§ Mr. Heddleasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what representations his Department has received from business organisations concerning hardship 569W caused as a result of the rating of unoccupied properties under the terms of sections 16 and 17 and schedule 1 to the General Rate Act 1967;
(2) what representations his Department has received from business organisations requesting the lowering of the 50 per cent. limit on empty non-domestic property rate; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. KingA number of organisations and individual business ratepayers have made representations to my Department on the subject of empty property rates in the non-domestic sector.
The Government are fully aware of the problems for businesses which arise from the fixed costs of maintaining non-productive premises and I am keeping this area of rating law under close review.
§ Mr. Heddleasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) whether he will list in the Official Report each local authority in England and Wales which, under the terms of sections 16 and 17 and schedule 1 to the General Rate Act 1967, is levying rates on unoccupied commercial premises;
(2) whether he will list in the Official Report for each local authority in England and Wales the total amount of rates levied from unoccupied commercial premises in each of the past five years; and in the case of each authority what percentage of the full rateable value is represented by the level of rates each authority charges on unoccupied commercial premises.
§ Mr. KingThe information is not collected by my Department. In "Rate Collection Statistics", CIPFA has published the following information for individual authorities in England and Wales:
- (i) the share of empty properties in the total of rates not collectable.
- (ii) the amount of rates collected by empty property rating.
§ Mr. Heddleasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he will estimate the total cost of collection of rates on unoccupied commercial premises by all local authorities in England and Wales; and if he will make a statement.