Clause 13
Business Rate Supplements Bill
6:30 pm
John Healey (Minister of State (Local Government), Department for Communities and Local Government; Wentworth, Labour)
I think that the circumstances of the property—the hon. Gentleman describes them as “habitable”—mean that it would not be eligible for empty property relief. I think he means that, as an empty property, it would not be liable for business rates rather than for the relief. I shall double check this, but essentially our approach is that if a property is liable for business rates and falls within the liability criteria for business rate supplement, the supplement follows the business rates liability. Therefore, if the empty property is no longer liable for business rates, it will no longer be liable for business rate supplement. We have tried throughout the Bill to follow a consistent principle, as I have explained to the Committee before, building the supplement on the basis of the business rates system and the liabilities in it.