Title of scheme 1. This scheme will be known as the Business Rates - Discretionary Retail Rate Relief scheme and will apply for the financial years only. 2. The scheme is made within the powers conferred under Section 47 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 (as amended by the Localism Act 2011) Properties which will benefit from relief 3. Properties that will benefit from the relief will be occupied properties with a rateable value of 50,000 or less, that are wholly or mainly being used as shops, restaurants, cafes and drinking establishments. 4. The Council consider shops, restaurants, cafes and drinking establishments to mean: i. Properties that are being used for the sale of goods to visiting members of the public: Shops (such as: florist, bakers, butchers, grocers, greengrocers, jewellers, stationers, off licence, chemists, newsagents, hardware stores, supermarkets, etc) Charity shops Opticians Post offices Furnishing shops/ display rooms (such as: carpet shops, double glazing, garage doors) Car/ caravan show rooms Second hand car lots Markets Petrol stations Garden centres Art galleries (where art is for sale/hire) ii. Properties that are being used for the provision of the following services to visiting members of the public: Hair and beauty services (such as: hair dressers, nail bars, beauty salons, tanning shops, etc) Shoe repairs/ key cutting 1
Travel agents Ticket offices e.g. for theatre Dry cleaners Launderettes PC/ TV/ domestic appliance repair Funeral directors Photo processing DVD/ video rentals Tool hire Car hire iii. Properties that are being used for the sale of food and/ or drink to visiting members of the public: Restaurants Takeaways Sandwich shops Coffee shops Pubs Bars 5. To qualify for the relief the property should be wholly or mainly being used as a shop, restaurant, cafe or drinking establishment. This is a test on use rather than occupation. Therefore, properties which are occupied, but not wholly or mainly used for the qualifying purpose, will not qualify for the relief. 6. The list set out above is not intended to be exhaustive. It is intended to be a guide as to the types of uses that the Council considers for the purpose of this scheme to be retail. 7. The Council may require the ratepayer to complete an application form to proceed with their claim for relief. Properties which will NOT benefit from relief 8. The list below sets out the types of uses that the Council does not consider to be retail for the purposes of relief in this scheme; i. Properties that are being used for the provision of the following services to visiting members of the public: Financial services (e.g. banks, building societies, cash points, bureau de change, payday lenders, betting shops, pawn brokers) Other services (e.g. estate agents, letting agents, employment agencies) 2
Medical services (e.g. vets, dentists, doctors, osteopaths, chiropractors) Professional services (e.g. solicitors, accountants, insurance agents/ financial advisers, tutors) Post office sorting office ii. Properties that are not reasonably accessible to visiting members of the public Amount of relief 9. The total amount of relief available for each property for each of the years under this scheme is 1,000. The amount does not vary with rateable value and there is no taper. There is no relief available under this scheme for properties with a rateable value of more than 50,000. 10. The eligibility for the relief and the relief itself will be assessed and calculated on a daily basis. The following formula will be used to determine the amount of relief to be granted for a particular property in the financial year: Amount of relief to be granted = 1000 x A/B Where: A is the number of days in the financial year that the property is eligible for relief; and B is the number of days in the financial year 11. The relief will be applied against the net bill after all other reliefs have been taken off. 12. The relief will be applied on a day to day basis using the formula set out above. A new property created as a result of a split or merger during the financial year, or where there is a change of use, will be considered afresh for the relief on that day. 13. Where the net rate liability for the day after all other reliefs but before retail relief is less than the retail relief, the maximum amount of retail relief will be no more than the value of the net rate liability. This will be calculated ignoring any prior year adjustments in liabilities which fall to be liable on the day. 14. Ratepayers that occupy more than one property will be entitled to relief for each of their eligible properties, subject to State Aid de minimis limits. 15. Qualifying occupied retail properties will receive the relief in each of the years 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2015 and 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2016 3
State Aid 16. Retail relief awarded under this scheme is likely to amount to State Aid. However, the relief will be State Aid compliant where it is provided in accordance with the de minimis regulations. These regulations allow an organisation to cumulatively receive up to 200,000 of de minimis aid in a three year period consisting of the current financial year and the two previous financial years. 17. To establish whether the ratepayer is eligible to receive de minimis state aid they must declare the full amount of de minimis state aid which they have already been granted during the previous two years and the current year. 18. Any assistance a ratepayer has received, or are due to receive, from a public body may be a de minimis state aid. This could be any aid, grant or support from central, regional, devolved governments or agencies or a local council. 19. The following is not a comprehensive list of all possible forms of aid. However, it should give an indication of common forms of aid; Examples of possible aid: - State grants; - Interest rate relief; - Tax relief; Tax credits; Tax exemptions; - State guarantees or holdings; - State provision of goods or services on preferential terms; - Direct subsidies; - Preferential interest rates; - Guarantees of loans on especially favourable terms; - Acquisition of land or buildings either gratuitously or on favourable terms; - Provision of goods and services on preferential terms; - Indemnities against operating losses; - Reimbursement of costs in the event of success; - State guarantees, whether direct or indirect, to credit operations preferential re-discount rates; - Dividend guarantees; - Preferential public ordering; - Reduction of, or exemption from, charges or taxes, including accelerated depreciation and the reduction of social contributions; - Deferred collection of fiscal or social contributions; - Assistance financed by special levies; - Capital transfers; - Certain State holdings in the capital of undertakings. 20. Ratepayers should have received a letter informing them if they were given assistance under the de minimis regulations. Ratepayers who are not sure whether any public assistance they have received is de minimis aid, should contact the body which granted the assistance to clarify this. Then 4
provide the council with information about all forms of public assistance under 200,000 they have received in the last three years. 22. Information on State Aid can be found by visiting: https://www.gov.uk/state-aid 5