Rates & Planning

Havering’s Planning Service
Regulatory Services is an outward looking and helpful service within London Borough of Havering that seeks to harness development opportunities, support businesses, protect the public and improve the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of the area by ensuring development takes place in a sustainable manner.

A pre-application advice service is offered by the service which actively encourages applicants, developers and their agents to engage with them, particularly on major or complex development proposals. A formal process exists for advice on certain categories of development but for smaller developments and householder works, a less formal level of advice is offered.

Pre-application advice can be very useful in indicating whether proposed developments are likely to be acceptable, or what changes might make them acceptable in planning terms. The committee is focused on providing a helpful service and enquiries are readily invited. Haverings Business Portal has access to information from running an independent business from home to planning applications and regulations.

Click here to visit the planning pages of the London Borough of Havering website. http://www.havering.gov.uk/Pages/Category/Planning.aspx

Business Rates in Havering
Business rates or non-domestic rates (NDR) are a property tax paid on non-domestic properties. Businesses and other users of non-domestic property contribute towards the costs of local authority services through business rates.

Historically, the money collected from business rates was paid to Central Government who would pool the money and then redistribute amongst local authorities. However, from April 2013, under the ‘Business Rates Retention’ arrangements, authorities now keep a proportion of the business rates paid locally, so effectively some of the money is kept within the borough.

The money, together with revenue from council tax payers, funds from the revenue support grant provided by the Government and certain other sums, is used to pay for the services provided by the local authority.

Any occupier of a non-domestic property, whether an individual or a company, will usually be responsible for paying the business rates on that property.

Rates are calculated by multiplying the rateable value of the property by an appropriate ‘multiplier’ which is specified by the Secretary of State for the Department for Communities and Local Government. The rateable value is set by the Valuation Office Agency, an executive arm of the Inland Revenue.

The table below shows comparison of rateable values in Havering and London

GLA: London dash board, Commercial and Industrial Floor space – Ratable Value Statistics, Feb 2013

https://www.havering.gov.uk/Pages/Category/Business-rates.aspx