Issue - meetings

To approve the content of the National Non-Domestic Rate Return 1 Submission for 2019/2020.

RESOLVED:

(1)       That the draft NNDR1 for 2019/2020, as set out in Appendix 1 to the report, be approved;

(2)       That the draft version of the NNDR1 was received on Wednesday 17 January 2018 from the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and the final version of the NNDR1 would be returned to MHCLG by Thursday 31 January 2019, be agreed.

(3)       That any amendments to the NNDR1 Return resulting from changes to the form and any additional guidance, be delegated to the Service Director – Customers in consultation with the Service Director – Resources and the Committee Chairman; and

(4)       That the inclusion of Hertfordshire as one of the 15 new Business Rate Pilots as announced in the draft Financial Settlement in December 2019 and that the current NNDR1 would not reflect this, be agreed.

REASON FOR DECISION:  To comply with statutory requirements.

Audio Recording – Start time of Item – 8 minutes and 29 seconds

Mark Scanes explained that this was the second version of the NNDR1 as it was part of a pilot scheme and had been changed to reflect this otherwise, the principals and formula were identical to last year. 

The ATM saga continued.  The VOA had been lost and the losses sustained would be £112,000 however; the VOA had sought petition to the Supreme Court to have the decision overturned as this had been going on for 2-3 years. 

Mazar’s Case – Stairwell Tax – VOA decided to value the properties separately.  This had been lost and the Court decided properties could be revalued as one property which had caused a lot of problems for many rate payers.  The effect would now have to reapply to the VOA to have the properties merged.  The effect of this was unknown due to the fact that when a split came through from VOA, they were not informed as to why it had been split.

Another relief had been introduced in the autumn budget for business rates in addition to other reliefs. 

The effects of valuations in the 2017 list were unknown.  The 2010 list was now closed with no new appeals.  If there were an appeal for a 2010 list for a property, it would have the knock on effect of the 2017 list.  The figures were hugely variable.  If the appeal was won, NHDC paid.  The Government did not pay anything.  Part 1 states that less was being retained as a lump sum than last year and the county was retaining more due to the split however they were better off overall. 

RESOLVED:

(1)       That the draft NNDR1 for 2019/2020, as set out in Appendix 1 to the report, be approved;

(2)       That the draft version of the NNDR1 was received on Wednesday 17 January 2018 from the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and the final version of the NNDR1 would be returned to MHCLG by Thursday 31 January 2019, be agreed.

(3)       That any amendments to the NNDR1 Return resulting from changes to the form and any additional guidance, be delegated to the Service Director – Customers in consultation with the Service Director – Resources and the Committee Chairman; and

(4)       That the inclusion of Hertfordshire as one of the 15 new Business Rate Pilots as announced in the draft Financial Settlement in December 2019 and that the current NNDR1 would not reflect this, be agreed.

REASON FOR DECISION:  To comply with statutory requirements.

The meeting closed at 7:25pm