Agenda item

Claire Moses, Interim Head of Revenues and Benefits (Shared Service for Lincoln and North Kesteven)

a.    presented for comment and consideration a report on the implementation of a Non- Domestic Rate Discretionary Relief Scheme for the financial year 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018.

b.    advised that there had been an establishment of a £300m discretionary fund over four years from 2017/18, to support those businesses that faced the steepest increases in their business rate bill as a result of the 2017 revaluation.

c.    gave a brief overview of the background to the report advising that full details of the Supporting Small Businesses Relief Scheme and Support for Pubs scheme was detailed at appendix 3 of the report.

d.    advised that for the new Discretionary Relief Scheme the total grant distributions for the City of Lincoln Council over the 4 years would be:

·         2017/18: £198,000

·         2018/19: £96,000

·         2019/ 20: £40,000

·         2020/21: £6,000

e.    referred to appendix 1 of the report and outlined the 6 options proposed for implementing a Non- Domestic Rate Discretionary Relief Scheme for the financial year 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018.

f.     advised that consultation on the proposals would need to take place with the major precepting authorities to provide details of the options being considered by the Council.

g.    highlighted the exclusions at 4.11 of the report that had been identified and factored into the options set out in Appendix A of the report.

h.    referred to paragraph 4.12 of the report and highlighted that there were 640 properties that could be entitled to relief under any scheme.

i.      referred to paragraph 4.16 of the report and explained how the scheme would be publicised and that any relief would only be awarded once the ratepayer had returned a form and declared any relief awarded that would not exceed the state aid limit.

j.      advised that option 5 was the preferred option for implementation in 2017/18.

k.    invited members questions and comments.

Question – What information would be included in the letter sent to the businesses?

Response – The letter would include a banding figure and it would be made clear to individual businesses the amount of relief that they would receive.

Question – Were the businesses aware of the increase in their business rates?

Response – Businesses had received their bill for 2017 so they were aware of the increase, an update would be added to the website on the discretionary relief scheme.

Question – Referred to option 5 and commented that there was a small amount of relief given to the businesses in the £3k - £4k and £4k plus bill increase.

Response -  The amount of extra relief received under the scheme was calculated on a percentage basis, it was felt that if there was an underspend it could be used to top up the amount of relief given.

Question – What would happen after 4 years when there was no further funding?

Response – We would be liaising with businesses over the next 3 years and would consider alternative options.

Question – Would it be better to save the extra money in the pot and use it for businesses who needed extra support.

Response – It was an option, there would be further options brought through committee over the next 3 years.

RESOLVED that Policy Scrutiny Committee support option 5 for implementing a Non-Domestic Discretionary Relief Scheme for the financial year 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018.