Unitary Councils: Business Rates
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will published (a) the process and (b) her Department's timetable for determining how the new unitary councils will be awarded local business rates for retention.
Answered by Jim McMahon
Under the Business Rates Retention System, a share of business rates is retained by local government. The distribution of business rates income between local authorities is determined by the relationship between each authority’s funding need compared with its ability to collect business rates locally. Figures known as Baseline Funding Levels and the Business Rates Baselines were set for all authorities at the outset of the system.
When reorganisation takes place, these baselines need to be recalculated for any new authorities as part of a range of changes necessary to take account of new structures within the local government finance system. The Department will engage with reorganising authorities to determine the basis for these changes.
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