Council to pay back £200k over incorrect charges

West Berkshire Council said some homeowners had been "disgracefully" charged

A council said it will return more than £200,000 to homeowners who were incorrectly charged when they made home improvements.

West Berkshire Council said residents were “disgracefully” charged the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) when they carried out self-builds or extended their properties.

They should have been exempt but were charged after they made minor errors on paperwork.

Developer Joe Atkinson, from Burghfield Common, was told to pay a £40,000 bill for work done by his property's previous owner.

Joe Atkinson said West Berkshire Council had a reputation of being "very ruthless" over CIL

He said a notice was hammered into his garden detailing an unpaid £1.50 interest charge.

“We’ve done self-builds for people and I warn them: please, please make sure that you’ve done all of the CIL paperwork in the right order because every authority is different,” he said.

“The bridleway’s quite busy so all my neighbours, anyone who lived in Burghfield Common, could see I had this notice planted at the front of my house.”

He said the authority had a reputation of being “very ruthless” over the charge.

An officer from West Berkshire Council left a notice in Maria Dobson's garden

West Berkshire Council leader Jeff Brooks said the authority is seeking to correct its error.

“Since 2015, there’s a number of people who have paid a lot of money – up to £34,000 – when they should have been exempt and paid nothing. That is not right,” he said.

“People have applied and said: ‘I built this house for myself. I’m still living in it and I paid £30,000 six years ago’, and we are paying [the CIL charge] back.”

In April, another homeowner, Maria Dobson, said she was “bullied” into paying an extra charge of nearly £25,000 for work on her Kintbury house.

She said a council officer posted notices about the fee outside her property and called through her letterbox when she did not answer the door.