Complete Non-Residential / Business Property Rates Data
Dear Stockton on Tees 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 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 this as machine-readable as either a CSV or Microsoft Excel file, capable of re-use, and under terms of the Open Government Licence.
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 I intend to update this national series every three months. Could I request that - as more than 51% of local authorities already 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.
Thank you and kind regards
Gavin Chait
This email was classified as : OFFICIAL
Dear Gavin Chait
Freedom of Information Act 2000 / Environmental Information Regulations 2004 – Ref: 0425/1718
Thank you for your correspondence received on 12 July 2017.
Your request is being considered under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (whichever is most appropriate). You will receive the information requested within the statutory timescale of 20 working days.
However, please note the Acts define a number of exemptions that may prevent release of the requested information. There will therefore be an assessment of your request to determine if any exemptions apply to the information requested. If the information cannot be released, or only released in part you will be informed of the reasons why, together with any rights of appeal.
If the information requested refers to a third party, they may be consulted before deciding whether it can be released.
Yours sincerely,
Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council
Municipal Buildings, Church Road, Stockton-on-Tees, TS18 1LD
(01642) 527455
[Stockton on Tees Council request email]
www.stockton.gov.uk
This email was classified as : OFFICIAL
Dear Gavin Chait
Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Ref: 0425/1718
Thank you for your correspondence received on 12 July 2017. In response to
your request I can now provide the following information.
Q1.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 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)
A1. Please see the attached spread sheet with the information you have
requested. However, please note the following:-
Details, including the address, have not been provided for sole traders,
private individuals or partnerships as this is considered to be personal
information and is exempt from disclosure under Section 40 of the Freedom
of Information Act 2000
The liability start date has not been provided by reference to section 12
of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. There are no system reports that
will extract this date at this point in time and to provide it would be a
manual process. Each property on the list would need to be manually
checked on the computer system to find the relevant date and this date
would then need to be manually entered on the spread sheet. This process
is estimated to take 80 seconds for each of the 4017 properties listed. It
is estimated that this would take longer than 18 hours at £25.00 per hour
and therefore the cost of locating, retrieving and collating the
information would exceed the “appropriate limit” of £450 as stated in the
Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004 . The
period start date of any empty period has been provided.
If you have any queries or concerns please contact me in the first
instance.
However, if you are unhappy with the way your request for information has
been handled, you can submit a complaint to [1][Stockton on Tees Council request email]
If, after your complaint has been determined, you remain dissatisfied with
the handling of your request or complaint, you have a right to appeal to
the Information Commissioner at:
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Telephone: 0303 123 1113 Website:
[2]www.ico.org.uk.
The ICO does not make a charge for an appeal.
Yours sincerely,
Helen Hodgson
Customer Relations and Information Governance Assistant
Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council
Municipal Buildings, Church Road, Stockton-on-Tees, TS18 1LD
(01642) 527455
[3][Stockton on Tees Council request email]
[4]www.stockton.gov.uk
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