The Non-Domestic Rating (Rural Rate Relief) (Wales) Order 2002

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

Each county and county borough council in Wales (“billing authority”) is required by section 42A of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 (“the Act”) to compile and maintain for each chargeable financial year a list (“rural settlement list”) which identifies settlements which are wholly or partly within the authority’s area, appear to the authority to have had a population of not more than 3,000 on the 31st December immediately preceding the beginning of the chargeable financial year in question and are in that financial year wholly or partly within an area designated by order as a rural area for the purposes of the section.

The rural areas in Wales which have been designated for the purposes of section 42A of the Act are those mentioned in the Schedule to the Non-Domestic Rating (Rural Settlements) (Wales) Order 1998 (“the 1998 Order”).

By virtue of the provisions of section 43(6A) and (6B) of the Act the chargeable amount of non-domestic rate for a chargeable day is reduced where on the day concerned the hereditament is within a settlement identified in the billing authority’s rural settlement list for the chargeable financial year and the rateable value of the hereditament shown in the local non-domestic rating list at the beginning of that year is not more than any amount prescribed by order and on the day concerned either the whole or part of the hereditament is used as a qualifying general store or qualifying post office or any conditions prescribed by order are satisfied.

By virtue of the provisions of section 47(1), (3) and (3A) of the Act the chargeable amount for a chargeable day may be reduced if, during a period which consists of or includes the chargeable day, a decision of the billing authority concerned operates to the effect that section 47 applies as regards the hereditament concerned and if on the chargeable day the hereditament is within a settlement identified in the billing authority’s rural settlement list for the chargeable financial year in which that day falls and if the rateable value of the hereditament shown in the local non-domestic rating list at the beginning of the chargeable financial year is not more than any amount prescribed by order.

By Article 3 of the 1998 Order £5,000 is prescribed as the maximum amount of rateable value for the purpose of section 43(6B)(b) and £10,000 is prescribed as the maximum amount of rateable value for the purpose of section 47(3A)(b).

This Order revokes Article 3 of the 1998 Order and prescribes £9,000 (in the case of a public house or a petrol filling station) and £6,000 (in any other case) as the maximum amount for the purpose of section 43(6B)(b) and £12,000 as the maximum amount for the purpose of section 47(3A)(b).

In addition the Order extends the availability of mandatory rate relief under section 43(6A) by prescribing for the purpose of section 43(6B)(c)(ii) the conditions that the hereditament is not used exclusively for the display of advertisements or the parking of motor vehicles or for telecommunications apparatus or an automatic teller machine and is not used wholly or partly as a general store or post office and is not the property of the Crown.