To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether firms which are in arrears in their business rate payments will be eligible for the business rate deferral scheme. (284008)

Ratepayers in arrears can be granted deferral by billing authorities. However, in cases where a ratepayer has been noticed by their billing authority that they have lost the right to make payments by instalment and that therefore their whole liability has become due, the billing authority can deny them deferral. This will be set out in regulation.

Billing authorities will have discretion to enter into special payment arrangements with businesses facing financial difficulties, of which the deferral scheme should be seen as an additional tool.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent estimate he has made of the rate of take-up of small business rate relief amongst eligible firms; and on what assumptions on take-up made in the 2008-09 financial year the increase in the multiplier for business rates for medium-sized and large firms was based. (284081)

The number of properties reported by local authorities as claiming small business rate relief as at 31 December 2006 was 392,000.

Local authorities reported that they granted £723 million small business rate relief between 1 April 2005 and 31 March 2008. They expect to grant a further £570 million of relief in 2008-09 and 2009-10.

We have made no recent estimate of the overall take-up rate of Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) as data are not held on the number of firms that are eligible. We asked local authorities to estimate numbers of businesses that were eligible for SBRR in the annual national non-domestic rate return. We are examining these data to assess their quality before making a decision whether they are suitable for publication. Meanwhile, we are working to see if we can establish an estimate for take-up using previous research in this area.

Small business rate relief is funded by a supplement on the multiplier paid by those firms not receiving the relief. In 2008-09, an assumption was made that there would be a small increase in the number of ratepayers receiving the relief, following a change in legislation in 2008-09 allowing ratepayers to apply just once for the relief in each revaluation period.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate he has made of the expected take-up rate of the partial deferment scheme for increases in business rates. (284084)

An assessment of the impact of the deferral scheme will be published alongside the regulations when they are laid in Parliament in July.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether the proposed business rate partial deferment scheme will provide for refunds to businesses which have paid more than 40 per cent. of the value of the 2009-10 rate increase. (284175)

The deferral scheme will enable businesses to defer payment of 60 per cent. of the annual RPI increase in their 2009-10 rates bill—and, where applicable, 60 per cent. of any increase due to the end of the 2005 transitional relief scheme—until 2010-11 and 2011-12. Regulations implementing the scheme will be brought into force by the end of July.

It does not matter whether ratepayers have already paid, through monthly instalments, a certain portion of their 2009-10 rates bills when the scheme comes into force. All ratepayers with outstanding 2009-10 rates liabilities will be able to defer the amounts set out above (or their entire outstanding liability if that is a lesser amount). The deferred amount will be deducted from their remaining 2009-10 instalment payments.

The Government do not have the power to make the regulations apply retrospectively, so billing authorities will not be able to provide refunds to any ratepayers who have chosen to pay their 2009-10 rates liabilities in full instead of exercising their right to pay by instalments.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate he has made of the average business rate bill in (a) 2008-09 and (b) 2009-10 in England. (284506)

The average non-domestic rates bill in England is estimated as £11,357 in 2008-09 and £12,145 in 2009-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 8 June 2009, Official Report, columns 754-55W, on non-domestic rates, what the amount of costs associated with implementing deferral of business rate payments is in Table C11 of the 2009 Financial Statement and Budget Report within the departmental expenditure limit for his Department. (285076)

The net additional costs to local government as a whole associated with implementing the business rates deferral scheme will be fully funded in accordance with the Government's policy on new burdens. We have estimated those costs to be approximately £5.8 million. The costs will be found from the existing 2009-10 CLG Local Government Departmental Expenditure Limit of £25.6 billion, as set in Column 3 of Table C11.