Business Rates Information Booklet 2012/2013
Leaders Foreword Last year s financial challenge, in terms of the 90 million savings we needed to make, was unprecedented in its severity. In 2012/13 we have to find further savings of 55.4 million, due to 26.4 million less Government funding for Leeds and 29 million of cost pressures resulting from increased demand for vital services such as social care. We are doing all we can to limit both price rises and cuts to frontline services. Our first priority is to protect the most vulnerable people in our communities. We are putting an extra 18.6 million into Adult Social Care and Children s Services to respond to increased levels of demand, which will mean that in 2012/13, these priority services will account for 55.1 per cent of our net managed budget. Although decisions about spending are getting tougher and tougher, we want innovation and enterprise to be at the heart of what we do. We are investing 1 million in economic initiatives designed to deliver jobs, training and apprenticeships, such as the creation of an Apprenticeship Training Association in partnership with Leeds City College. Alongside this we have a 200 million longterm capital investment programme, which includes major projects such as the Leeds Arena and Trinity Leeds shopping centre, creating an estimated 3,000 jobs.
Councillor Keith Wakefield Leader of the Council In our communities, an extra 500,000 is being spent over three years to tackle derelict and nuisance sites. Funding levels for police community support officers will be maintained, while 25,000 will be invested in new CCTV cameras. Our Wrap Up Leeds campaign is offering free insulation to up to 15,000 households, in order to reduce CO2 emissions and help tackle fuel poverty. With the voluntary sector also facing significant funding cuts, we are providing a 250,000 hardship fund for voluntary groups in Leeds. The challenge facing us will get tougher as we have to keep making cuts to an annual budget that is getting ever smaller. We must respond by changing how we work. Leeds City Council can no longer afford to simply provide services in the way we have done traditionally. Instead the council must provide leadership by bringing together the combined talent, knowledge and expertise of the voluntary sector, businesses, public sector partners and local residents in a spirit of civic enterprise. As a city experiencing huge change, we need to work together to find new ways to move forward and secure a positive future for those living in Leeds, particularly for our young people. If the legacy of the current financial hardship we are all experiencing is that it brings the whole city together in this way, it would be something for everyone to be hugely proud of.
Budget changes Every year we calculate an annual budget for spending in Leeds. This money provides us with funding to maintain our services and to deal with local and national priorities set out in our financial and corporate plans. Schools are funded from a specific government grant, which means that Business Rates and Council Tax do not contribute to the running of schools. However, they do help pay for local education authority responsibilities and adult and community learning. Business Rates income redistributed to the City Council by the Government contributes around 289 million to the city this year and helps to maintain and to improve council services, but that figure accounts for just 14.5 per cent of the council s overall spending. The rest comes from Council Tax, government grants, income from rents on council properties and charges for using services such as sports centres. This year s budget: This has been another difficult budget for the council. We have had further reductions in government funding and, at the same time, the demands on many of our front-line services continue to increase. In 2011/12 we succeeded in making savings of 90 million. For 2012/13 we need to find additional savings of over 55 million. That will not be easy, but we are doing all we can to reduce the amount we need to spend. We are reducing staff costs by 3.2 million in 2012/13 as part of a continued drive to reduce staff numbers by 2,500 full-time equivalent posts by March 2015. We are also making more efficient use of council premises and working better with other councils and public organisations, such as the NHS, to deliver more joined-up services. Our priorities are to continue to protect services for the most vulnerable, promote job creation and provide opportunities for young people, and in some areas spending has actually increased. We are increasing the proportion of our budget that is spent on Adult Social Care and Children s Services. Additional funding of 7.7 million within Adult Social Care will help us to deal with the impact of an aging population and to support people with learning disabilities and those that need nursing and domiciliary care. In Children s Services an additional 10.9 million will fund additional external placements and help us to offset the rise in the cost of fostering care. An extra 1 million will be used to help deliver jobs, training and apprenticeships, such as the creation of an Apprenticeship Training Association in partnership with Leeds City College. 100,000 has been committed to a new programme to engage with the top 100 companies in Leeds to deliver jobs and training and encourage investment across the wider Leeds City Region area. An extra 500,000 will be spent over three years to tackle derelict and nuisance sites which blight communities in town and district centres. A commitment of 180,000 will be made for Olympics activities in Leeds. Inward investment in return for hosting international teams is expected to be over 300,000. 250,000 will be made available to the voluntary sector to help reduce the impact of wider funding cuts. A new homelessness hub will offer a place to stay for 72 hours and help in securing a home. Funding levels for police community support officers (PCSOs) are to be maintained, while the Leeds Burglary Reduction Programme is to be further developed and 25,000 will be invested in new CCTV cameras in Chapeltown and Hyde Park.
