Rates Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000

Payments to district councils on account of district rates

3.—(1) Not later than 1st March in any year each district council shall serve on the Department notice of the amounts estimated by the council under section 53(2)(e) of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972(1) to be required to be raised by means of domestic and non-domestic rates made by the council for the next-following year.

(2) Subject to paragraphs (4), (5)(b) and (6) the Department shall each year pay to each district council sums equal to the amounts of the estimates notified to the Department under paragraph (1) in respect of that year.

(3) The sums mentioned in paragraph (2) shall be paid by monthly instalments on the first day of each month; and, subject to paragraphs (4), (5)(b) and (6) the instalments shall, as nearly as may be, be of equal amounts, except that the Department may round off the amount of any instalments other than either the first or the last to the nearest hundred pounds and adjust the amount of the first or, as the case may be, the last of the instalments accordingly.

(4) If it appears to the Department that the amount of any estimate notified to the Department by a council under paragraph (1) in respect of any year is likely to be substantially greater than the product of the district rate to which the estimate relates in respect of that year, the Department may determine to pay the council during that year (subject to paragraphs (5)(b) and (6)) a sum equal to the amount which is estimated by the Department to be the likely product of that rate instead of the sum mentioned in paragraph (2), and any instalments under paragraph (3) which have not yet been made may be reduced accordingly.

(5) When the amount of the product of a district rate for any year has been ascertained—

(a) if that amount exceeds the amount paid to the council in respect of that year under paragraph (2) or, as the case may be, paragraph (4), the balance shall, subject to paragraph (6), be paid by the Department to the district council;

(b) if that amount is less than the amount so paid, the balance shall be set off against any sum which would otherwise be payable by the Department to the district council under this regulation.

(6) The Department may defer payment of any sum under paragraphs (2) and (3) by any amount not exceeding the appropriate amount.

(7) In paragraph (6) “appropriate amount” is an amount equal to the proportion of the product of the rate estimated under paragraph (1) or (4) for the last-preceding year which is carried forward as arrears and which is for the time being outstanding as such.

(8) Before—

(a) making, under paragraph (4), any reduction in the amount of any instalment, or

(b) deferring, under paragraph (6), payment of any sum,

the Department shall consult the district council concerned.

(1)

1972 c. 9 (N.I.)