Issue - meetings

Decision

RESOLVED

To recommend the following to Full Council:

1. It is agreed by Full Council that the Revenues Manager continues to have delegated authority to make decisions up to the NNDC cost value of £4k as indicated in Appendix A.

2. It is agreed by Full Council that the Revenues Manager continues to have delegated authority to make Hardship Relief decisions up to the NNDC cost value of £4k as indicated in Appendix C.

3. It is agreed by Full Council that the Rate Relief Policy is revised as indicated in Appendix A, B and C.

Reason for the decision:

The new policy will enable the Supporting Small Business Relief, Hardship Relief, Film Studios Relief, Flood Relief, Electric Vehicle Charging Points and Electric Vehicle Only Forecourts and Retail Hospitality and Leisure Relief up to 31/03/26 to be awarded discretionary reliefs.

Cllr L Shires, Portfolio Holder for Finance, Estates & Property Services, introduced this item. She explained that it had been considered by the Overview & Scrutiny Committee but that the Government had introduced some changes to business rates relief for some sectors such as pubs since then and an updated report would be presented to Overview & Scrutiny Committee and Full Council.

Cllr Shires gave an outline of the recent changes, explaining that if an organisation occupied a property on which it paid National Non-Domestic (Business) Rates (NDR) it may be eligible for up to 100% Discretionary Rate Relief if it was operated within some or all of the guidelines shown in the policy. She added that the guidelines for determining relief were not intended to be a rigid set of rules and neither were all the guidelines applicable to every organisation. Each case would be judged on its merits taking into account the contribution which each organisation/business made to the district’s amenities and its resident’s lifestyles and wellbeing.

The government had announced a new ten-year 100% relief for eligible electronic vehicle charging points and electric vehicle only forecourts to start from 1 April 2026/27. These properties would be identified by the VOA and would be fully funded by Section 13 grants.

Cllr Shires then talked through the key changes:

The Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Relief scheme provided eligible retail, hospitality, and leisure properties with 40% relief which previously was 50% and 75%. From 1 April 2026 this would be replaced by two lower multipliers.

The new mandatory RHL multipliers were based on occupation of the business not the VOA description and would enable NNDC to provide government updates throughout the 2026/27 year to fully compensate for the loss of income as a result of these changes. In line with the government, NNDC had updated the discretionary rate relief policy to end this relief from 1 April 2026.

Supporting Small Businesses relief was government funded to local authorities so that they could provide relief for businesses that had a Rateable Value (RV) increase from 1 April 2026 caused by the 2026 NDR revaluation and as a consequence lost Small Business Rates Relief, Rural Rate Relief or RHL relief. This relief would be capped at the higher of £800 or the relevant transitional relief caps from 1 April 2026 and would apply for three years. The previous scheme was due to end on 31 March 2026 however has been extended for another year. The relief would be delivered through local authority discretionary discount powers (under section 47 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 as amended).

Cllr Shires then explained that the discretionary government scheme for Film Studios relief which started on 1 April 2025 at 40% relief would continue until 2034. There were no such studios in the district currently.

She then spoke about recent changes to pubs and live music venues relief, explaining that the government had announced on 27 January 2026 that in 2026-27, eligible pubs and live music  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9