Agenda item

Mike Heiser (Senior Adviser – Finance) introduced the report and highlighted the measures in the Spring Budget which made up a package of support worth £435m to help business in England facing significant increases in business rates bills from April 2017 as a result of the recent revaluation. The measures included support for small or rural businesses which as a result of revaluation have increased over the limit for small business rate relief, a consultation on a discretionary relief scheme which will fund £300m of discretionary business rate relief between 2017/18 and 2020/21, and relief for pubs that have a rateable value below £100,000 for one year only.

A draft consultation response to the discretionary relief scheme was included for agreement by the Board, and officers were currently waiting for the consultation document on relief for pubs which was expected soon. The government had stated that relief should be discretionary rather than mandatory, so that local authorities could shift resources between years, but DCLG would undertake a single new burdens assessment on the three measures.

In the discussion which followed Members raised the following points:

·         In response to a question on if a pub would receive a business rate discount if they currently owed the council outstanding business rates, it was anticipated that this would be covered in the forthcoming consultation document.

·         Concern was raised that some authorities would see all businesses have a reduction in rates through the discretionary relief scheme. The LGA had asked DCLG for a detailed calculation but this had not yet been produced. A flaw had been built into the formula so that businesses rather than the council were disadvantaged, and if they paid less business rates they would get less of a discount. It was suggested that officers could look at the impact of the distribution without a flaw in the formula, and this would be examined. Lead Members could sign off the change in he draft consultation response prior to the deadline.

·         Subject to considering what the DCLG model of discretionary relief would look like without a flaw, the Board were happy to endorse the consultation response.

Decision

The Resources Board:

Noted the report; and

Approved the response to the consultation document on the design and implementation of the locally administered Business Rates Relief Scheme, subject to consideration of the impact of a distribution formula with no flaw.

Action

Lead Members to sign off on the amendment to the consultation response, and response to the subsequently submitted to DCLG.