Domestic Rate Relief and Rate Support Schemes by District Council

These annual statistics show the number and amount of reliefs awarded to Domestic Properties by District Council and Rating Year.

The following Rate Relief and Support Schemes are included: Lone Pensioner Allowance, Disabled Person’s Allowance, Clergyman’s Allowance, Farmhouse Allowance, Housing Benefit and Rate Relief, Low Income Rate Relief, Maximum Capital Value Cap, Rate Rebate, Rating of Empty Homes.

Information on schemes along with qualifying criteria can be found via the following link:

[A guide to rates | nidirect](https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/campaigns/guide-rates)

Figures have been extracted from the Land and Property Services (LPS) General Ledger models as at 31st March for each rating year. The data represents a year-end snapshot and is not adjusted respectively.

Number of properties benefiting is the count of properties that received a Rate Relief/Support Scheme award during the rating year (where the value awarded was greater than £0.01). This measure differs from a count of properties currently in receipt of the Rate Relief/Support Scheme at a specific point in time. It also differs from the number of occupancies benefitting, where an occupancy represents the liable person, persons, business, or organisation at a property. Most Rate Relief/Support Schemes are applied at the occupancy level.

The ‘Amount’ represents the total value of relief or exemption for each property that benefited at any point during the rating year and therefore does not include any clawbacks for prior rating years.

The Number of Properties and Amount reflect all properties that benefitted at any point in the year, and some transactions may relate to earlier rating years. Mixed properties, a property that is a mix of Domestic and Non-Domestic, are included in these figures.

Some properties receive more than one Rate Relief/Support Scheme within a rating year.

Farmhouse Allowance have been identified as properties on the Valuation list that have 'Agricultural Allowance' noted as an adjustment. The Farmhouse Allowance amount has been estimated by calculating the reduction in Capital Value due to the allowance and multiplying by the domestic rate poundage for the rating year.

Housing Benefit and Rate Relief, includes Housing Benefit for Owner Occupiers and Housing Benefit for Private Tenants who have chosen to have the relief credited directly to their rate account (recipients that reside in Social Sector properties\* are not included).

Lone Pensioner Allowance (LPA) includes LPA for Owner Occupiers and LPA Private Rented Sector for Private Tenants who have chosen to have the allowance credited directly to their rate account (recipients that reside in Social Sector properties\* are not included).

Rate Rebate Scheme included Owner Occupier and Private Rented Sector (recipients that reside in Social Sector properties\* are not included).

Low Income Rate Relief includes Owner Occupier only (recipients that reside in Social Sector properties\* are not included).

\*Social Sector properties are where the ratepayer is the Northern Ireland Housing Executive or one of the registered Housing Associations.

\**Please note that the sum of amounts may not equal the total due to rounding.


Tags: Land and Property, Rates, support schemes
Organization: OpenDataNI