As lead partner in a consortium of local authorities in the county, Derby City Council is taking part in a pilot scheme to enable the Government to develop its plan to move to full Business rate retention by 2020/21. The net benefit to the Council’s funding in 2018/19 is to increase it by £6m from the current level of  £218m.

Cabinet paper (extract) 11 April 2018

This is to be passed by Council Cabinet 11th April 2018.

Currently, 50% of the Business rates collected locally, which contributes to the Council’s total funding, is held in the City (£48m – 2018/19), the remainder is passed to Central Government . Another element of the Council’s total funding is the Revenue Support Grant paid by the Government (£19m – 2018/19)- this has been cut year on year as part of the scheme to phase it out by 2020/21, and replace it by full retention of business rates.

In 2018/19, as part of this scheme ,Derby City will agree to receive no Revenue Support Grant at all, and retain 99% of the Business rates resulting in a net contribution of £6m.

Cabinet Paper (extract) 11 April 2018

This is good news for the City, as this is an unexpected bonus of £6m. It is now down to the Council Cabinet to decide how it’s spent.

Comment

Whilst this is a 1 year pilot, those authorities involved last year, are continuing on the scheme for a 2nd year. Assuming that the pilot proves successful then the expectation is that it will be fully implemented in 2 years time.