The District Councils Network (DCN) has called for the roll-out of 75% business rates retention to be delayed by one year to 2021/22.
The reform should instead be piloted with a range of councils in 2020/21.
The DCN says that the complexity and extent of the changes being made to local authority finance in 2020/21 carris large risks, and that delaying the changes to business rates retention would allow time for the effects of the Fair Funding and Spending Reviews to settle down.
The DCN calls for a phased reset of non-domestic rates to increase certainty and remove ‘cliff edges’ in funding, and says that no council should be worse off as a result of revisions to the tier split of business rates between the districts and the counties, unless agreed locally.
The existing split of 40:10 on the first 50% of retention should be maintained, and any changes confined to the additional 25% from moving to 75% retention.
