§ Mr. SawfordTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement about discretionary rate relief granted by local authorities to their own schools. [54625]
§ Ms ArmstrongAs my Department has advised local authorities, rate relief cannot be granted to Local Education Authority (County) schools under section 47 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988. In this respect local authority schools are treated the same as other types of local authority property. The fact that the full rates are payable on local authority property has always been taken into account in the Government's funding of local authority expenditure.
The rates paid by local authorities, like all other rate income, are pooled and redistributed among all local authorities. Therefore if, some authorities do not pay their full rate bills, they do so to the detriment of all authorities. My Department intends to ensure that the outstanding rates are paid into the national rate pool for redistribution to all authorities.