§ Mr. DrewTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will provide a breakdown by collecting authority of the money collected under the unified business rate; and how it was redistributed via Government grant for each of the last three years. [51315]
§ Ms ArmstrongI have today placed in the Library of the House a table showing the amounts calculated by billing authorities as their final contributions to the non-domestic540W rates pool for 1996–97, and their calculations of the provisional contributions for 1997–98 and 1998–99. I have also placed a table showing the amounts of redistributed non-domestic rates payable to each receiving authority in England for 1996–97, 1997–98 and 1998–99.
The two tables cannot be compared directly because (i) contributions to the non-domestic rates pool are made by billing authorities—for example London boroughs and district councils, whereas redistributed non-domestic rates are paid to all receiving authorities (including preceptors such as county councils and police authorities); (ii) the total redistributed from the pool includes amounts other than those received from billing authorities—that is payments in lieu of rates from Crown properties, payments from properties on the Central List, and Exchequer contributions to compensate the pool for income foregone as a result of transitional schemes.