Localism Bill

I thank the noble Lord for moving this amendment. Authorities are already under a statutory duty to provide information about small business rate relief with bills every year, and last year, we also requested authorities to write to all ratepayers with rateable values below £12,000 to remind them that they may be eligible for the relief. Take-up of the relief is already high, and the changes we are making will be able to push it even higher. This amendment would therefore just place another unnecessary duty on authorities, which is something to which this Government are strongly opposed, and it would be one which central government would have to fund, so I cannot agree the amendment as such. The coalition agreement contained a commitment to find a practical way to make small business rate relief automatic. Clause 40 amends Section 43 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 by removing from the Act the requirement for ratepayers to submit an application to their local billing authority in order to claim small business rate relief. Currently ratepayers have to apply for the relief and it is a criminal offence for a ratepayer to knowingly submit an application that contains false information. However, authorities will have no discretion over the eligibility criteria. If a ratepayer meets the eligibility criteria set out in an order made under Section 43 of the 1988 Act, an authority will have no option but to grant the relief. The Government ruled out the option of making the relief automatic by giving it to all properties below the threshold, whether they are occupied by large or small businesses, since that would have been contrary to the nature of the relief and would have greatly increased the costs for the larger businesses that fund the relief. It is intended to implement the measure from 1 April 2012. As part of this measure, secondary legislation will be amended to ensure that ratepayers below the £18,000 rateable value threshold—£25,500 in London—will have their bills calculated using the small business multiplier regardless of the properties that they occupy. I may end up having to write to the noble Lord. I have a note that the cost will be an additional £20 million if all ratepayers claim the relief to which they are entitled, and a further £20 million once all bills for businesses below the thresholds are calculated using the small business multiplier. This will add only marginally to the supplement. There may be points raised by the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, later in his remarks that I shall need to reply to in writing, but this is what I am sighted on at the present time.