Non-Domestic Rating Reform

The Finance Minister, Peter Robinson MP MLA has announced a rating revaluation of all non –domestic properties in Northern Ireland in 2010.

The decision to phase out industrial derating was announced in April 2003 following a public consultation exercise on the Review of Rating Policy in May 2002. Rates were re-introduced to the manufacturing sector from April 2005 but full rates will not become due until 1 April 2011.

A small business rate relief scheme was the subject of a policy proposals paper published in March 2005. As a result of the views expressed during the consultation, Government concluded that it was not the best time to introduce a scheme in Northern Ireland.

Occupiers of freight transport properties are entitled to 75% rate relief. It was introduced throughout the UK in 1929 but was removed in GB in 1963. The public consultation on Business Rate Reliefs published in 2005 proposed that freight transport relief should be retained at its current level for the time being.