Non-domestic Rates: Empty Property

Debate between Robert Neill and Julian Sturdy

Wednesday 26th January 2011 Ministerial Corrections

[Julian Sturdy]

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment his Department has made of the likely effect of the reduction of the empty property rates threshold on the business sector.

[Official Report, 17 January 2011, Vol. 521, c. 503W.]

Letter of correction from Mr Robert Neill:

An error has been identified in the written answer given to my hon. Friend the Member for York Outer (Julian Sturdy) on 17 January.

The notice of question received by my Department referred to “business centre sector” but this was later changed by the Table Office to “business sector”. Due to an administrative error, the notification of change to the text of the question was not correctly dealt with resulting in an answer being given on the basis of the original text i.e. “business centre sector”.

The full answer given was as follows:

[Robert Neill]

This Government recognises the problems caused by the previous Government’s reforms of empty property rates.

Our ability to take action on this needs to be balanced against the costs involved, the targeted support that we have already provided on business rates and the overriding need to reduce public expenditure and support the economy generally by reducing the deficit.

We therefore have no immediate plans to reverse the reforms, and taking the above matters into consideration, the empty property rate threshold will revert to £2,600 from 1 April 2011. We will, however, certainly keep this matter under review.

No assessment has been made of the effect of the reduction of the empty property rates threshold on the business centre sector.

As I outlined in my written statement of 13 December 2010, Official Report, columns 61-62WS, it would cost £400 million to continue with the temporary empty rates measure, which unfortunately is not fiscally sustainable given the public finances that the new Government have inherited from the last administration.

The correct answer should have been: