To adopt the new Policy for awarding relief to ratepayers facing significant increases in business rates bills following the 2017 revaluation and local newspaper relief; to note the changes to the existing charitable discretionary relief policy for recipients of rural rate relief; and to adopt the new review period for discretionary relief.

1.      That the new policy for awarding reliefs to ratepayers facing significant increases in business rates bills following the 2017 revaluation and local newspaper relief be ADOPTED.  

2.      That the changes to the existing charitable discretionary relief policy for recipients of rural rate relief be NOTED.

3.      That the new review period for discretionary reliefs be ADOPTED.

37.1           The report of the Head of Revenues and Benefits, circulated at Pages No. 69-120, asked Members to adopt the new policy for awarding reliefs to ratepayers facing significant increases in business rates bills following the 2017 revaluation. 

37.2           Members were advised that the government had made several announcements to reduce the burden of business rates on business rate payers and, in addition, there was a need to change the regularity of reviews for recipients of charitable discretionary reliefs to once every four years and to remove the need for mini reviews in between. The detailed proposals included three new reliefs designed to reduce the burden of business rates on those facing the steepest increases in their bills: a discretionary relief that would be available to local newspapers over a two year period; an increase to the mandatory relief for recipients of rural rate relief from 50% to 100% from 1 April 2017; and the removal from the discretionary relief policy of the need to carry out mini reviews.

37.3           The policy document was split into four sections: supporting small business relief; new discretionary relief scheme; business rate relief scheme for pubs; and local newspaper relief. The ‘supporting small businesses relief’ would help those ratepayers who, as a result of a change in their rateable value at the revaluation, were losing some or all of their small business or rural rate relief and, accordingly, were facing large increases in their bills. In terms of the new discretionary relief scheme, the Council would consider awarding relief in circumstances where rateable values were below £200,000; the eligible ratepayer was the ratepayer occupying the affected property on 31 March 2017 and continued to be the ratepayer; and where the 2017/18 net bill exceeded the 2016/17 gross rates bill by over 12.5% - in those circumstances the ratepayer would be eligible to receive new discretionary relief reducing the increase by 40%. In terms of the rate relief scheme for pubs, this would apply to those with a rateable value of below £100,000 and would mean those pubs received a discount of £1,000 off their bill for the 2017/18 financial year. The local newspaper relief meant a discount of £1,500 in business rates per year for office space that was occupied by local newspapers. The relief would run for two years from 1 April 2017 and would be assessed and calculated on a daily basis – there were currently no such establishments within Tewkesbury Borough.

37.4           In response to a query regarding the funding that was provided by the government, the Head of Revenues and Benefits explained that the Council was given a ringfenced sum of £191,000 for year one and then £40,000 for year two; if the Council spent more than that it would have to pay the extra. There were many Districts with huge business rate numbers so those authorities would get a higher percentage of the government funding pot. It was intended that the Council would award relief in line with the policy and then write to the ratepayer to advise them; they would then need to indicate if they were not eligible. In terms of the funding provided by the government, the Head of Revenues and Benefits advised that the Department for Communities and Local Government had looked at the Council’s rateable value list and come up with the figures which it said the Council was entitled to from the central pot; if the Council wanted a higher figure it would have to put forward a business case but, at the moment, Officers felt the amount would be appropriate.

37.5           Accordingly, it was