Northamptonshire County Council has asked district and borough councils to release £1.7m of future business rates pooling surpluses a year early, to help it solve its financial problems.
In council documents published this week, the council said that the council and commissioners sent in to run the authority believe regulations allow the move.
It quoted an official at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, which it approached for advice, saying: “It all comes down to the willingness of partners and how supportive they want to be but there is nothing in the regulations that prevents it.”
The county council is proposing to compensate authorities that pay over the surplus before 30 November at a flat rate of the Bank of England base rate plus a further 3%.
In normal circumstances, an under, or over estimation of surplus would be accounted for in the financial year following payment of the budgeted surplus / deficit.
