Amateur Sports Clubs (Hansard, 19 December 2002)

§ Mr. Leslie

The Local Government Bill does not include provisions for introducing 80 per cent. mandatory rate relief for community amateur sports clubs and so no assessment has been made of the impact of introducing such a scheme.

There is also no estimate available of the proportion of community amateur sports clubs that would qualify for mandatory rate relief under the provisions in the Local Government Bill. Community amateur sports clubs would benefit from the rate relief scheme for small businesses in the Local Government Bill. The scheme would provide mandatory rate relief of up to 50 per cent. for properties with rateable values of up to £3,000. For larger properties the percentage of relief would gradually taper off, with no relief for properties with rateable values above £8,000.

Local authorities may grant up to 100 per cent. relief at their discretion to community amateur sports clubs that qualify under the new mandatory relief scheme for small businesses.

The rating lists do not record the use of property by voluntary or community amateur sports clubs as distinct from other sports clubs. The rating lists for England include about 16,000 sports properties, including those used by community amateur sports clubs as well as professional and commercial sports bodies. Of the 16,000 sports properties in England, around 7,500 have rateable values of under £3,000 and a further 4,000 have rateable values above £3,000 and below £8,000.

As explained in the White Paper "Strong Local Leadership—Quality Public Services", which was published in December 2001, mandatory rate relief is already available for all premises used wholly or mainly for charitable purposes, provided that they meet the criteria for charitable status. The Charity Commission announced in November 2001 that they will recognise as charitable purposes "the promotion of community participation in healthy recreation by the provision of facilities for the playing of particular sports", and the advancement of the physical recreation of young people not undergoing formal education".

Where individual clubs do not meet the Charity Commission's criteria, or where they decide not to seek charitable status, local authorities retain discretion to grant rate relief to any non-profit making body. Local authorities have the power to grant relief where it is in the interests of local council taxpayers for them to do so. We have recently published on our website, revised guidance for local authorities and ratepayers on rate relief for charities and other non-profit making organisations.

In addition to this specific assistance, the Government has also introduced a tax package (legislated for in Finance Bill 2002), which will provide a range of tax reliefs for community amateur sports clubs on their income and on the donations which local people make to support them. The tax package follows that outlined in the "Promoting Sport in the Community" consultation document—mandatory rate relief was not part of the tax package which was consulted upon. The Government believes that the tax package and the option of charitable status, together with the help 948W available for clubs under the non-domestic rating system, represent a generous system of support sports clubs.