At the Budget on 8 March the Chancellor announced that the Government would provide £300m to support those businesses most affected by the revaluation. The Council has been allocated an amount of grant to cover the next 4 years. This Scheme is additional to the existing ability to award Discretionary Rate Relief in accordance with the Discretionary Rate Relief Policy

The Head of Financial Services submitted a report which advised Members of additional rate relief schemes arising from the Government’s spring budget and recommended responses to them.

The Revenues and Benefits Service Manager introduced the report. She explained that the support scheme was in response to the significant rise in business rates due to the recent revaluation. The scheme creates a transition period to ease the rate rise for businesses over the next 3 -4 years. The costs of running the scheme are fully funded but unfortunately unspent relief allocated to a particular year cannot be carried forward.

The City Executive Board resolved to:

1. Delegate authority to the Head of Financial Services the authority to administer

a) the Public Houses Relief Scheme and

b)  the Supporting Small Business Relief Scheme

2. Approve the Revaluation Discretionary Relief Scheme for businesses for 2017-18 at Appendix 1

3. Delegate authority to the Head of Financial Services to administer and award the reliefs in the Revaluation Discretionary Relief Scheme at Appendix 1 including revising the scheme for the subsequent 3 years.