Lord Beecham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2015-11-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they will take to ensure that residents in council areas with low levels of business rates are protected from the effects of the change to funding council tax benefit by retained business rates in 2020.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

By the end of this Parliament, when local government will keep 100% of the £26 billion of business rates they raise locally, our ambition is that local councils will meet their spending needs, including local council tax support, from local taxation and other locally raised income. At the point that we introduce 100% business rates retention, there will continue to be a measure of redistribution to ensure that no authority loses out just because it starts from a relatively weaker position.