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Non-domestic Rates: Westmorland

Answer

We have introduced a £1 billion business rate support package for 2014-15 including:

– a 2% cap in the Retail Price Index increase in the small business rates multiplier;

– a retail discount of £1,000 for around 300,000 shops, pubs and restaurants with rateable values below £50,000;

– a 12 month extension of small business rate relief doubling, benefitting over half a million businesses;

– a 50 per cent discount for new occupants of long-term vacant shops, and;

– allowing ratepayers to pay bills over 12 instalments.

The Department does not collect data on a constituency basis, but Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency lies entirely within the South Lakeland District. Table 1 shows, where available, the estimated number of properties that will benefit from each of the reliefs introduced or extended in 2014-15 in South Lakeland District, as well as the amount of relief awarded:

Table 1
Item	Estimated number of properties in the South Lakeland District that will benefit from these reliefs units)	Amount of Relief Awarded (£thousands)
2% RPI Cap on Small Business Rates Multiplier	7,782	N/A
12 month extension of small business rate relief doubling, of which:	3,412	5,5551
- 100% relief	2,653
- Tapering	759
Long Term Empty Reoccupation Relief	N/A	75
Retail Rate Relief	1,010	1,011
All data is from the 2014-15 NNDR1 (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/non-domestic-rates-collected-by-local-councils-in-england-forecast-for-2014-to-2015), except for retail rate relief data which is available from the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/353101/Estimated_number_of_properties_that_will_receive__1000_business_rates_relief.pdf 1This is the total amount of small business rates relief awarded. The breakdown for the amount awarded to properties receiving 100% and tapering relief is not available. N/A – data not available.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

208777

Session

2014-15

Subjects

Business rates Shops Westmorland and Lonsdale

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk