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Non-Domestic Rates: Advertising

Volume 497: debated on Wednesday 21 October 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether a billboard site with no poster is deemed to be an empty property for the purposes of empty property rates relief. (294100)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer previously given to the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill) on 11 February 2009, Official Report, columns 2065-066W.

The legal provisions on the rating of hereditaments where advertising rights are concerned are complex and the legal position will very much depend on the exact facts at play. However, in many cases it is the right to use a hoarding or other structure for advertising which is the hereditament and, therefore, which is rateable. In such circumstances that hereditament is considered occupied for rating purposes whether or not the advertising right is being exercised.