Balancing the books
A breakdown of Leeds budget Where does the money come from? Where does the money go? Service Specific Government Grants 48% Employees 41% Business Rates & General Supplies and transport 32% Government Grant 15% Payment of benefits etc 17% Council Tax 14% Premises 5% Fees & charges 11% Paying debt and interest 5% Rents 10% Other 2% What services does Council Tax provide? Adult Social Care 28% Public Transport Support 5% Children's Services 25% Housing Services 4% * Police 10% *Fire & Rescue 4% Refuse Collection, Street Cleansing Libraries and Adult Learning 2% and Waste Disposal 8% Other (including Environmental 1% Roads 7% Health and community safety etc) Leisure 6% *Police and Fire & Rescue are separate from Leeds City Council and set their own budgets and Council Tax which the council collects on their behalf. The money the council is able to invest (our Capital Programme ) is again limited by national budget reductions, but many projects are continuing as planned. The programme is still very extensive and assumes spending of over 800 million over four years. It includes around 60 million a year to improve council housing, 25 million for essential repairs to sections of the inner ring road and 18.3 million over the next two years for other road maintenance. The Building Schools for the Future programme is coming to a close, but demographic changes mean that an additional 22.5 million will be needed over the next two years to provide reception places in our primary schools. Work is continuing on the Leeds Arena and on improvements to the Woodhouse Lane multi-story car park and a further 15 million will be used to support economic initiatives in the city including support for the outer areas, innovation and carbon reduction.
Business Rates - additional information Transitional Arrangements The latest valuation of properties for Business Rates purposes came in to effect on 1 April 2010. At the same time, the Government introduced a transitional scheme to phase in gradually the increases some people may face following the revaluation. 2012/13 is the third year of this scheme and the amount by which an account can increase in 2012/13 when compared to 2011/12 is limited to 20 per cent plus inflation for properties with a rateable value of 18,000 or over, and 10 per cent plus inflation for those under 18,000. This is shown as Transitional Relief on your account, if it applies. To help pay for the Transitional Relief scheme, the amount by which an account can decrease compared to 2011/12 is also limited to 7 per cent less inflation for properties with rateable values of 18,000 or over, and 35 per cent less inflation for those under 18,000. This will be shown as Transitional Premium on your account, if it applies. Small Business Rate Relief For those ratepayers entitled to Small Business Rate Relief, the additional relief has now been extended throughout the whole of 2012/13. Therefore any property with a rateable value of 6,000 or less which qualifies for Small Business Rate Relief will have no rates to pay in 2012/13. If you do not currently receive Small Business Rate Relief and you only occupy one business property in England and the rateable value of that property is less than 12,000, you are entitled to claim the relief. If you believe that you may qualify please contact us immediately or download an application form from our website at www.leeds.gov.uk. For 2012/13, all occupied properties with a rateable value of less than 18,000, which are not already in receipt of Charitable Rate Relief, will have their bills calculated using the Small Business Rate multiplier of 0.45p in the, regardless of whether they qualify for Small Business Rate Relief. Unoccupied Properties The rateable value below which properties are exempt from unoccupied property rates remains at 2,600 for 2012/13.
If you have a property with a rateable value of 2,600 or more and this property has been unoccupied for more than 3 months (or 6 months if it is an industrial property), you will become liable to pay the unoccupied rates and you will be sent a bill. It is therefore important to tell us immediately if you are no longer the owner or leaseholder of the property or if it is now occupied. What to do if you re having trouble paying your bill In line with the council s Debt Policy, we aim to collect all debts owed to the council, but to do this in a consistent and sensitive way. If you are having problems paying your Business Rates, please contact us immediately on 0113 247 6983 or e-mail us at business.rates@leeds.gov.uk We will do our best to make a reasonable payment arrangement with you, taking into account your circumstances. If you do not get in touch, or do not make a payment arrangement with us, we will have to take recovery action against you. This may increase the amount that you have to pay. For comprehensive and impartial advice if your business is struggling financially, please view the Business Link's website at www.businesslink.gov.uk. Business Link is the official government website for business. If you have several creditors and need help dealing with them, you may wish to contact Business Debtline. Telephone 0800 197 6026 or visit their website at www.bdl.org.uk. They are a charity whose advice is free.
