St Albans District Council collect business rates on behalf of central government and has no involvement in setting the levels of business rates. All business rate income collected in any given financial year is paid to Central Government which is then redistributed to Councils as part of the annual formula grant settlement.
We are keen to support small businesses and the local economy as much as possible and we will offer flexible payment options to assist Ratepayers facing genuine difficulties with the payment of their rates. We also operate a discretionary rate relief scheme to help charities and not-for-profit organisations.
During his last budget statement, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that every Ratepayer will be given the opportunity to defer 3.2% of any increases in the amount of rates they have to pay in 2012/2013 with 50% of any deferred amounts repayable in 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 respectively.
Details of the scheme and how Ratepayers can apply to have a proportion of the 2012/2013 business rates deferred were included with the annual business rate bills sent in March 2012.
During the same budget statement the Chancellor also announced an extension to the temporary increase in small business rate relief until 31st March 2013. This temporary increase effectively means that those Ratepayers who are entitled to small business rate relief will benefit from a doubling of the amount of relief they would ordinarily be entitled to. Ratepayers will not have to apply for this extension of the relief and their accounts will be automatically re-calculated to reflect this (Further details about small business rate relief are available on this website).
If you have any questions concerning Business Rates please contact the Business Rate Team on 01727 819270 or 814604.