Issue - meetings

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Legal Services introduced the report and thanked the members of the Scrutiny Task and Finish group and the officers who supported them for their work in reviewing and informing the policy.  He said promotion of the scheme was important to the businesses who would qualify for assistance and the policy would be reviewed after 1 year of operation.

The Revenues and Benefits Manager advised that the policy was a straightforward percentage scheme of the increase in a property’s rateable value and if there were any cases of hardship then there was a small allocation set aside for this.

The Revenues Team Leader confirmed that they had already calculated the number of businesses who would qualify and there would be funding remaining for the hardship scheme. 

The Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee thanked the officers who had supported the Task and Finish group and said it had been a very interesting review. 

At the conclusion of the debate, Members were content to propose the Non Domestic Rates Revaluation Support Relief Scheme for adoption by Full Council.