Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many shops in Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency have benefited from the reduction in business rates.
We have introduced a £1 billion business rate support package for 2014-15 including:
– a 2% cap in the Retail Price Index increase in the small business rates multiplier;
– a retail discount of £1,000 for around 300,000 shops, pubs and restaurants with rateable values below £50,000;
– a 12 month extension of small business rate relief doubling, benefitting over half a million businesses;
– a 50 per cent discount for new occupants of long-term vacant shops, and;
– allowing ratepayers to pay bills over 12 instalments.
The Department does not collect data on a constituency basis, but Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency lies entirely within the South Lakeland District. Table 1 shows, where available, the estimated number of properties that will benefit from each of the reliefs introduced or extended in 2014-15 in South Lakeland District, as well as the amount of relief awarded:
Table 1 | ||
Item | Estimated number of properties in the South Lakeland District that will benefit from these reliefs units) | Amount of Relief Awarded
(£thousands) |
2% RPI Cap on Small Business Rates Multiplier | 7,782 | N/A |
12 month extension of small business rate relief doubling, of which: | 3,412 |
5,5551 |
- 100% relief | 2,653 | |
- Tapering | 759 | |
Long Term Empty Reoccupation Relief | N/A | 75 |
Retail Rate Relief | 1,010 | 1,011 |
All data is from the 2014-15 NNDR1 (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/non-domestic-rates-collected-by-local-councils-in-england-forecast-for-2014-to-2015), except for retail rate relief data which is available from the following link:
1This is the total amount of small business rates relief awarded. The breakdown for the amount awarded to properties receiving 100% and tapering relief is not available. N/A – data not available. |