The Business Rate Supplements (Transfers to Revenue Accounts) (England) Regulations 2009

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

In England, the Business Rate Supplements Act 2009 (“the BRS Act”) gives county councils, district councils in areas where there is no county council, and the Greater London Authority the power to levy a supplement (a “BRS”) on the national non-domestic rate with effect from 1st April 2010.

In areas where a single local authority performs all local authority functions, that local authority will be both the levying authority for BRS and the billing authority. In areas where there remain two tiers of local government, the county council will be the levying authority and functions of the billing authority will be performed by the district councils in the area. In London, the London borough councils will perform the billing authority function.

In both single and two tier local authority areas, BRS revenues will be paid initially into the billing authorities’ collection funds, maintained under the Local Government Finance Act 1988. However, paragraph 1 of Schedule 3 to the BRS Act requires that BRS revenues must be paid into a revenue account maintained solely for the purposes of the BRS.

These Regulations make provision for the transfer of BRS revenues from a billing authority’s collection fund into the levying authority’s BRS revenue account. Regulation 3 and Schedule 1 deal with single tier local authority areas, and require that BRS revenues are transferred as they are collected on a monthly basis. Regulation 4 and Schedule 2 deal with two tier local authority areas and require billing authorities to estimate the amount they expect to collect by way of BRS during each financial year and to pay that amount less 5%, as an in-year contingency protection to allow for the costs of, and losses in, collection, into the relevant levying authority’s BRS revenue account in instalments throughout the year. At the end of each financial year, the billing authority must calculate what it actually collected during the year. Paragraph 8 of Schedule 2 then makes provision for a final adjustment to be made.

Regulation 5 makes a minor consequential amendment to the Local Authorities (Funds) (England) Regulations 1992.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen.