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Agenda item

NATIONAL NON-DOMESTIC RATE RETURN 1 - 2018/2019

REPORT OF THE HEAD OF REVENUES, BENEFITS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

 

To consider the National Non-Domestic Rate Return 1 for 2018/2019.

Decision:

RESOLVED:

 

(1)          That the draft NNDR1 Return for 2018/19, as set out at Appendix 1 to the report, be approved; and

 

(2)          That any amendments to the NNDR 1 Return resulting from changes to the form and any additional guidance, be delegated to the Head of Revenues, Benefits and Information Technology, in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and Information Technology.

 

REASON FOR DECISION:  To comply with statutory requirements.

Minutes:

The Committee considered the report of the Head of Revenues, Benefits and Information Technology in respect of the National Non-Domestic Rate Return 1 (NNDR1).  The Draft NNDR1 Return was attached as Appendix 1 to the report.

 

The Systems and Technical Manager advised that the Council had until 31 January 2018 to submit its NNDR1 return.  Before Members was the draft Return, based on the same format as last year.  It contained the same set of data types, and Members’ attention was drawn to Line 12 of Page 20 of the document, which provided the estimated NNDR income for 2018/19 of £38,234,954.  Page 21 of the document separated NHDC’s share of the amount due from the amounts due to Central Government and Hertfordshire County Council.

 

The Systems and Technical Manager commented that, for 2018/19, the gross rates payable had been calculated against the rateable values as at 31 December by CPI (Consumer Price Index) rather than the RPI (Retail Price Index) to calculate the Non-Domestic Rate multiplier.  This reduced the figures by about 10 pence in the pound.  He referred to Section 31 Grants on Page 22 of the report (Line 36).

 

The Systems and Technical Manager explained that it was not easy to predict the actions of the VOA (Valuation Office Agency) that would affect the rates payable in 2018/19.  The VOA still had 365 North Hertfordshire appeals outstanding from the 2010 List.  The 2017 List introduced a new rating appeals process, Check, Challenge and Appeal.  At present there had not been a single challenge from the VOA against the 2017 List, which made it very difficult to anticipate changes to the gross rates payable figure.  Challenges on the 2010 List would cascade into the 2017 List, which added to the difficulty of forecasting.

 

The Systems and Technical Manager confirmed that the top rateable values in North Hertfordshire were Tesco’s, Sainsbury’s, Johnson Matthey, Morrison’s, Waitrose and Altro.  Tesco’s was the largest at £2.6Million, with Altro the smallest at £715,000.  Apart from Johnson Matthey and Altro, all those rateable values were at appeal stage.

 

The Systems and Technical Manager stated that Pages 29 to 33 of the Return were the supplementary pages that had yet to be completed.  This disaggregated information would be included by the 31 January 2018 deadline for submission of the form.

 

In response to a Member’s question, the Systems and Technical Manager commented that the Council was still awaiting a response from Hertfordshire County Council as to whether or not Hertfordshire would be entering into a combined Business Rates pooling arrangement for 2018/19.

 

In reply to a further question, the Systems and Technical Manager confirmed that NHDC was allowed to retain between 5 pence and 6 pence of each pound of Business Rates collected.

 

RESOLVED:

 

(1)          That the draft NNDR1 Return for 2018/19, as set out at Appendix 1 to the report, be approved; and

 

(2)          That any amendments to the NNDR 1 Return resulting from changes to the form and any additional guidance, be delegated to the Head of Revenues, Benefits and Information Technology, in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and Information Technology.

 

REASON FOR DECISION:  To comply with statutory requirements.

Supporting documents: