Agenda item

To review the Policy and make recommendations to Full Council.

Cllr Shires introduced the item and thanked the revenues team for their hard work in overachieving in their collection rate on the second home premium. Cllr Shires touched upon the Discretionary Rates Relief (DRR) outlining that if an organisation occupied a property where business rates were paid it could be eligible for up to 100% DRR, if some of the operation is within the guidelines shown within the policy. Each case would be judged on its merits.

It was outlined, by Cllr Shires, that the Government announced a new 10-year 100% relief for eligible electronic vehicle charging points and electric vehicle only forecourts which was due to start in April 2026. There was also a new addition of the Pubs and Live Music Venue Relief who would benefit from 15% rates relief on top of the supported announced budget in 2025.

Cllr Shires congratulated the revenues team on collecting £80.41m, or 72.75%, of Council Tax and £23.63m, or 75.58%, of Non-Domestic Rates as of 30 Nov 2025. She thanked them for ensuring they had the finances to run and that businesses were supported, and the Council Tax Support team, who ensured people were getting the benefit they needed to meet their council tax legal requirement.

Cllr Bayes said he’d met a lot of local hospitality businesses, whose rates had gone up considerably, and were very concerned for their future. He asked if the Council could proactively engage with businesses to get the message of what reliefs were available to support them. The RM explained the Government had introduced a transition relief scheme, so that any business that had a rise in their rates from one year to another, because of the revaluation, saw a limited increase, over a 3-year period. The RM admitted that having a cliff edge was worrying for businesses so a scheme was brought in to help those that were coming to the end of the current rate year so they could still get protection rather going straight into the new valuation.

In addition, the RM said that in supporting small businesses, it limited increases up £800 in the year for 3 years. Or the transition relief limit, that could be higher than £800, means there was 2 things they had to compare within their back office, which their systems did for them. The hospitality reliefs were going back to Covid but Government kept extending it and reducing the relief so this year they hadn’t just ended it but brought in 5 multipliers for next year, when previously they had only 2 multipliers since business rates was introduced in 1990. There were now 2 smaller multipliers and a large meaning big businesses pay more.

The RM assured the Committee they had been contacting businesses to let them know of a lower multiplier that they could get. Businesses could still get all the other reliefs as well but the first thing they could get is the lower multiplier. This would benefit the customer, as it meant paying less but also the Council would get more new burdens funding for making those changes. The RM admitted that he foresaw some hardship, for businesses, after the first year of those changes being introduced.

In response to a query from Cllr Hankins, in regard to what was the definition of a small business for being able to claim Small Business Rate relief (SBRR), the RM explained that it would have to meet the small business criteria and would depend on what it’s rateable value was, if it was under a certain amount it might qualify.

The Chair asked if that information was available on the council website and the RM confirmed it was. Cllr Shires encouraged the Committee that if they knew of any business that was unsure of what support they could get then to contact the Council’s Revenues team for guidance as they were always happy to help.

Cllr Toye said if businesses signed up to the Economic Development newsletter, then they could find links to all relevant contacts and support. They could also engage with those businesses to offer advice and if they couldn’t help would potentially be able to funnel that enquiry to an organisation who could.

The RM confirmed, to the Chair, that the government funded much of those reliefs through a section 31 grant, except for the hardship relief which was funded by the council via business rates.

The Committee RESOLVED to recommend

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.