Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many businesses have been found to be avoiding business rates through fraudulent use of mandatory business rates reliefs in each of the past five financial years; and what is their estimate of the loss of income resulting from that avoidance.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Local authorities already have significant powers to tackle and prosecute fraud to protect the public purse which we encourage them to utilise. Under the Local Government Finance Act 1988 if a ratepayer provides false information in their application to apply for small business rate relief that individual is liable to a summary conviction, a fine or both. The Fraud Act 2006 also provides local authorities legal powers to prosecute fraud to protect the public purse.
The Government has been clear that it is committed to tackling avoidance in all forms of taxation. At the last count the Local Government Association (LGA) estimated that the losses due to business rates avoidance accounted for around £230 million.
The Government recognises the importance of tackling rates avoidance and the Secretary of State wrote to you in September stating that his officials would work with the LGA to develop workable proposals, towards the aim of cracking down on those that abuse the system and closing down loopholes.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many proposals to establish a combined authority have been (1) received, (2) approved, and (3) rejected, since 8 May 2015.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Since 8 May 2015, the Secretary of State has received 10 proposals to establish a combined authority. He has not rejected any proposal and has, with the approval of Parliament, established four new combined authorities - in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Tees Valley, the West Midlands, and the West of England. In the case of the other 6 proposals, these have either been withdrawn by the area or decisions on them, either by the Secretary of State or the area, remain outstanding.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they will take to ensure that local authorities which have only one local newspaper in their area for the purposes of publishing statutory notices will be protected from uncompetitive practices, such as high increases in the cost of publishing those notices.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
It is for individual local authorities to negotiate advertising rates with local newspapers. My department has not made a specific assessment of the cost to councils of publishing and issuing statutory notices but findings of the pilot programmes, including about costs, are being carefully considered.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth on 9 February (HL5134), what assessment they have made of the cost of publishing and issuing statutory notices to councils and whether this will be included in their consideration of the findings of the pilot programmes.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
It is for individual local authorities to negotiate advertising rates with local newspapers. My department has not made a specific assessment of the cost to councils of publishing and issuing statutory notices but findings of the pilot programmes, including about costs, are being carefully considered.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth on 23 January (HL4428), what is the timeframe for their decision on how to respond to the findings of the pilot programmes; and whether the response will be published.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
We will decide how best to respond to the findings of the pilot programmes on statutory notices once we have concluded consideration of those findings.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth on 19 December 2016 (HL3833), whether they plan to publish a formal written response to the findings of the local pilot programmes on statutory notices.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
We are in the process of considering the findings of the pilot programmes. Once we have concluded that consideration, we will decide how best to respond.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of unresolved business rates appeals on financial planning in local government.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Since 2013, local authorities have been required to set aside some of their business rates as "provisions" to meet the cost of future business rates appeals. The timing of the settlement of those appeals, therefore, is less relevant to local authorities' financial planning than their ability to estimate the scale of future appeal losses. We have agreed with local government that the difficulty of estimating future appeal losses, together with the way in which the business rates retention scheme deals with those losses, can impact adversely on authorities' financial planning and finances. In designing the new 100 per cent business rates retention scheme, therefore, we are looking again, in collaboration with local government representatives, at the way in which the new system should deal with appeal losses and aim to bring forward proposals shortly.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the 24 local pilot programmes on statutory notices; and what plans they have to make statutory notices more cost-effective.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
We are grateful to the local pilots for the work they have done on options for the future of statutory notices, which are important tools to ensure that the public are kept informed of decisions and changes that affect them as individuals and communities. We are considering the reports of the pilot programmes carefully.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the findings of the Local Government Association’s State of the Nation 2016 Report on Adult Social Care Funding.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The government values the contribution the recent Local Government Association's report on adult social care adds to this active debate. In relation to the desire for greater guidance and clarity on integration, we have been developing our approach to supporting local systems to meet this ambition, in consultation with partners in the NHS and local government and the new Integration and Better Care Fund policy framework will be published shortly.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to work with the Local Government Association to raise public awareness of the publication <i>Don’t be left in the dark: Adult Social Care</i>.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
My department works closely with the Local Government Association on a wide range of issues to help improve local services, including adult social care.Adult social care provides a vital service to millions of people across the country. We recognise the pressures on these services, which is why this government is providing up to £3.5 billion for adult social care this Parliament, including £1.5 billion extra for the Better Care Fund by 2019-20.