Issue - meetings

Report to follow

1.    That Cabinet support the principle of the Council being a part of a Hertfordshire wide bid to take part in the Government’s proposed 75% Business Rates Pooling Pilot commencing 1 April 2019; and,

2.    That Cabinet delegate authority to the Chief Executive in consultation with the Leader of the Council, to approve the final application subject to final details being agreed between prospective pilot members.

Decision

1.    That Cabinet support the principle of the Council being a part of a Hertfordshire wide bid to take part in the Government’s proposed 75% Business Rates Pooling Pilot commencing 1 April 2019; and,

2.    That Cabinet delegate authority to the Chief Executive in consultation with the Leader of the Council, to approve the final application subject to final details being agreed between prospective pilot members.

Corporate objectives

This report supports all of the Council’s Corporate Objectives.

Monitoring Officer:  

If the bid is approved, an agreement or Memorandum of Understanding will need to be developed to document the governance and administrative framework for the Business Rates Pool.

S.151 Officer

This is a Section 151 Officer report.

Advice

Councillor Elliot introduced the report which if agreed, will allow DBC to take part in a county wide bid to be involved in a pilot. The benefit to the county would be £11 million.

N Howcutt said there had been a late announcement from the government about extending the deadline for bid submission. The bid is similar to last year’s which was not successful. The risks are minimal and there would be a major risk if business rates dropped 8% in the next 18 months but as business rates have currently been increasing by 2-4%, it is deemed very unlikely that this would happen. The net benefit would be worth £8.4 million split across the local authorities under Hertfordshire.

Councillor Marshall asked what the government would be getting out of this scheme.

N Howcutt said the aim is to have 75% business rate retention by 2020. The idea of the pilots is to find out the details and how well it will be implemented. More local authorities are aware of how to control their business rates. It is expected that fewer pilots will be awarded from the ten that were awarded last year. The idea is to drive economic development in order to increase to pool. There has been little feedback on the unsuccessful bid from last year so it is difficult to say what they are looking for.

Councillor Tindall asked if the ten selected last year had any similarities to the bid submitted by Hertfordshire.

N Howcutt said a range of different authorities were picked and there was no clear methodology.

Voting

None.