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5 Jan 2010 : Column 231W—continued
The number of hereditaments in each special category code has been rounded to the nearest 10.
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.
Ratepayers occupying 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. This is on top of the wider support available to help ease business pressures including discounted rate bills for small businesses and deferring tax payments.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government for what reasons the cost of transitional relief in the (a) 2005 and (b) 2010 business rate revaluations is not being met from the public purse. [307836]
Barbara Follett: We are required by section 57A of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 to have the objective of funding the cost of transitional relief from other ratepayers and not from the public purse.
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 intends to put in place a £2 billion relief scheme to limit the impact on the minority with bill increases. This is on top of the wider support available to help ease business pressures including discounted rate bills for small businesses and deferring tax payments.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the net cost to the public purse after the application of downward phasing was of providing transitional relief in respect of business rate revaluation in each year of the 2005 to 2010 rating cycle. [307837]
Barbara Follett: The net transitional relief for each year of the 2005 and 2010 cycle is presented in the following table. These figures are for the local list only.
| Net transitional relief (£ million) | |
These figures have been taken from national non domestic rates returns. These do not include adjustments made with respect to previous years.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate he has made of the take-up rate of the 2009 business rate deferral scheme in respect of the (a) five per cent. rise in business rates in April 2009 and (b) end of the 2005 rating cycle transitional relief. [307838]
Barbara Follett: The impact assessment to accompany the Non-Domestic Rating (Deferred Payments) (England) Regulations estimated that between 50 per cent. and 90 per cent. of businesses will choose to defer increases in their rates bills in 2009-10. No estimate has been made of breakdown between those deferring due to the RPI adjustment and those deferring due to the ending of the 2005 transitional relief scheme.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much and what proportion of gross revenue from non-domestic rates was not redistributed to local authorities in each year since 1997-98. [307846]
Barbara Follett: All gross revenue from non-domestic rates is redistributed to local authorities but not necessarily in the year in which they are collected.
Each year, the Government estimate how much will be redistributed from the pool in the forthcoming year, based on the amount likely to be paid into it and the difference in previous years between the amounts payable to the pool and the amounts paid from it. This is known as the distributable amount and is fixed before the relevant financial year begins. For this reason it is not possible to make a meaningful comparison between what eventually goes into the pool and what is then redistributed from it in any one year.
Information on non-domestic rate yields and the distributable amount are given in Tables 2.3 (d and l) of Local Government Financial Statistics England No 19 2009.
Mrs. Spelman:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Putney (Justine Greening) of 10 November 2009, Official Report,
columns 281-83W, on non-domestic rates: valuation, how many hereditaments on the 1995 Rating List were in each special category code in 1997. [308021]
Barbara Follett: The available information requested has been deposited in the Library and relates to information contained in the 1995 Rating List as at 1 April 1997. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. The table is based on SCAT codes applicable at the time. The use of SCAT codes for some categories has changed since 1997.
Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the Statement of Lord McKenzie of 14 October 2009, Official Report, House of Lords, column 298, on non-domestic rating regulations, if he will place in the Library a copy of the correspondence between his Department and the Inspector General of the Insolvency Service. [308648]
Barbara Follett: A copy of the correspondence was placed in the House Library in February 2009 accompanying a letter dated 10 February from the then Minister for Local Government, my right hon. Friend the Member for Wentworth (John Healey) and my right hon. Friend the Financial Secretary to the hon. Member for Sevenoaks (Mr. Fallon), the Chairman of the Treasury Sub-Committee.
Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the estimated (a) maximum and (b) average value of small business rate relief, in cash terms is for (i) 2008-09, (ii) 2009-10 and (iii) 2010-11, including the value of the small business multiplier. [308715]
Barbara Follett: Details of the maximum value of small business rate relief, in cash terms for 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11 are shown in the following tables.
| Maximum value of small business rate relief | |||
| £ | |||
| 2008-09 | 2009-10 | 2010-11 | |
| n/a = not available | |||
| Small business rate multiplier | |||
| Pence | |||
| 2008-09 | 2009-10 | 2010-11 | |
| n/a = not available. | |||
No estimate has been made of the average value of small business rate relief.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether he has plans to (a) make or (b) lay before Parliament in draft further statutory instruments relating to business rates in the next six months. [309003]
Barbara Follett: The following table provides details of the amendments to statutory instruments in relation to business rates that my Department intends to make over the next six months.
