Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Non-Domestic Rating Contributions (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2003 and shall come into force on 31st December 2003.

Amendment of the Non-Domestic Rating Contributions (England) Regulations 1992

2.  Schedules 1 and 2 to the Non-Domestic Rating Contributions (England) Regulations 1992(2) are amended as follows in relation to financial years beginning on or after 1st April 2004.

Rules for the calculation of non-domestic rating contributions

3.  In Schedule 1—

(a)in paragraph 1(4)—

(i)for “2003” there is substituted “2004”; and

(ii)delete the words “less £6.5 million”.

(b)in paragraph 3(1)(a), after “section 47(2)(a)” there is inserted “or 47(2)(ba)”(3);

(c)in paragraph 3(1)(b), after “section 47(2)(a)” there is inserted “or 47(2)(ba)”;

(d)in paragraph 3(3), after “section 47(2)(a)” there is inserted “or 47(2)(ba)”;

(e)in paragraph 4(4), for “2003 is £83,606,000” there is substituted “2004 is £84,106,000”; and

(f)for Part II there is substituted—

“PART IICOST FACTORS

Assumptions relating to provisional amounts

4.  In relation to financial years beginning on or after 1st April 2004, in Schedule 2—

(a)in paragraph 2(12) for “0.961” there is substituted “0.959”;

(b)in paragraph 3, after “section 47(2)(a)” there is inserted “or 47(2)(ba)”;

(c)in paragraph 4, after “section 47(2)(a)” there is inserted “or 47(2)(ba)”; and

(d)for the table in paragraph 8(1) there is substituted the following—

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

Under Part II of Schedule 8 to the Local Government Finance Act 1988 (“the 1988 Act”), billing authorities are required to pay amounts (called non-domestic rating contributions) to an account held by the Secretary of State (“the national non-domestic rating pool”). The national non-domestic rating pool is subsequently distributed to authorities under the rules in Part III of Schedule 8 to the 1988 Act. Payments into the national non-domestic rating pool in respect of the provisional amount of the non-domestic rating contributions are made during the financial year, final calculations and adjustments of the non-domestic rating contributions are made after the year ends.

These Regulations amend the rules for calculation of non-domestic rating contributions and the assumptions to be made in calculating the provisional amount of the non-domestic rating contributions contained in the Non-Domestic Rating Contributions (England) Regulations 1992 (“the 1992 Regulations”), with effect from 1st April 2004. They make amendments in relation to—

(a)the offset for a special authority in paragraph 1(4) of Schedule 1 to the 1992 Regulations;

(b)the national cost of collection figure in paragraph 4(4) of Schedule 1 to the 1992 Regulations;

(c)the cost factors in Part II of Schedule 1 to the 1992 Regulations;

(d)the buoyancy factor in paragraph 2(12) of Schedule 2 to the 1992 Regulations; and

(e)the losses in collection percentages in paragraph 8(1) of Schedule 2 to the 1992 Regulations.

Following an amendment to the 1988 Act by section 64 of the Local Government Act 2003 (c. 26), registered community amateur sports clubs are entitled to mandatory rate relief under sections 43 and 45 of the 1988 Act at the same level as charities. As with charities, billing authorities are allowed to top-up this mandatory rate relief with discretionary relief under section 47 of the 1988 Act. Paragraph 3 of Schedule 1 to the 1992 Regulations requires billing authorities to pay into the national non-domestic rating pool 75% of any discretionary relief granted to a charity. The amendments in regulations 3(b), 3(c), 3(d) and 4(b) and 4(c) extend this rule to discretionary relief granted to registered community amateur sports clubs.