The Council Tax and Non-Domestic Rating (Demand Notices) (England) (Amendment) (Rural Rate Relief) Regulations 1998

Special provision in rural areas

2.—(1) The Council Tax and Non-Domestic Rating (Demand Notices) (England) Regulations 1993(1) are amended as follows.

(2) In regulation 1(2), after the definition of “the relevant year”, there is inserted—

““rural settlement authority” means a billing authority which has, in respect of the relevant year, identified one or more rural settlements for that year in a list compiled under section 42A(2) of the 1988 Act;”.

(3) For paragraph (3)(b) of regulation 3 there is substituted—

“(b) served by any other billing authority, other than a rural settlement authority, shall contain the matters mentioned in Part 1 of that Schedule; and

(c) served by a rural settlement authority, shall contain the matters mentioned in Part 1 of that Schedule as amended by Part 1A.”

(4) After Part 1 of Schedule 2 there is inserted the following—

“PART 1A Amendment of Part 1 in relation to rural settlement authorities

In relation to rural settlement authorities, Part 1 shall have effect as if—

(a) in paragraph 5(a), for “section 43(5) or 45(5)” there were substituted “section 43(5) or (6A) or section 45(5)”; and

(b) at the end of the Explanatory Notes set out in paragraph 6, there were added the following—

Rural rate relief

The occupier of a general store or post office in a settlement appearing in a billing authority’s rural settlement list is entitled to rate relief if it is the only such store or post office in that settlement and its rateable value is £5,000 or less. Relief is given at 50 per cent of the full rates bill, or of the transitional bill where transitional arrangements apply. Billing authorities have discretion to remit all or part of the remaining 50 per cent.

Authorities also have discretion to remit all or part of the rate bills on other property in a settlement on the rural settlement list if the rateable value is £10,000 or less and the authority is satisfied that the property is used for a purpose which benefits the local community.”

(1)

S.I. 1993/191; relevant amendments are made by S.I. 1995/121 and S.I. 1997/394.