Business Rates Pilot Scheme 2019/20 Application Form
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Business Rates Pilot Scheme 2019/20 Application Form This application form will be used to assess your application to pilot 75% business rates retention in 2019/20. Where relevant, further evidence to support points raised in this form may be included as an annex. Please note that authorities cannot apply to pilot 75% business rates retention as part of more than one application. Information provided in response to this application may be published or disclosed in accordance with the access to information regimes – these are primarily the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA), the EU General Data Protection Regulation, and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004). The personal data you provide as part of this application will be held on a secure government system in line with the department’s personal data charter. Contact details will only be used for contacting you about your application or to update you on our work relating to local government finance reforms. For any questions relating to the application process, please email: [email protected]. FAQs relating to applications will be published on the Government publications website at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/75-business-rates-retention-pilots-2019-to-2020- prospectus 1. Application Contact Details Please include details of the lead pilot authority and lead official responsible for responding to any departmental queries relating to the pilot application. a. Name of lead pilot authority Leeds City Council b. Name of lead official Carolyn Jolley c. Lead official job title Senior Financial Manager d. Lead official email address [email protected] e. Lead official contact phone number 0113 3787821 Page 1 of 14 2. Membership of the Proposed Pool Please list all authorities belonging to the proposed pilot pool below. The application cannot be considered valid unless all of the listed members have endorsed all parts of the application (see Annex A). You can insert/delete lines as needed. For the authority type box, please write down one of the following options for each participating authority: (1) Fire; (2) London Borough; (3) Metropolitan district; (4) County; (5) Shire District; (6) Greater London Authority; (7) Unitary Authority. Authority name Authority Type City of Bradford Metropolitan District Metropolitan District Council The Metropolitan Borough Council of Metropolitan District Calderdale Craven District Council Shire District Hambleton District Council Shire District Harrogate Borough Council Shire District Kirklees Council Metropolitan District Leeds City Council Metropolitan District North Yorkshire County Council County Richmondshire District Council Shire District Ryedale District Council Shire District Selby District Council Shire District Scarborough Borough Council Shire District The Council of the City of Wakefield Metropolitan District City of York Council Unitary Authority Page 2 of 14 3. Membership details and pooling arrangements Please answer all of the questions below using short and concise answers. Section 4 will allow you to outline your pilot proposal in more detail. a. Have all members included in the pilot Select one: area endorsed all parts of this application? (1) Yes (Please ensure that Annex A is signed by (2) No s.151 officer of each area and returned as part of the application to evidence this.) Select one: b. Do any members of the proposed pool belong to any other current pool? (1) Yes (2) No (If ‘no’, please move to question 3.d.) c. If any members of the proposed pool Select one: belong to any other current pool, have other members of such pool been (1) Yes informed that the authority is applying to (2) No become a pilot as part of a different (3) N/A pool? Select one: d. Are there any precepting authorities that are not part of the proposed pilot area? (1) Yes (2) No – Does not include Fire and Rescue (If ‘yes’, please move to question 3.e.) Authorities. Select one: e. If there are any precepting authorities that are not part of the proposed pilot (1) Yes area, are these precepting authorities (2) No aware of this proposal? (3) N/A f. Are all members of the proposed pilot Select one: area willing to collaborate with MHCLG officials on system design of the new (1) Yes business rates retention system, sharing (2) No additional data and information, as required? Page 3 of 14 The proposed 75% pilot pool includes the two tier area of the county of North Yorkshire, with the County Council and seven shire districts. Our proposal in this area is to split the additional 25% of business rates income retained equally between the tiers in this area. Therefore the final tier split in the North Yorkshire area would be: - North Yorkshire County Council 21.5% The Shire Districts 52.5% North Yorkshire Fire 1.0% Our proposal follows careful consideration of the risk to the Pool brought about by increasing the g. How does the pilot pool propose to split shares of shire districts thereby increasing the non-domestic rating income in two-tier chance of a safety net payment, set against the areas?* ability of shire districts to be able to transparently measure the success of increased (F.ex. the pilot pool could propose to split retention within the Pool. Similarly the county’s the shares as in the current 50% business understandable desire is to raise more of its rates retention, or propose to test different income locally, but this has to be balanced with kinds of tier split arrangements as part of the the inherent risk of reductions in income should pilot.) the business rates tax base experience a downturn and the effect this may have on vital (*The department will use this information in upper tier local services, such as adult and regulations to designate a tier split for the children’s social care. pooled pilot area. In practice, the pilot pool will be given one overall tariff or top-up, and This proposal, sharing the additional income the members of the pool can agree to equally between tiers, allows both member change the headline tier split.) authorities and the Government to better understand the effect of greater retention. The other distributional mechanisms within the pool will insulate individual authorities from the most obvious risks and allow both tiers to share equally in the overall financial benefit as described in section 4 b) below. In all other single-tier areas it is assumed that the 25% additional income will be retained by the unitary authority with the current 1% continuing to be passed to the relevant fire authority. Therefore the tier split in the unitary areas would be: - Unitary Authorities 74.0% West Yorkshire Fire 1.0% Page 4 of 14 h. Do you propose to retain any of the Select one: additional 25% of retained business rates in an investment pot or similar and (1) Yes distribute this after 2019/20? (2) No (If ‘no’, please move to question 3.j.) Pool income will be shared out so that member authorities receive two thirds of the additional income generated through 75% business rate retention, the remaining third of additional income being retained by the Pool. The funding that is retained by the Pool will be redistributed to projects that meet the Pool’s strategic aims: Reducing Digital Isolation Inclusive Growth i. If any of the additional 25% of retained Culture, Sport and Major Events business rates are kept in an investment pot or similar, how will this be distributed Business Support, Trade and Investment after 2019/20? Enabling Housing Growth Any financial benefit held within the Pool at 31st March 2020, that is committed in 2019/20 for future years’ expenditure shall remain under the authority of the Joint Committee until expenditure is either incurred or the Joint Committee agree to treat as “residual benefit”. At the point that the Joint Committee disband, they will authorise Leeds City Council to make any residual payments (see Governance document Appendix 1, paragraph 9). There will be an estimated £71.3m in income above the baseline funding level for the pilot pool in 2019/20, of which £23.6m will be additional funding generated by the Pool being j. What is the anticipated income above accepted as a 75% retention pilot. It is this baseline funding level for the pilot pool £23.6m that authorities in the Region will be over 2019/20 (in £)? able to invest strategically to promote inclusive economic development and to support the financial sustainability of the member authorities. Page 5 of 14 The individual billing authorities within the proposed pilot have very different business rates tax bases both in terms of the types of business they accommodate and the range and distribution of the rateable values of hereditaments. For example one authority relies for as much as k. What is the business rates base of the 53% of its rateable value on retail proposed pilot area like and what is its establishments, whereas retail accounts for only relevance to the economic geography of 30% of the rateable value in two other the area? authorities, one with a higher proportion of industrial properties in its area and the other (F.ex. you could describe the size and types being the most rural area in the proposed pilot of hereditaments in the area, business area. Similarly the proportion of rateable value sectors relevant to the area, or the size of attracting the higher national multiplier is as high your business rates base in relation to as 77% in one area but only 30% in another. baseline funding levels.) With the pool’s ability to bring these different authorities together combining rural and urban, highly commercial and industrial, and stretching across a functioning economic unit, the diverse tax base offers a further source of financial resilience in the context of what can be, at the individual authority level, a highly volatile income.