Complete Non-Residential / Business Property Rates Data (Q1 2020)

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Hastings Borough Council should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear Hastings Borough Council,

In terms of the Freedom of Information Act of 2000, and subject to section 40(2) on personal data, could you please provide me with a complete and up-to-date list of all business (non-residential) property rates data for your local authority, and including the following fields:

- Billing Authority Property Reference Code (linking the property to the VOA database reference)
- Firm's Trading Name (i.e. property occupant)
- Full Property Address (Number, Street, Postal Code, Town)
- Occupied / Vacant
- Date of Occupation / Vacancy
- Actual annual rates charged (in Pounds)

If you are unable to provide an absolute “Occupation / Vacancy” status, please provide the Exemptions and / or Reliefs that a particular property may be receiving.

Please provide these data as machine-readable as either a CSV or Microsoft Excel file, capable of re-use, and under terms of the Open Government Licence (meaning reuse for any and all purposes, including commercial).

I last requested this data three months ago, and this is a request for an updated and current dataset.

I'm sure you get many requests for business rates and responding and managing these FOIs must be costly for you. Could I request that - as 71% of local authorities now do - you update and release this dataset via a dedicated page on your local authority website or on an open data service. I can recommend approaches for you to consider, and you should find that this reduces the time and cost of this request process.

Yours faithfully,

Gavin Chait

Information Officer, Hastings Borough Council

1 Attachment

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request.
 
We aim to respond to requests for information within 20 working days, in
accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act. 
 
COVID-19 and Freedom of Information requests.
In light of the unprecedented challenge the Council is facing during the
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic there may be delays in responding to your
Freedom of Information Request. Please bear with us as we focus on meeting
this challenge, and serving the needs of our community.
 
If your request is for personal information (Subject Access request) your
request will be dealt with according to the requirements of the General
Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the timescale for response may be
extended to 40 days.
 
You can find out more information about [1]Freedom of Information as well
as all of the services the council provides on [2]our website.
 
Information Officer
Hastings Borough Council
01424 451066
[3]www.hastings.gov.uk
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Information Officer, Hastings Borough Council

Dear Mr Chait

Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to your Freedom of Information request ref: FOIR-193946350 Subject: Non residential Business Rates

In response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19), the Government announced there would be support for small businesses, and businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors. This support takes the form of two grant funding schemes the local authority must administer (the Small Business Grant Fund and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund). Officers from our business rates team are currently working hard dealing with the claims for both these funds which take priority.

We will respond as soon as were are able.

Yours sincerely
Lisa Greathead
Information Officer

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