At your service - West Yorkshire Police Authority Councillor Mark Burns-Williamson OBE Chair of West Yorkshire Police Authority Sir Norman Bettison Chief Constable After extensive debate at our seminars and final budget meeting, members decided to accept the one-off 2.7 million grant offered by the Government in order to freeze the police element of the Council Tax for a second year. Members have always tried to keep the police Council Tax as low as possible, mindful of people on low or fixed incomes and the impact of pay restraint on many others across the area. This is why West Yorkshire residents pay the third lowest police Council Tax of all force areas in England and Wales, which we believe offers value for money. Through our decisions on the police budget we have supported the Chief Constable in his desire to start recruiting some new police officers during 2012/13. We share his concern that stopping police officer recruitment for a lengthy time can harm the organisation in both the short and long term, such as reducing training and support structures and restricting movement through the ranks. Since you also tell us each year in our budget consultation that maintaining police officer numbers is one of your top priorities, we were keen to lift the recruitment freeze as soon as possible and leave a strong financial and governance legacy. This will be the final budget and police Council Tax precept set by West Yorkshire Police Authority (WYPA), as it will be abolished and replaced by an elected Police and Crime Commissioner from 22 November 2012. Summary: There will be no increase to the annual police Council Tax precept. Band D households will continue to pay 130.50 per year for policing during the coming year ( 2.51 per week). 64 per cent of residents are in Bands A and B and will continue to pay 87 and 101.50 respectively ( 1.67 and 1.95 per week).
Budget 2011/2012 2012/2013 000 000 Gross Expenditure 509,169 492,364 Council Tax Requirement 89,035 89,536 Difference 420,134 402,828 Made up of: Income (including specific grants) 71,676 73,634 Government Formula Grant 343,535 322,735 Use of Balances 4,700 7,000 Collection Fund Surplus (Deficit) 223 (541) 420,134 402,828 As the police authority has agreed to accept the Government s Council Tax Freeze Grant for 2012/13, gross expenditure has been reduced to reflect the overall available funding. The increase in Council Tax requirement reflects an increase in the number of households in the county, but the police Council Tax is unchanged at 130.50 for a Band D property. For more detailed information, visit our web site at www.wypa.org or contact: Fraser Sampson, Chief Executive and Solicitor, West Yorkshire Police Authority, Ploughland House, 62 George Street, Wakefield, WF1 1DL. Telephone (01924) 294000 or e-mail ed@wypa.pnn.police.uk 101 Easy to remember, easy to call. 101 is now the number to call to contact the police when it s not an emergency. The service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All calls to 101 cost 15 pence, even from a mobile, and no matter what time of day or how long the call. If you are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired you can textphone 18001 101. For more information visit www.westyorkshire.police.uk Remember, in an emergency always call 999.
At your service - West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Authority Authority warns of major change The fire authority has decided to freeze its precept for 2012/13, which means that local ta xpayers will have nothing extra to pay for their fire and rescue service next year. A one-off central government grant of 1 million, alongside continued non-recruitment, will enable the authority to balance its books. The grant effectively buys us time to complete a major re-structuring of front-line and support services which should begin this spring and be complete by April 2013. More than 150 posts have already been shed through retirements and voluntary severance so far but the review is likely to lead to significantly more. Where possible, we will try to ensure that these changes do not affect our basic emergency fire and rescue capability, but it would be quite wrong to pretend that the savings we may be forced to make will be palatable or painless. Unfortunately, despite ministers promising to work with metropolitan fire and rescue authorities to improve the national funding formula which has proved so savagely discriminating against areas like West Yorkshire, the medium-term financial forecast remains bleak with potential budget cuts of 9.7 million in 2013/14 and 12.7 million in 2014/15. That is why the re-structuring exercise is so important in preparing us for what may be to come. We will share all the information and options available to us over the coming months. Brigade leadership Councillor David Ridgway, CHAIR West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Authority West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority is responsible for the funding and strategic direction of the county s fire and rescue service. The organisation is managed by Chief Fire Officer/Chief Executive Simon Pilling. Simon Pilling Chief Fire Officer/Chief Executive
2012/2013 Revenue Budget What will the Fire and Rescue Authority cost 2011/12 2012/13 Per Head 000 000 Gross expenditure 93,172 91,969 Less income -4,273-3,830 88,899 88,139 Less contribution from reserves -839 Budget Requirement 88,060 88,139 38.35 Less Revenue Support Grant -12,328-997 -0.43 Less Redistributed Non-Domestic Rates -39,886-51,402-22.37 Proportion of Collection Fund Surpluses/Deficits -89 217 0.09 Council Tax Requirement 35,757 35,957 15.64 What are the changes from last year 2012/13 000 Standstill brought forward 88,060 Inflation 1,244 Government grants 125 Less changes in quantity or quality of service -2,326 Difference in fees and charges 197 Changes in use of reserves 839 Budget Requirement 88,139 For FREE fire safety advice visit www.westyorksfire.gov.uk
