Scarborough Council to retain nearly £1m from business rates growth cash that would have gone to central government
Scarborough Council is set to benefit to the tune of £900,000 from a new business rates initiative.
The council, along with other authorities in North and West Yorkshire, will be part of a Government pilot scheme which will see the council retain 75% of business rates growth from next year.
Currently, councils retain 50% of growth monies collected.
The new policy was included in the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement 2019-2020 announced on Thursday by The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
As part of the scheme, the North and West Yorkshire bid are predicted to generate £19m in 2019/20, with a third of the money raised pooled. The rest then goes to individual councils.
Nick Edwards, Scarborough Council’s finance director, said: “In relation to Scarborough Borough Council specifically, the projections show that the council will retain an additional £900,000 income from business rates pooling in 2019/20, which would otherwise have been paid back to central Government.”
The authorities within the region could stand to gain up to £22.6m from the scheme.
Mr Edwards added: “In addition, the council will have a say, alongside other pool members, as to how the monies retained by the pool are allocated.”