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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of regional variations in business rate income across local authorities; and what assessment his Department has made of the effect of those variations on the provision of local public services.

Information about local authority income from business rates is published on the Department's website at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/national-non-domestic-rates-local-authority-level-data

Local variations in business rates are taken into account through the way in which the local government finance regime redistributes income between authorities. Under the rates retention scheme, authorities with large business rates bases, relative to their spending needs, pay part of their business rates as a “tariff”. This is then redistributed as a “top-up” payment to every local authority whose relative needs is higher than its business rates bases.

The Government periodically assesses resourcing requirements for local government as part of each spending review, ensuring a sustainable basis for local authorities to discharge their functions.