Conservative Council wins the right to retain more more business rate income locally. 

In today’s Local Government Finance Settlement it was announced that Hertfordshire will be part of a second wave of councils to be part of the new business rate retention pilot.

Hertfordshire County Council joined together with the 10 district and borough councils and applied to be a Business Rates Retention Pilot area earlier this year. As a result of the successful application, Hertfordshire’s local authorities will now keep 75% of growth of local business rates, estimated to be worth £11.3m. Usually 50% of business rates growth would go to central government.The pilot will build upon successful local partnerships across the 11 Hertfordshire Councils including, for example, the Herts Property Partnership.

Being part of the pilot gives the 11 Hertfordshire councils a year’s head-start in preparing for the national roll-out of business rates retention policies, which are expected to be applied to all English local councils from April 2020.

David Williams, Leader of Hertfordshire County Council, said: “Being accepted into the pilot means that we are keeping an additional 25% of the growth of business rates within the county. This is expected to equate to an additional £11.3m which will be used to fund public services across Hertfordshire.

“Being one of 15 successful pilot applications is an endorsement of the strong partnership working we have across local government in Hertfordshire.”

“This pilot will provide us with a greater opportunity to support local businesses and invest in local growth, not least by allowing us to retain more of the benefits arising from future economic growth within the County.”