Marie Rimmer – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Marie Rimmer on 2016-05-04.

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.

Mr Marcus Jones

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.