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16 Dec 2009 : Column 1298W—continued

16 Dec 2009 : Column 1299W

£
Rank	Billing authority	Rateable value on the 2005 ratings list	Rateable value on the draft 2010 ratings list
1	Hackney	(1)-	11,000
2	Bromley	1,000	16,000
3	Islington	23,000	450,000
4	Hackney	13,000	225,000
5	Haringey	1,000	8,000
6	Greenwich	5,000	68,000
7	Bromley	1,000	8,000
8	Southwark	14,000	185,000
9	Harrow	1,000	10,000
10	Bromley	3,000	37,000
11	Tower Hamlets	10,000	108,000
12	Hackney	8,000	83,000
13	Hillingdon	14,000	141,000
14	Sutton	1,000	12,000
15	Tower Hamlets	21,000	206,000
16	Brent	(1)-	3,000
17	Tower Hamlets	(1)-	3,000
18	Hackney	6,000	55,000
19	Wandsworth	1,000	7,000
20	Camden	76,000	665,000
21	Richmond upon Thames	3,000	24,000
22	Tower Hamlets	(1)-	3,000
23	City of Westminster	8,000	70,000
24	Ealing	10,000	84,000
25	Kensington and Chelsea	1,000	11,000
26	Greenwich	6,000	46,000
27	Hammersmith and Fulham	2,000	17,000
28	Greenwich	2,000	16,000
29	Greenwich	3,000	21,000
30	Southwark	6,000	43,000
31	Lambeth	13,000	96,000
32	Islington	3,000	20,000
	Islington	5,000	35,000
34	Newham	(1)-	3,000
35	Southwark	2,000	14,000
36	Enfield	1,000	3,000
37	Tower Hamlets	11,000	70,000
38	Lambeth	3,000	16,000
39	Islington	5,000	32,000
40	Barnet	9,000	59,000
41	Barnet	9,000	59,000
42	Barnet	7,000	46,000
43	Enfield	20,000	126,000
44	Tower Hamlets	55,000	350,000
45	Camden	23,000	146,000
46	City of Westminster	19,000	121,000
47	Barnet	2,000	13,000
48	Newham	4,000	26,000
49	City of Westminster	12,000	71,000
50	City of London	17,000	100,000
(1) Less than £500. Note: The figures are rounded to the nearest thousand.

Rateable values are based on rental value at a set valuation date-1 April 2003 and 1 April 2008 for the 2005 and the new 2010 rating lists respectively. At each
16 Dec 2009 : Column 1300W
revaluation a completely fresh valuation of each property is made and it is to be expected that values will change at differential rates reflecting the change in demand for property over time.

The five-yearly business rates revaluations make sure each business pays its fair contribution and no more by ensuring the share of the national rates bill paid by any one business reflects changes over time in the value of their property relative to others. The 2010 revaluation will not raise a single extra penny for Government.

Over a million properties will see their business rate liabilities come down as a result of revaluation. The Government intend to put in place a £2 billion relief scheme to limit the impact on the minority with bill increases. That is on top of the wider support available to help ease business pressures including discounted rate bills for small businesses and deferring tax payments.

Non-Domestic Rates: Ports

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Liverpool, Riverside of 9 November 2009, Official Report, column 75W, on non-domestic rates: ports, if he will place in the Library a copy of the communication received from the trade association. [306548]

Ms Rosie Winterton: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst on 20 July 2009, Official Report, column 823-24W.

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government in respect of how many individual hereditaments in each port he expects backdated payments of business rates to be required. [307041]

Barbara Follett: As of 26 October 2009, there are 727 hereditaments within the 45 large statutory ports and container terminals in England with a liability for business rates backdated to 1 April 2005.

The Government have listened to the concerns of businesses with significant and unexpected backdated bills, including some within ports. It has legislated to allow such bills to be repaid over an unprecedented eight years period rather than in one single instalment. This will help affected businesses to manage their cash flows during the downturn by reducing the amount they are required to pay immediately by 87 per cent.

As at 8 October 2009, local authorities have reported that ratepayers occupying 221 properties within ports had fully discharged their backdated liability and ratepayers occupying a further 200 business properties within ports had been granted a schedule of payments.

Non-Domestic Rates: Valuation

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what primary description codes the Valuation Office Agency uses for classifying hereditaments for business rates. [306386]

Ian Pearson: I have been asked to reply.

16 Dec 2009 : Column 1301W

The primary description codes contained within the Rating Lists will be placed in the Library.

Non-Domestic Rates: York

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many empty commercial properties in City of York Council area were exempt from commercial rates under the Government's temporary exemption scheme in 2009; what the monetary value was of the rate income foregone; and what the financial effects of such relief on City of York Council were. [307385]

Barbara Follett: Data about the number of empty commercial properties in 2009 have not yet been collected. It is planned that these data will be requested from all billing authorities in England as at 31 December 2009.

Data on the value of the empty property rate relief granted in 2009-10 will be collected on the annual national non-domestic rates (NNDR3) form completed by all billing authorities in England after the end of the current financial year.

Any non-domestic rate relief granted because properties are empty has no financial effect on a billing authority. Any relief granted reduces the amount of national non-domestic rates an authority will be able to collect and subsequently required to contribute to the national non-domestic rates pool. If an authority awards more relief than envisaged at the budget stage, and consequently collects less non-domestic rates, measures are available to the authority to reduce its contribution to the pool either within year or after the year has ended.

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