Consultation outcome

Technical adjustment to the Business Rates Retention system: Consultation

Applies to England

This consultation has concluded

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Detail of outcome

The 2023 business rates revaluation and the transferral of a number of large telecom networks and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link will affect business rates income collected by local authorities. It is government policy that income from the business rates retention system should, as far as practicable, be unaffected by these changes.

This publication summarises the responses to the consultation on the government’s proposed technical adjustment to the business rates retention system to mitigate these changes, sets out the government’s response, and confirms the method that will be used to make the adjustment.


Original consultation

Summary

Consultation on a technical adjustment to the Business Rates Retention system in response to the 2023 Revaluation and Central List Transfers.

This consultation ran from
to

Consultation description

The Business Rates Retention (BRR) system distributes tax income between councils, and between councils and central government, according to need and established shares.

Separately, the next Business Rates Revaluation is due to take effect from 1 April 2023, changing business rates income retained locally. The government has also confirmed its intention to move a number of large telecom networks and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link out of local authority rating lists into the central rating list from 1 April 2023. Moving properties to the central list will reduce income at local authority level.

It is government policy that retained business rates income from the BRR system should, as far as practicable, be unaffected by either Business Rates Revaluations or the announced movement of ratepayers from local lists to the central rating list at the 2023 revaluation.

In 2017, the first technical adjustment was made to the BRR system which intended to neutralise the effects of the last Revaluation. This consultation seeks views on minor updates to the 2017 technical adjustment methodology to better reflect changes in local authority income resulting from the Revaluation and additionally, for the first time, to mitigate losses in income resulting from central list moves.

Documents

Published 2 September 2022
Last updated 19 December 2022 + show all updates
  1. Added summary of responses and government response.

  2. First published.