Oral Presentation/Update By Officers

At the Committee’s meeting on 11 October 2011, a Member was of the opinion that many small businesses were either not aware of what they could claim in terms of business rate relief or the appropriate information was not getting through to them.

As such the Committee had requested a presentation on Small Business Rate Relief and how it was administered in Havering to be given at this meeting.

The Head of Customer Services provided the Committee with the following information:

That Small Business Rates Relief was available where the following apply:

•         That the sole or main property occupied which had a rateable value of less than £25,500 in Greater London or

•         If the ratepayer occupied any additional properties, each of the additional properties must have a rateable value of less than £2,600, and the total rateable value of all of their properties must be less than £25,500 in Greater London and the relief was applied to the main property based on the total rateable value.

A business had to apply to the Council and confirm that they met the conditions for the relief.

There were two different element of relief available:

•         Reduced poundage - If the rateable value of a property was below £25,500 a small business multiplier was used of 42.6p as opposed to the standard multiplier of 43.3p.

•         Relief Level - The Government had announced that they would continue to assist small businesses by providing additional relief against the Business Rate to 30th September 2012

The current relief level was detailed:

•                     Eligible businesses with a rateable value of up to £6,000 will be entitled to 100% relief on their bill. 

If the rateable value was between £6,001 and £12,000, entitlement will be a sliding scale between 100% and 0%.

•                     After the 1st October 2012 the relief will revert to 50% reduction for properties up to £6000 Rateable Value and between £6,001 and £12,000 the entitlement will again be reduced between 50% and 0%  on a sliding scale

The Committee was informed of the Business Rate Relief caseload:

•         1344 cases currently in receipt of a reduction totalling £2.4million

•         A further 758 applications were to be considered.

The presentation also detailed the various options to promote the scheme using the following:

•         Havering and Barking & Dagenham websites – details and application form available on line 

•         Mailshots – Regular mailshots to businesses of significant giving details of changes to the scheme.

•          Telephone promotion – at the point customers contact Council offices

•           Visits – application forms provided at relevant premises           

There were also plans to promote the scheme further using the following:

•         New mailshot to identified Rateable Values

•         Promotion to relevant service areas (trading standards, licensing, planning)

•         The Leader's Business Networking event on 30 November 2011

•         Article for the next edition of Business Focus

•         Ward Councillors to promote through surgeries and general ward work

The presentation also informed the Committee that the Localism Act 2011 would result in the following changes:

•         Proposal to bring changes into force in time for the 2012/13 financial year (full details were awaited).

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•         Removal of the legal requirement for ratepayers to submit an application in order to claim Small Business Rate Relief. 

•         Previous legislation would be amended to remove the single occupancy criteria for ratepayers to have their bills calculated using the small business multiplier in 2012-13 and onwards.

The Committee noted the presentation.