Clive Betts – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Betts on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how he plans that the section 31 grant to compensate councils for the extension of small business rate relief will be funded.

Mr Marcus Jones

By raising £8 billion through a package of measures to counter tax avoidance and aggressive tax planning by multinational enterprises, Government has been able to announce in the Budget a £6.7 billion reduction in business rates. This is the biggest ever cut in business rates in England. The funding for these section 31 grants was provided for in Budget 2016 through the Budget scorecard (lines 15-17). This additional funding is included in the DCLG Local Government DEL budget figures on page 91 of the Budget Report.