Fees and Charges Reviews

A collaborative, evidence-based approach to find significant additional income

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Our Fees & Charges Reviews identify significant additional income as well as bringing clarity, consistency and transparency to charging decisions. 

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Every council is facing financial challenges and our fees and charges reviews, undertaken for around 40 councils, are proven to result in substantial levels of additional income that can drop straight into the budget process. 

The Common Problem

For many, charging has evolved over time through incremental change, often with limited visibility or shared understanding of full cost. This can result in:

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• Unintended subsidies as a result of not understanding full cost

• Inconsistencies in approach

• Services being provided free that could be charged for

In all of these scenarios, issues are hidden and difficult to identify without a focused review.

Our reviews are designed to address these challenges by supporting councils to align fees and charges with policy objectives, strengthen financial sustainability and develop a clear, defensible evidence base for decision-making.

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The work is delivered collaboratively with finance teams, service managers and senior officers. We provide constructive challenge and robust analysis, while ownership of decisions remains firmly with the council, and a strong emphasis is placed on knowledge transfer and building internal capability.

Across our work, Fees & Charges Reviews have consistently identified significant additional income for councils. In the majority of cases, a substantial proportion of this income is deliverable within the next financial year.

How our reviews work

At the heart of our approach is working with councils, not doing things to them. 

Our reviews are:

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In practice, this means we engage openly with services and finance to develop shared understanding, challenge existing practice and agree realistic, deliverable proposals. 

This pragmatic, collaborative approach enables councils to identify material additional income quickly, while embedding tools that continue to be used long after the review has concluded. It supports both immediate, cashable income outcomes and longer-term change in how fees and charges are managed across the organisation. 

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The four elements of every review

A typical Fees & Charges Review is structured around four core elements:

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Together, these elements provide a transparent and defensible framework for setting and reviewing fees and charges.

A phased approach to delivery

Fees & Charges Reviews are typically delivered in two phases, allowing councils to focus first on areas of greatest significance while building a consistent approach that can be applied more widely.

Phase 1: Priority services

Phase 1 focuses on a defined set of priority services, typically those with the highest income, greatest risk of under-recovery or increased policy or political sensitivity. These often include core council services such as adult social care, highways, planning, waste, bereavement services, with the final scope agreed to reflect local priorities.

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The emphasis in Phase 1 is on developing a robust evidence base, working collaboratively with services and finance, and identifying deliverable proposals that can inform budget setting and decision-making. For many councils, Phase 1 alone identifies seven-figure income opportunities that can be reflected in the next budget cycle, alongside a clearer evidence base for more sensitive or complex areas.

Phase 2: Wider application and sustainability

Phase 2 builds on the foundations established in Phase 1, extending the approach to additional service areas. These are often more varied in nature and value, where consistency, transparency and long-term sustainability are the primary objectives. Past Phase 2 reviews have included areas such as licensing, traded services to schools and registrars.

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In this phase, the emphasis shifts towards embedding the approach within the organisation, supporting services to apply the methodology more independently and ensuring tools, governance and capability are in place to sustain the work beyond the review.

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Tools that remain with the council

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A core part of our offer is leaving councils better equipped at the end of the review.

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This includes:

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• A bespoke cost calculator, developed with finance and services to reflect local data, structures and processes

• Access to our benchmarking tool as an optional add-on, enabling ongoing comparison and refresh

• Practical guidance and workshops to support effective use of the tools in practice

This emphasis on building internal understanding and capability supports greater consistency, transparency and confidence in pricing decisions in future years once the review has concluded.

Other types of review

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Although we have a template for delivery of our reviews we are able to bespoke them to a Councils needs.  Other types of support we have delivered include:

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• Hotspots review – a shorter desk based review, which has been designed for District Councils and very small unitary Councils

• Focus on a specific service area to address a known challenge (e.g. Building Control or Grounds Maintenance) 

• Toolkit – provision of the toolkit and associated training to support the Council undertake their own review