The Committee considered a report by the Revenues and Benefits Manager (circulated previously) regarding the Rural Settlement Scheme.

The Head of Customer Focus highlighted the following:

·       This was an annual report and the list of settlements had not changed for a number of years.

·       Part 1 Schedule 1 of the Local Government Finance Act 1997 made provision for the allowance of mandatory and/or discretionary relief from Non-Domestic Rates for certain properties situated within designated rural areas.

·       Rural settlements were settlements with a population of less than 3,000 within the boundaries of a rural area as set out under the provision of Section 41A of the Local Government Finance Act 1988.

·       The Authority was required to compile a list of rural settlements for the purpose of the Rural Rate Relief scheme which helped qualifying businesses within the rural settlement.

In response to questions from the Committee, the Head of Customer Focus advised the following:

·       That she would share the wording of the definition of a rural settlement as set out in the Section 41A of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 with the Committee.

·       The Rural Settlement was the boundary of the settlement and not the parish boundary.

In response to a question from the Committee, the Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive advised that the Council was recompensed by the Government for the business rate relief through Government funding.

RESOLVED that the rural settlements listed in the appendix of the report be approved for the purposes of Rural Rate Relief.