Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department plans to allocate additional (a) powers and (b) resources to councils for the purchase of brownfield sites to help those councils meet housing targets.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Local authorities already have compulsory purchase powers which they can use to acquire land, including for the delivery of new housing. In recent years, we have taken forward wide ranging reforms to improve the compulsory purchase process. We are keen to encourage local authorities to make more effective use of these powers and we will continue to explore ways of supporting them in doing so.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the net value of business rate revenue reallocated to all unitary authorities in England except those in the Manchester and Liverpool city regions through the system of top-ups and tariffs in the current financial year; and what the net value of such revenue reallocated to all such unitary authorities was in 2015-16.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
The 2015-16 business rates tariffs and top-ups for all authorities can be found on the gov.uk website: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/400329/Key_Information_for_Local_Authorities.xlsx in Column BH of the ‘All Auths’ worksheet.
The 2016-17 and 2017-18 business rates tariffs and top-ups for all authorities can be found on the gov.uk website: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/499148/Key_info_for_local_authorities.xlsx in Column H of the appropriate year’s worksheet.
As the Honourable Member will be aware, the Government has announced that by the end of this Parliament, local government will be able to keep 100 per cent of the business rates raised locally. This is an important part of our plan to take power out of Whitehall and return it to local government. The Government is currently working with the Local Government Association, and engaging directly with local authorities, to develop the detail of this change.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what his plans are to facilitate the pooling of business rate revenue following full devolution of business rates in (a) areas that are not covered by combined authorities and (b) other areas.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
The retention of business rates locally is an important part of our plan to take power out of Whitehall and return it to local government. This means we will no longer be taking local business rates income into Whitehall for redistribution as grant. All locally collected business rates will stay with local government.
We have already been clear that we will retain redistribution within the system. We recognise that we will need to redistribute to ensure councils don’t lose out merely because they currently collect less in rates.
The Government is currently working with the Local Government Association, and engaging directly with local authorities, to develop the detail of this change. This includes developing the mechanics of redistribution. As previously announced, we will consult later this year and implement this important change to the local government finance system by the end of this Parliament.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the Government's policy is on maintaining the net reallocation of business rate revenue to shire counties, districts and unitary authorities at broadly the present level in real terms following devolution of business rates.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
The retention of business rates locally is an important part of our plan to take power out of Whitehall and return it to local government. This means we will no longer be taking local business rates income into Whitehall for redistribution as grant. All locally collected business rates will stay with local government.
We have already been clear that we will retain redistribution within the system. We recognise that we will need to redistribute to ensure councils don’t lose out merely because they currently collect less in rates.
The Government is currently working with the Local Government Association, and engaging directly with local authorities, to develop the detail of this change. This includes developing the mechanics of redistribution. As previously announced, we will consult later this year and implement this important change to the local government finance system by the end of this Parliament.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans the Government has to compensate local authorities for the potential loss of business rate revenue arising from measures announced in Budget 2016 following full devolution of business rates and abolition of the revenue support grant.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
Our business rates tax cuts provide significant support to local businesses.
The Small Business Rate Relief measure announced at the Budget which starts in 2017-18 will mean 600,000 of the smallest businesses will not have to pay business rates. We will compensate local authorities, in full, for the loss of income as a result of this measure, in the same way as we have done for every other reduction to business rates we have made since the introduction of the business rates retention scheme.
We will move to 100% business rates retention by the end of the Parliament and will establish the scheme based on the amount of business rates available to authorities at the time, which will naturally take account of increases and reductions in business rates yields, including those resulting from measures announced at Budget 2016.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of how much business rate revenue will be reallocated to the (a) Manchester and (b) Liverpool city region through the system of top-up and tariffs in the current financial year; and how much was so reallocated in 2015-16.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
The 2015-16 business rates tariffs and top-ups for all authorities can be found on the gov.uk website: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/400329/Key_Information_for_Local_Authorities.xlsx in Column BH of the ‘All Auths’ worksheet.
The 2016-17 and 2017-18 business rates tariffs and top-ups for all authorities can be found on the gov.uk website: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/499148/Key_info_for_local_authorities.xlsx in Column H of the appropriate year’s worksheet.
As the Honourable Member will be aware, the Government has announced that by the end of this Parliament, local government will be able to keep 100 per cent of the business rates raised locally. This is an important part of our plan to take power out of Whitehall and return it to local government. The Government is currently working with the Local Government Association, and engaging directly with local authorities, to develop the detail of this change.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the Government's plans are for consultation on the top-up and tariffs system that is set to operate once business rates have become fully devolved.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
The retention of business rates locally is an important part of our plan to take power out of Whitehall and return it to local government. This means we will no longer be taking local business rates income into Whitehall for redistribution as grant. All locally collected business rates will stay with local government.
We have already been clear that we will retain redistribution within the system. We recognise that we will need to redistribute to ensure councils don’t lose out merely because they currently collect less in rates.
The Government is currently working with the Local Government Association, and engaging directly with local authorities, to develop the detail of this change. This includes developing the mechanics of redistribution. As previously announced, we will consult later this year and implement this important change to the local government finance system by the end of this Parliament.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the timetable is for the development and publication of proposals on the top-up and tariffs system that is set to operate once business rates have become fully devolved.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
The retention of business rates locally is an important part of our plan to take power out of Whitehall and return it to local government. This means we will no longer be taking local business rates income into Whitehall for redistribution as grant. All locally collected business rates will stay with local government.
We have already been clear that we will retain redistribution within the system. We recognise that we will need to redistribute to ensure councils don’t lose out merely because they currently collect less in rates.
The Government is currently working with the Local Government Association, and engaging directly with local authorities, to develop the detail of this change. This includes developing the mechanics of redistribution. As previously announced, we will consult later this year and implement this important change to the local government finance system by the end of this Parliament.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much business rate revenue was reallocated to (a) shire counties and (b) district councils in England through the system of top-ups and tariffs in (i) 2015-16 and (ii) 2016-17.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
The 2015-16 business rates tariffs and top-ups for all authorities can be found on the gov.uk website: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/400329/Key_Information_for_Local_Authorities.xlsx in Column BH of the ‘All Auths’ worksheet.
The 2016-17 and 2017-18 business rates tariffs and top-ups for all authorities can be found on the gov.uk website: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/499148/Key_info_for_local_authorities.xlsx in Column H of the appropriate year’s worksheet.
As the Honourable Member will be aware, the Government has announced that by the end of this Parliament, local government will be able to keep 100 per cent of the business rates raised locally. This is an important part of our plan to take power out of Whitehall and return it to local government. The Government is currently working with the Local Government Association, and engaging directly with local authorities, to develop the detail of this change.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether the Government plans to maintain the current level of tariff applied to Greater London when the planned devolution of business rates to London takes place in April 2017.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
The Government is taking the opportunity to pilot approaches to 100% business rates retention in Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region and London. This will help us for example to develop the mechanisms that will be needed to manage risk and reward under 100% rates retention.
Government officials are currently working with Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region and London to develop the detail around these pilots.