Agenda item

            The Director of Finance submitted for the Committee consideration the following report:

“1.0      Purpose of Report or Summary of main Issues

1.1       The purpose of this report is to ask the Committee to approve the draft response to the Consultation on Non-domestic and Domestic rating measures to support budget sustainability by raising additional revenue.

2.0       Recommendations

2.1       The Committee is asked to:

                                             (i)          consider the draft consultation response which has been submitted as a draft response in-line with the closing date for consultation; and

                                            (ii)          approve its formal submission, subject to any comments or amendments provided at Committee.

3.0       Main report

3.1       In September 2023 the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland wrote to Permanent Secretaries of Northern Ireland Departments directing that they launch public consultations on measures to support budget sustainability by raising additional revenue.

3.2       On the 11th of October the Department of Finance published a document setting out the financial context for the revenue raising consultations. This was followed on the 7th of November 2023 with the launch of a 14-week consultation on the revenue raising potential associated with the removal of rating measures. The consultation is seeking views from those who may be directly affected and from the wider body of ratepayers. There are seven proposals for changes to rating measures identified by the Secretary of State:

            Domestic sector:

·        Maximum Capital Value cap.

·        Early Payment Discount,

·        Landlords Allowance,

            Non-domestic sector:

·        Industrial Derating,

·        Non-domestic Vacant Rate relief,

·        Freight Transport relief,

·        Halls of Residence exemption.

            The closing date for this consultation is the 13th of February 2024.

3.4       In addition, the Department is seeking views on four questions relating to the overall fiscal position.

·        Is there other revenue raising measures that should be considered?

·        Are there any services/ programmes that should be stopped or reduced to divert funding to more critical services?

·        Are there public services that could be delivered in a different way?

·        Are there public services that could be delivered by others (e.g. local government, voluntary and community sector or private sector) or are there are other areas in which greater collaboration could deliver better outcomes?

3.5       The consultation response has been by David Magor, IRRV, on behalf of the council based on City Council responses in the past, various committee minutes and comments from members at LPS briefings.

3.6       Appendix 1 presents the Councils proposed response to the consultation, incorporating the Notice of Motion approved at SP&R on 15th December 2023 as the response to question one, removal of the £400k cap.

3.7       Appendix 2 and 3 are the consultation documents produced by the Department of Finance.

            Financial and Resource Implications

3.8       None

            Equality or Good Relations Implications /

            Rural Needs Assessment

3.9       To be determined by the Department of Finance.”

            The Committee:

(i)          considered the draft consultation response here which has been submitted as a draft response in-line with the closing date for consultation; and

(ii)         approved its formal submission, subject to the amendment to question three in the response to provide that greater powers are available to the department to ensure businesses progress developments and reduce the amount of time properties remain vacant.