Non-Domestic Rates: Empty Property
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Putney (Justine Greening) of 13 July 2009, Official Report, column 131W, on non-domestic rates: empty property, if he will place in the Library a copy of the representations from the six trade bodies; and what the names are of the 349 groups making written representations, excluding any which have requested confidentiality. [308981]
Barbara Follett: The representations from the six trade bodies have been placed in the House Library. The names of other groups that made representations to my Department are:
Association of Convenience Stores;
Institute of Revenues, Rating and Valuation;
The Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire;
Weymouth Chamber of Commerce;
Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce;
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
The names of private individuals who made representations are not being disclosed on data protection grounds.
Our reforms to empty property relief are principled and right for the long-term. They provide a strong incentive on owners to bring empty property back into use, helping to improve access to premises for businesses and so to exert a downward pressure on commercial rents.
However, we provided owners with real help to manage short-term pressures in a difficult property market by exempting all empty properties with rateable values up to £15,000 from business rates in 2009-10.
We have listened to the continued concerns of owners and are extending the temporary measure for a further 12 months-to cover the whole of 2010-11-and we are uprating the threshold to £18,000 in line with the general movement of property values at revaluation.
Non-Domestic Rates: Entertainments
Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what methodology is to be used by the Valuation Office Agency to value travelling funfairs and circuses for the purposes of the 2010 business rates revaluation. [308676]
Barbara Follett: Travelling funfairs and circuses do not, by their nature, occupy a permanent site for shows and will not, therefore, be valued for rating. The permanent occupiers of these sites may be liable to rates, e.g. as a car park and valued as such. Winter quarters, where there is a permanent retained occupation, will be liable to rates.
Non-Domestic Rates: Ports
Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the answer to Lord Bates of 12 November 2009, Official Report, House of Lords, column 208WA, on non-domestic rates: ports, how many hereditaments in ports are liable for backdated business rates following the implementation of the new arrangements; how many businesses have fully discharged their backdated liability; how many businesses have been granted a schedule of payments; and how many have received lower valuation consequent on a review of a valuation under the new arrangements. [308801]
Barbara Follett: As of 4 January 2010, there are 723 hereditaments within the 45 large, statutory, ports and container terminals in England with a liability for business rates backdated to 1 April 2005. 94 of these hereditaments have seen a change to their rateable value as a consequence of an appeal.
As at 8 October 2009, local authorities had reported that businesses occupying 221 properties within ports had fully discharged their backdated liability and that businesses occupying a further 200 business properties within ports had been granted a schedule of payments.
Properties located within the ports that satisfy the tests of rateability have always been subject to separate assessment-this is not a new regime. The purpose of the review of ports that has been carried out by the Valuation Office Agency is to ensure that all individual business properties within and outside ports are rated fairly in order to distribute the burden of contributions to local government equitably between businesses around the country.
The Government have listened to the concerns of businesses with significant and unexpected backdated bills, including those within ports. It has legislated to allow such bills to be repaid over an unprecedented eight year period rather than in a single instalment, to help affected businesses to manage the impact on their cash flows during the downturn by reducing the amount they are required to pay now by 87.5 per cent.
Non-Domestic Rates: Public Houses
Robert Neill:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the answer of 9 November 2009, Official Report,
column 75W, on non-domestic rates: public houses, whether an assessment has been made of the effect of the rates revaluation on (a) public houses and (b) post offices which have diversified. [308802]
Barbara Follett: No estimates of the likely bills after revaluation have been made for public houses or post offices which have been diversified. These will contain not only transitional relief, but also all other reliefs, some of which will be determined by the billing authority in question .
The five-yearly business rates revaluations make sure each business pays its fair contribution and no more by ensuring that 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. This is on top of the wider support available to help ease business pressures including discounted rate bills for small businesses and deferring tax payments.
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