Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when he plans to respond to the proposal submitted by Tenterden Town Council and Sevenoaks Town Council in February 2014 in relation to the Sustainable Communities Act 2007.

I responded to the proposal on 1 September. Sevenoaks Town Council, and others, wished to receive a share of the tax revenue raised from business rates.

This Government is committed to supporting local town and parish councils. However, it is a zero sum game. At present, town and parish councils do not receive central government funding. Under the local retention of business rates, half of the revenue raised from business rates is retained by local government and half by central government.

If part of this local share was diverted to town and parish councils away from principal local authorities and major precepting authorities, this would result in less spending on local services or an increase in council tax, or potentially a combination of both.

Similarly, a reduction in the national share would reduce the funding available to central government to fund revenue support grant for principal authorities, thereby impacting on service delivery or council tax; or it would require cuts to other central government spending outside local government; or it would necessitate increases in national taxation.

For these reasons, the Government does not support the proposal; I would add that these issues were carefully considered earlier in this Parliament when the new regime of local retention was established through the Local Government Finance Act 2012.

Notwithstanding, our broader reforms to local finance are already helping town and parish councils to benefit from local economic growth. Where a local planning authorities implements Community Infrastructure Levy, 15 per cent of Levy receipts from a development must be passed to the town or parish council where development has taken place. To encourage local communities to be proactive in planning for their area, this rises to 25 per cent where a neighbourhood plan is in place. Where there is no town or parish council, the local planning authority will retain these funds to spend in consultation with the community.