Uniform Business Rate (Hansard, 25 May 1995)

§ Mr. Bayley
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) how many appeals against uniform business rate valuations were received from businesses in(a) York and (b) north Yorkshire following the 1987 revaluation; how long on average these appeals took to resolve; and on what date the last of these appeals was resolved; [25965]
(2) how many appeals against uniform business rate valuations were received from businesses in (a) York and (b) north Yorkshire following the 1992 revaluation; how long on average these appeals are taking to resolve; and how many currently are outstanding. [25966]

§ Mr. Curry
I take it that the hon. Member is referring to the revaluations which took effect on 1 April 1990 and 1 April 1995. A total of 3,677 proposals to alter the 1990 rating list had been received in York and 21,899 in north Yorkshire by 30 April 1995, of which 903 and 4,616 respectively were outstanding at that date. Proposals to alter this list can still be made in some circumstances up to 31 March 1996. One hundred and forty proposals to alter the 1995 rating list had been received in York and 991 in north Yorkshire by 30 April 1995. None have yet been resolved.

§ Mr. Bayley
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what percentage of uniform business rate charged in each local authority in England is allocated, according to the uniform business rate distribution formula, to the business ratepayers own authorities. [25968]

§ Mr. Curry
National non-domestic rates—business rates—are collected by billing authorities during the year and paid into the NNDR pool. Funds from the pool, the "distributable amount" are re-distributed on a population basis to all classes of authority in line with the formula set out in the local government finance report. This includes distribution to police and fire and civil defence authorities which do not all operate within the boundary of a single billing authority.
Billing authorities may make adjustments during the year of the sums contributed to the pool, in line with their collection rates. No adjustments are made in year to the distributed amount.
It is not therefore possible to calculate the final amount of NDR charged by each billing authority until after the end of the relevant financial year.
As the distributable amount is calculated on a population basis for each year and the amount collected in that year is not known until the following year, the information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost in the form requested.