What is the Tenants Levy?
You are automatically a member of your local TARA if you pay the tenants levy, a voluntary contribution of 10p a week paid with your rent. TARAs receive funding through the levy to work with Sheffield Homes on issues they are concerned about and to organise activities to improve their area or estate.
TARAs also hold regular general meetings to which all levy payers are invited. If you are not a levy payer, think about signing up. The 10p a week payment will be added to your rent account. If you are not a tenant but live on the estate or in an ex council property covered by a TARA, you can join by paying £5 a year membership fee.
In areas where there is no recognised TARA, levy money is paid into the residual levy fund. A review is being undertaken to consider how this money can be spent effectively to benefit residual levy payers.
Please find the latest Quarter Reconciliation document of Tenant's Levy attached below. A brief explanation of each account is also detailed below.
Tenants Levy Account
The Tenants Levy account details the amounts of money each TARA is paid, each quarter. How much each TARA receives is dependent on how many levy payers they have and compliance with the Recognition Policy.
Overall Residual Levy Account
The Overall Residual Levy Account is the amount of outstanding residual levy payments following the appropriate deductions in the On-Going, Suspense and Retained Accounts.
Residual Levy Suspense Account
The suspense account is the account where all monies from TARA's, who under the Recognition Policy have had their Tenants Levy suspended. If a TARA stays in suspense for longer than 18 months, the money accumulated is released in to the Residual Levy Ongoing Account. If the TARA becomes compliant within 18 months of being suspended, they are entitled to the total amount of money that has been accumulated from the suspended date.
Residual Levy Retained Account
The Retained Account is a budget allocated to support the establishment of new TARA's, and to cover any one-off payments. This account will start each financial year with a starting budget of £10,000.
Residual Levy Ongoing Account
The Residual Levy Ongoing Account is the amount of Residual Levy to be allocated to the Going Local Project once the Suspense Account and Retained Account funds have been deducted.