Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Brandon Lewis and Nick de Bois
Brandon Lewis
I remind the hon. Gentleman that the 10% most deprived authorities have an average spending power of £3,026 whereas the figure for the least deprived 10% is only £1,952. That demonstrates clearly that the areas with the need actually have the money they need to look after their local requirements.
Nick de Bois (Enfield North) (Con)
4. What steps he is taking to help shops in England and Enfield with their business rate bills.
Local Government Finance
Debate between Brandon Lewis and Nick de Bois(10 years, 11 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
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Brandon Lewis
Far from being dragged here, I always find it a pleasure to be at the Dispatch Box. The right hon. Gentleman might like to look back at past records and see that his own party regularly made written statements. More importantly, local government has had two years’ notice, as we made an oral statement on a two-year settlement last year.
Nick de Bois (Enfield North) (Con)
Does the Minister agree that it is unacceptable that Enfield Labour council has allowed uncollected council tax to increase over the last three years, against the trend for the rest of London, from £6 million to a staggering collective £32 million, particularly given that those figures already discount uncollectable council tax?
Brandon Lewis
My hon. Friend makes a good point. There is some £2 billion-worth of uncollected council tax, and councils should be working on the problem. This is not councils’ money, but taxpayers’ money. Whenever there is uncollected council tax, it costs other taxpayers more money. My hon. Friend is absolutely right to highlight this issue; good councils will be working hard on it.
Business Rates
Debate between Brandon Lewis and Nick de Bois(10 years, 11 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Brandon Lewis
I am delighted to be able to tell the hon. Lady that we have managed to reduce those delays. I shall say more about that shortly.
The value of small business rate relief granted in England has trebled, from £330 million in the last year of the Labour Government to £900 million in the last year. I note that the extra rate relief, which is temporary, is scheduled to end next April, but the Chancellor will be reviewing all taxes as part of his autumn statement. As I said to the Chairman of the Select Committee, the hon. Member for Sheffield South East (Mr Betts), we must wait and see what lies before us tomorrow.
We have done far more. We have capped business rate increases at the rate of inflation, with the result that there has been no real-terms increase in annual business rates. We have given councils new powers, via the Localism Act, to allow local business rate discounts to support, for example, local shops, community pubs, new business parks or vital local facilities. Under the local business rates retention scheme that was introduced in April, central Government now fund part of any discount that is granted. The discretionary discount is not just for Christmas; it can be applied at any given moment throughout the life of the current Parliament. Councils can do that now, with no complications, no pen-pushing, no bureaucracy, and no questions asked. It is real, targeted, localist tax relief that can be delivered by councils today.
Nick de Bois (Enfield North) (Con)
Does the Minister agree that what we are saying is that councils must make choices, and should think about how they spend their money? Enfield council, for instance, should ask itself whether it should spend £100,000 on sending councillors to conferences with officials and a further £100,000 on magazines promoting its work, when that money—with Government support—could be translated into nearly £300,000 for rate relief in specialist areas?
Brandon Lewis
My hon. Friend has made an excellent point. I hope that the councillors in Enfield have heard what he said, and are thinking about what they can do. Council reserves have risen to a record level. Given £2 billion of uncollected council tax and £2 billion lost through fraud and error, there is an awful lot that councils can do to ensure that they have the right funding and make decisions that will benefit their communities by producing economic growth and jobs.
Some councils are already using the powers in the Localism Act that this Government introduced, although I agree with my hon. Friend that more should be encouraged to do so. Basildon council has supported a small computer repair shop which offers home visits to its elderly and less “tech-savvy” customers. That is a very good example of localism-focused help. Stockton is supporting new businesses, from cafes to retailers, filling empty shops in the town centre and attracting new businesses. Milton Keynes has helped the famous Stables theatre to maintain the substantial recruitment that it brings to the area.
The Localism Act has ensured that no new supplementary business rate can be imposed without a backing of local firms in a referendum. The supplementary rate introduced by the Labour Government allowed extra business rates to be imposed, in some cases, without the support of local businesses. We have brought in a democratic check on any new rates, just as we have on council tax rises.
We have also introduced 24 new enterprise zones across the country. Those zones benefit from a 100% business rate discount, worth up to £275,000 over five years for a firm moving into the zone. All business rate growth within a zone will be retained and shared by the local enterprise partnership area for at least 25 years to help to support local growth and investment. Under this Government, enterprise zones have generated £500 million in private investment, and they have already created 5,000 jobs.
The United Kingdom is becoming the No. 1 destination for expanding multinational companies. That worldwide ambition is feeding flourishing local economies from Newquay right up to the Tees valley. I declare my interest as the Member of Parliament for Great Yarmouth; our New Anglia enterprise zone is encouraging vast growth in the energy industry in the east coast region. We are rewarding councils for promoting local economic growth by allowing them to keep half the funds from locally raised business rates. It has been estimated that these reforms will increase economic growth by £10 billion over the next seven years.
As the hon. Member for Chesterfield (Toby Perkins) said, we have postponed the business rates revaluation in England until 2017, which will prevent 800,000 firms from facing double-digit hikes in their business rates bills. I know that surveyors have been quite grumpy about that. Let us remember that it is those surveyors who stand to lose money from charging firms for rate appeals. For the record, the Government will not benefit by a single penny.
Independent analysis by the Valuation Office Agency has shown that the 2015 revaluation would have meant soaring bills for the likes of pubs, petrol stations and food retail. That would have pushed up the cost of living for hard-working families: a more expensive shop, a more expensive tank of fuel and a more expensive pint. Falling rents would not necessarily have translated into falling business rates bills, as the multiplier would simply have gone up to compensate for lower rateable values. The winner of a 2015 revaluation would have been office space in central London. Across England, three times as many premises would have lost out as would have gained. Small firms would have been paying for tax breaks for bankers in London.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Brandon Lewis and Nick de Bois
Brandon Lewis
The Williams report made it clear that if firefighters keep up their fitness throughout their careers, as they have a duty to do—alongside the fire service’s duty to have a proper programme in place—they will be more than capable of maintaining full fitness until the age of 60. I was pleased by the principles agreed between the Fire Brigades Union and the employers to have a process by which firefighters can maintain their fitness in a proper way, and we will keep an eye on the progress of those negotiations.
Nick de Bois (Enfield North) (Con)
The Secretary of State has rightly introduced discretion for councils to reduce rates where possible, particularly for hard-pressed retailers. Will he please put his considerable weight behind our campaign to persuade Enfield council to make the right choices and give relief to our hard-pressed retailers by using that discretion?
Brandon Lewis
My hon. Friend makes a good point, as he did last week in our debate. He is right to suggest that councils seeking to develop their town centres, their businesses and their local economy should look into the discretion we have given them that allows them to discount local business rates in whatever manner they see fit.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Brandon Lewis and Nick de Bois
Nick de Bois (Enfield North) (Con)
10. What steps he has taken to help local authorities deliver sensible savings in their budgets.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Brandon Lewis)
With permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to take Questions 10 and 22 together. We have published—
Brandon Lewis
Of course, and apologies, Mr Speaker.
We have published “50 ways to save”, a practical guide to councils on how they can make the most of their budgets through saving money—making sure the pennies get taken care of, so the pounds do as well. We have also developed the transformational challenge award to encourage councils that are looking innovatively at how they can work together, such as St Edmundsbury borough council, which I visited this morning and is saving almost £1 million a year through shared management with its neighbours.
Nick de Bois
I thank the Minister for his answer. Does he also agree that councils should review their portfolio of literature requiring translation, as in the last three years over £40 million was spent on that in England, and my council spent £1 million?