalf with the responsible organisation.

If there is any surplus at the end of the financial year this is used to offset the following years charge for all residents.