At your service - Metro Metro - Putting the Passenger First 2012/2013 Metro co-ordinates the provision and development of transport on behalf of the 2.2 million people of West Yorkshire. Although Metro has already made significant reductions in a number of areas including its own accommodation and staffing costs, the central government squeeze on public spending means it is facing a further 9 million of budget reductions over the next two years. Metro has delivered the high standards of the other Passenger Transport Executives, at a lower cost with fewer staff, for some years, which makes finding these further savings more difficult. Among the initiatives to find savings, Metro is reviewing the 20 per cent of West Yorkshire bus journeys which it spends over 17 million funding each year because the bus companies don t consider them profitable. Metro believes those bus companies should bear more of the costs of these services and is carrying out a district by district analysis. Services in Bradford, Keighley and Wakefield have already been evaluated and consultations with passengers in Kirklees, Leeds, Calderdale and Wakefield City will take place during 2012. Metro has also had to make the difficult decision to change the rail fare through the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme to a half fare, although over 60s and disabled people still enjoy free off-peak bus travel throughout England. Despite the challenges it faces, Metro will continue to lead the way in transport developments. These include new stations at Apperley Bridge, Kirkstall Forge and Low Moor, enhancing information provision for passengers, improvements to stations across West Yorkshire, working to introduce smartcard ticketing and making sure the county s transport network is ready for high-speed rail when it arrives. More information about Metro s services can be found at www.wymetro.com Councillor James Lewis Chairman, Metro Kieran Preston OBE Director General, Metro
Funding of Transport 2012/13 Budget 2011/12 2012/13 m m Gross expenditure 207.0 210.4 Budget requirement 169.6 172.9 (gross expenditure minus income) Where the money comes from Government grants 72.1 75.4 Transport levy 97.5 97.5 Other 37.4 37.5 How your money will be spent in 2011/12 75.4m - Rail support 50.1m - Concessionary fares 29.0m - Prepaid tickets 22.3m - Subsidised and Accessbus services 13.7m - Passenger services 10.5m - Development and other support 8.0m - Financing and contingency 1.4m - Pensions More information is available on the Authority's website: www.wyita.gov.uk All information and/or documents will be provided in braille, large type or another language on request. You can learn more about Metro from its website at www.wymetro.com. To use yournextbus to find out when your bus will arrive, simply text your bus stop number - beginning 450 - to 63876, which spells METRO. West Yorkshire Integrated Transport Authority, Wellington House, 40-50 Wellington Street, Leeds LS1 2DE
Environment Agency Yorkshire and North East Region The Environment Agency has powers in respect of flood and coastal erosion risk management for 2,292 km of main river and along tidal and sea defences in the area of the Yorkshire Regional Flood and Coastal Committee. Money is spent on the construction of new flood defence schemes, the maintenance of the river system and existing flood defences together with the operation of a flood warning system and management of the risk of coastal erosion. The financial details are:- Yorkshire Regional Flood and Coastal Committee 2011/2012 2012/2013 000s 000s Gross expenditure 32,894 43,708 Levies raised 1,500 1,750 Total Council Tax Base 1,573 1,580 The majority of funding for flood defence comes directly from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). However, under the new Partnership Funding rule not all schemes will attract full central funding. To provide matching funding the Agency may seek funding from County and Metropolitan Councils, Unitary Authorities and London Boroughs in the form of a Local Levy. The Local Levy is shared on the basis of Band D equivalents between all contributing bodies within the Committee Area. Changes in the gross budgeted expenditure between the years reflect the impact of the Government Spending Review and national prioritisation of capital projects. The total Local Levy raised has increased by 17 per cent. The total Local Levy raised has increased from 1,500,000 in 2011/12 to 1,750,000 for 2012/13.
Contact us: For any information regarding your Business Rate account: Visit our website at www.leeds.gov.uk Where you can also: Make a payment View details of your account including your current balance Register to receive all future Business Rate accounts electronically Download application forms for all Business Rate Reliefs e-mail: business.rates@leeds.gov.uk Telephone: 0113 247 6983 Fax: 0113 247 5874 Write to: Revenues Service, Business Rates, PO Box 60, Leeds LS2 8JR Enquiries about rateable value The council uses the rateable value provided by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) to work out your Business Rates bill. You can check your rateable value, see how it has been calculated, compare it with others, and submit an appeal on the VOA website at www.voa.gov.uk/valuation You can also write to them at: The Valuation Officer, Non Domestic Rates North East, Valuation Office Agency, Cathedral Court, Second Floor, 1 Vicar Lane, Sheffield, S1 1HD Telephone 03000 501 501 All photographs supplied by Creative Services, Leeds City Council 0113 247 8083 0113 24 33 888 ignitedesign.co.uk