Agenda and minutes

Agreed as accurate records.

To confirm the items of business marked Part II will be considered in public and that items marked Part II will be considered in private.

It was agreed that all items of business would be considered in public.

TO FOLLOW

The Council's Head of Revenues and Benefits and the Corporate Finance - Financial Planning Manager attended the meeting and provided Members with a short presentation on Business Rates.

Business Rates Retention

The Committee was informed that the Local Government Finance Act 2012 introduced a mechanism whereby Councils retained a proportion of business rates as a revenue funding stream. In effect this was a 50% growth which was retained by the Local Government sector. 

Members were informed that this share of growth was calculated against a baseline rateable value, which was set at the outset of the system in April 2013.  Under current arrangements in London, this 50% was split with 20% retained by the Greater London Authority and 30% retained by individual boroughs.  For those boroughs that were deemed to have a greater capacity to grow their local economy, this retained sum was subject to a further 'levy on growth', which in the case of Hillingdon reduced retained growth to only 15% and therefore provided minimal direct incentive to grow the rating base.

The Committee was informed that in addition to this share of growth, London Boroughs also notionally retained 30% of the baseline income from Business Rates. However, in order to avoid a redistribution of funding between authorities at the outset of the system, authorities with a larger rating base, such as Hillingdon, were subject to tariff which substantially reduced the income from Business Rates being applied locally.  For 2015/16, Hillingdon received £374m of Business Rates income.

Reference was made to the pilot schemes which would be taking place in Cambridgeshire and Greater Manchester, whereby groups of authorities would be able to retain a greater proportion of growth (up to 100%). Members were informed that details of these new arrangements had not been announced.

Administration and Current Challenges

The Committee was informed that the existing contract for the  the administration, collection and recovery of Business Rates had been outsourced and was currently carried out by Liberata from their shared service centre in Weston.  The contract had worked well but would come to an end on 31 July 2015.

Members were informed that following a competitive tender exercise held in 2014, the contract had been awarded to Northgate PS who would take over the running of the contract from 1 August 2015 from their shared service centre in Hartlepool.

The Committee was informed that work was currently in progress to ensure that there would be a smooth handover of the contract.

Rateable Value

The Committee was informed that Hillingdon had currently over 8,000 Rateable Units with a Rateable Value of £799m, and a collectable debit of £385m. 

Members noted that the collection rates for Business Rates were very good, with a collection rate of 98.70% for 2014/15. Discussion took place on the Borough's largest business ratepayer, which was Heathrow Airport Ltd and Members were informed of the difficulties the Council had in determining the cumulo rateable value for Heathrow Airport.

Officers reported that approaches had been made to the Valuation  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Discussion took place on possible review topics for the Committee to consider. Suggestions were:

·         Blue Badges and the abuse of the system - Members were reminded that this would be a good area for the Committee to review in 2016/17 and officers were asked to put this into next year's suggestions.

·         Elections / Polling Stations - Members discussed this as a possible review topic but subsequent to the meeting Members were informed that a POC review would not be appropriate in this area because the Council had no jurisdiction over elections and polling stations were currently under review by the Council's executive. Members asked that the Head of Democratic Services be invited to a future meeting of the Committee to provide an information report on the process for elections and on the Polling Station review. 

·         Registrars - The Committee noted that this service had been the subject of restructuring and a change in working practise and it would not be appropriate at this stage to undertake a review.  

·         Assessing Heathrow Airport's cumulo rateable value - The appropriateness of this as a review topic would be reported back to Members at the next meeting of the Committee.

RESOLVED –

1. That officers be asked to give consideration to the areas     discussed with a view to approving a review topic for the next meeting, in consultation with the Chairman of the Committee.

Noted.

Noted.