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Information from 1997 can be provided to a longer timescale. The HCA will report on figures for 2009-10 after the end of the financial year in their accounts and financial statements.
Local Government Finance
Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 21 January 2010, Official Report, column 482W, on local government finance, against which authorities capping action was taken; and how the capping principles were exceeded in each case. [316591]
Barbara Follett: I refer the hon. Member to the following statements made by previous local government Ministers:
29 April 2004, Official Report, columns 1019-21;
23 March 2005, Official Report, columns 883-4;
27 March 2006, Official Report, columns 567-9;
27 March 2008, Official Report, columns 339-41;
26 March 2009, Official Report, columns 464-5.
Local Government: Standards
Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate his Department has made of the cost to local authorities of reporting on their performance against (a) negotiated area targets and (b) national indicators. [316841]
Ms Rosie Winterton: We do not hold this information. However, over the last year Communities and Local Government has undertaken reviews of the national indicator set and the local area agreement process to assess the impact of the local performance framework on local authorities and their partners. These reviews have been used to inform commitments in the recent “Putting the Front Line First: Smarter Government” White Paper. Specific commitments include removing indicators that are no longer relevant or needed by April 2010 and reducing the overall number of national indicators against which local authorities will have to report their performance for the next spending period. The White Paper also invited the current Total Place pilots to provide information on the costs of assessment and inspection to inform the Smarter Government workstreams. A report on the pilots will be published alongside Budget 2010.
Mobile Homes: Licensing
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when he plans to publish his Department's response to the consultation on park home site licensing; how many responses to that consultation his Department received; and if he will place in the Library a copy of each response to that consultation. [316945]
Mr. Ian Austin: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 8 February 2010, Official Report, column 725W.
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Non-domestic Rates: Garages and Petrol Stations
Sir Paul Beresford: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which petrol retail outlets were used in the assessment of the new rateable values for the purpose of calculating the business rate to come into effect on 1 April 2010; and what the (a) location and (b) region was of each. [311056]
Barbara Follett: Broadly speaking, rateable value represents the annual rental value of the property. For the 2010 business rates revaluation, the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) collected and examined 1,300 rents on petrol filling stations. This evidence was then filtered down to those rents that best reflected the rateable value assumptions and were agreed closest to the valuation date of 1 April 2008. There are around 100 of these key rents for petrol filling stations of which around 60 per cent. are from independent operators.
Section 18 (1) of the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005 provides that Revenue and Customs officials may not disclose information which is held by them in connection with their function. As a result, valuation officers cannot disclose any details of the key rents from which the ratepayers or the properties concerned could be identified.
The key rents can be summarised by region in England as follows:
| Region | Number of key rents |
The five-yearly business rates revaluations make sure each business pays its fair contribution and no more and 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.
In the last five years, alongside rising petrol prices and increasing turnover, the rents paid on many petrol filling stations have grown. It is only fair to all ratepayers this is reflected in rate bills. The Government have put in place a £2 billion relief scheme to limit the impact on the minority with bill increases, which in 2010-11 will ensure no business property sees its rates bill increase by more than 11 per cent. as a result of the revaluation, with maximum increases capped at just 3.5 per cent. for small properties. 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
Richard Younger-Ross: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much has been received by local authorities in respect of business rates on hereditaments in ports since the entry into effect of the results of the Valuation Office Agency’s review of rateable values. [316930]
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Barbara Follett: The review of ports by the Valuation Office Agency was carried out in order to ensure that all individual business properties within, and outside, ports are rated fairly and to ensure that the burden of contributions to the funding local government services is shared equitably among businesses across the country.
The Government have listened to the concerns of businesses with significant and unexpected backdated bills, including some within ports. It has legislated to enable such bills to be repaid over an unprecedented eight years rather than in a single instalment, thus helping 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.
The Government only hold a snap shot of information, from local authorities, on how much has been collected from port based ratepayers for backdated liabilities. It does not have information on how much may have been collected in respect of ongoing business rates payments on hereditaments in ports. As at 8 October 2009, local authorities have reported that ratepayers occupying 221 properties within ports had fully discharged their backdated liability and that a total of £21,246,973.01 in backdated liabilities had been collected.
Non-domestic Rates: Valuation
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Meriden of 16 December 2009, Official Report, column 1298W, on non-domestic rates, what the (a) postcode and (b) percentage change in rateable value was in respect of each of the hereditaments included in the answer. [311798]
Barbara Follett: The following table gives the 50 hereditaments in Greater London, with their post codes, which showed, as at 29 May 2009, the largest percentage increase in rateable value between the compilation of the 2005 and the 2010 Ratings List. It also shows the percentage change in each hereditament’s bill between 2005 and 2010 after transitional relief has been applied, but before other reliefs.
The figures in the table are based on those in the Department’s 2009 consultation document entitled: “The Transitional Arrangements for the Non-Domestic Rating Revaluation 2010 in England”. A copy of this can be found at:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/nndrrevaluation2010
| Rank | Percentage change in rateable value | Percentage change in bill as a result of revaluation after transitional relief(1) | Postcode |
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| (1) The percentage change in rate bills will not be the same as the percentage change in rateable value. The Government’s £2 billion relief scheme will cap increases in 2010-11 rate bills as a result of revaluation at no more than 11 per cent. and just 3.5 per cent. for small hereditaments. | |||