• Home
  • About
  • Subscribe
  • LATIF
  • Conferences
  • Dashboard
  • Edit My Profile
  • Log In
  • Logout
  • Register
  • Edit this post

Room 151

  • 151 BRIEF

    What's New?

  • Slough welcomes commitment that Office for Local Government ‘will not be a burden’

    June 30, 2022

  • Homes England agrees strategic partnership with two authorities

    June 29, 2022

  • Soaring inflation and pay pressures to add £3.6bn to council budgets

    June 28, 2022

  • Underfunded social care reforms could ‘exacerbate workforce pressures’

    June 27, 2022

  • Nottingham City Council leader labels proposed intervention as ‘disappointing’

    June 27, 2022

  • Government preparing to intervene in Nottingham City Council

    June 23, 2022

  • Treasury
  • Technical
  • Funding
  • Resources
  • LGPS
  • Development
  • 151 News
  • Blogs
    • David Green
    • Agent 151
    • Dan Bates
    • Richard Harbord
    • Stephen Sheen
    • James Bevan
    • Steve Bishop
    • Cllr John Clancy
    • David Crum
    • Graham Liddell
    • Ian O’Donnell
    • Jackie Shute
  • Interviews
  • Briefs

Business rates relief secure after NICs u-turn

0
  • by Colin Marrs
  • in 151 News · Funding · Resources
  • — 16 Mar, 2017

U-turn: Chancellor Philip Hammond. Photo (cropped): Gareth Milner, CC0

The government’s u-turn on national insurance contributions will not scupper the £300m transitional business rates relief announced in last week’s budget, according to ministers.

Chancellor Philip Hammond announced earlier this week that it will not not pursue last week’s announcement to raise class 4 national insurance contributions for the self-employed.

But speaking in the Lords this week, Lord Young of Cookham, cabinet office spokesman in the Lords, dismissed fears that the move would reduce the amount available for business rates relief also announced in the Budget.

Liberal Democrat peer Lord Scriven challenged Lord Young, saying: “As the national insurance contribution changes were widely briefed by the government to pay for extra social care funding and business rates support, will the minister now give an absolute guarantee that local government budgets will not be raided to pay for the gap that has now been made by this u-turn?”

Lord Young of Cookham. Photo: Cabinet Office

In response, Lord Young said: “The support that we announced for local government in the budget will go ahead and will not be affected by the announcement today.”

Separately, Hammond said in a letter to Treasury select committee chair Andrew Tyrie that he will announce how the money lost through the NICs u-turn would be made up in the Autumn budget.

Meanwhile, the DCLG has revealed its allocations to individual councils under the relief scheme, covering the next four years.

All authorities, barring the Isles of Scilly, will get a minimum of £100,000 for relief for 2017-18, with the amounts tapering off year-by-year.

London councils will get the most support — making up nine of the top 10 highest allocations, along with Birmingham.

Westminster City Council will get the largest share, with £19.9m over the four-year period.

Authorities will be free to decide how to allocate the cash, but will be required to only pay it to businesses facing a rise in their bill under revaluation.

The government said it had calculated the allocations by providing a proportion of the total increase in bills for properties with a rateable value of less than £200,000 facing rises of more than 12.5% on bills for this year.

Phil Seddon, head of finance at Rossendale Borough Council — which received the smallest share outside of the Scilly Isles — said: “Whatever money comes from central government, we will be passing it on. We are doing our own analysis of the impact.

“We only have about 2,500 business rate payers and a lot of small businesses are getting full relief. The biggest bills are to the supermarkets.”

Phil Vernon, head of rating at consulting firm PwC, described the relief scheme, while welcome, as “just a sticking plaster” over fundamental problems in the current rates system.

He said the new relief would create a fresh administrative burden for local authorities and ratepayers, and the “government will need to cut out red tape by making the relief process as painless as possible.”

He added: “A costly application process will add more frustration and confusion to the business rates system.”

However, communities secretary Sajid Javid said in a letter to Conservative MPs that the funding will allow local authorities to more than double the sums they spend on discretionary relief in 2017/18.

Get the Room151 Newsletter

Share

You may also like...

  • Ten of the most innovative council-run housing projects 25th Jan, 2022
  • Richard Harbord: ‘Effective governance’ the key to commercial activity 17th Aug, 2021
  • Local government: from funding famine to balanced diet 4th Apr, 2022
  • Councils ‘becoming more involved in direct delivery of housing’ 28th Feb, 2022

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

  • 151 BRIEFS – WHAT’s NEW?

    • Homes England agrees strategic partnership with two authorities
    • Soaring inflation and pay pressures to add £3.6bn to council budgets
    • Underfunded social care reforms could ‘exacerbate workforce pressures’
    • Nottingham City Council leader labels proposed intervention as ‘disappointing’
    • Government preparing to intervene in Nottingham City Council
  • Room151’s LGPS Roundtables

    Biodiversity
    Valuations & Risk
    LGPS Women

  • Room151’s LGPS Roundtables

    Biodiversity
    LGPS Women
    Valuations & Risk
  • Latest tweets

    Room151 3 days ago

    Hillier confirmed as keynote speaker for LATIF/FDs’ Summit: Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, has been confirmed as a keynote speaker for Room151’s combined Local Authority Treasurers Investment Forum (LATIF) and FDs Summit. The… dlvr.it/ST70F7 pic.twitter.com/hxV676Iley

    Room151 3 days ago

    Councils’ funding at risk due to ‘undercounting’ in census data: Population estimates in London and Manchester may have been significantly underestimated in the 2021 census potentially threatening government funding for frontline services in these… dlvr.it/ST707J pic.twitter.com/VncIyaXa01

    Room151 5 days ago

    Gove at LGA: councils to receive two-year financial settlement: Michael Gove has announced that councils will receive a two-year financial settlement from next year to provide authorities with “financial certainty” and allow them to plan ahead. The… dlvr.it/ST0kSV pic.twitter.com/wxL3UM4sGO

    Room151 5 days ago

    LGPS valuations: the digital journey: Rob Bilton explains how technology is helping to deliver one of the most complex data exercises in the world of public sector pensions. The 2022 valuations for LGPS funds in[...] dlvr.it/ST0kMq pic.twitter.com/VxjSPC2Uvo

    Room151 1 week ago

    Conrad Hall: ‘more sophisticated’ regulation needed for local government: The chair of the CIPFA/LASAAC Code Board has questioned the sophistication of financial regulation in local government and the continuing focus of the Department for Levelling Up,… dlvr.it/SSnPBV pic.twitter.com/G5d7JCWF8c

    Room151 2 weeks ago

    Slough Council approves plans to restructure finance department: Slough Borough Council has approved plans to restructure its finance department to enhance capacity and capability and to address a “significant weakness” in the function. The local… dlvr.it/SSf8DG pic.twitter.com/l5lmyHmkBg

  • Register to become a Room151 user

  • Previous story Stephen Sheen: The auditor’s dreaded knock on the door
  • Next story Commercialisation drives review of Prudential Code

© Copyright 2022 Room 151. Typegrid Theme by WPBandit.

0 shares