Local Government Resource Review: Proposals for Business Rates Retention

An initial briefing

Introduction

The Government is reviewing how local authorities are funded. It is doing this in two parts: part one is the proposal that local councils should retain a greater proportion of the National Non-Domestic Rates, commonly known as business rates; part two relates to proposals on the Community Budget. This initial briefing outlines the Government’s proposals for business rates retention, the changes that will result and considers the issues of interest to NAVCA members. The proposals are set out in a consultation document[1], which is accompanied by a plain English Guide[2]. A further eight technical papers have recently been released[3] and we will provide a briefing on them in due course.

The proposals are important to the local voluntary and community sector for several interrelated reasons:

• they are likely to affect a significant proportion of local voluntary and community organisations funded directly or indirectly by local government;
• changes to local government finances are likely to have a direct impact on local services and therefore on local communities;
• any potential change in the funding of public services is likely to affect the demand on services provided by local voluntary organisations;
• local authorities are key partners for the sector and therefore any significant change for the local authorities is bound to have some impact on the sector.

To read more Click here.