The Non-Domestic Rates ( Designated Areas ) Regulations 2025, S.I. 2025/180, form part of the rates retention system. They allow local authorities to retain 100% rather than 50% of growth in business rates income in specified areas. They designate 6 areas, primarily in the East Midlands and the North East.

In the common situation of a house in MULTIPLE OCCUPATION where each of the bedrooms is ( 1 ) lockable and ( 2 ) EXCLUSIVELY OCCUPIED by a separate tenant, who shares the common parts, STANUSZEK v BUNYAN ( Listing Officer ) ( No 2 ) ( 2025 ) EWHC 255 ( Admin ) holds that each falls to be assessed for council tax purposes under the Local Government Finance Act 1992 as a SEPARATE DWELLING/hereditament. It is irrelevant that the tenants share the common areas of the house, which include a kitchen and a living room. A single hereditament cannot contain discrete parts occupied by different persons. “ Occupation “ of a space in rating law as defined by the Court of Appeal in JS LAING v KINGSWOOD ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE requires exclusive possession of that space. Applying the geographical WOOLWAY v MAZARS Supreme Court test on the identification of an hereditament each bedroom in the HMO was “ capable “ of being a separate and discrete hereditament, AND it was separately occupied.

In St BENEDICT’S LAND TRUST v KING’S LYNN & W NORFOLK BC (2024) EWHC 3118 (Ch) it is held that a claim about a local authority’s refusal of charitable relief in respect of an hereditament can be brought as a private law claim or by judicial review proceedings.

The Non-Domestic Rating ( Multipliers etc ) Bill makes provision for, and in connection with, the introduction of (1) higher multi[pliers for large hereditaments, and (2) lower multipliers for (i) retail, (ii) hospitality, and (ii) leisure hereditaments , in England.

Part 1 of the Local Government Finance ( Wales ) Act 2024 relates to Non-Domestic Rates. It amends in relation to Wales the Local Government Finance Act 1988. Part 2 of the Act relates to Council Tax. It amends in relation to Wales the Local Government Finance Act 19992. Part 3 contains general provisions.

In Z v MOORE (2024) UKUT 204 ( LC ) a business unit comprised both a warehouse and an office. It is held to be a single hereditament. The parts were not sef contained and were not severable. There was a single territorial block. The uunit was physically a single whole with a paramount occupier.

The Local Government ( Wales ) Bill has been passed. It reforms council tax and non-domestic rates in Wales.

In R ( HOWARD GARDENS MANCO LTD ) v FORMELA OSBORNE ( LISTING OFFICER ) ( 2024 ) EWHC 1112 ( Admin ) it is held that a council tax listing officer’s decision pursuant to the Local Government Finance Act 1992 to list each en suite bedroom in shared student accommodation flats in Cardiff separately, rather than to treat them as a single dwelling, was lawful. She had followed the Valuation Office Agency policy on aggregation of dwellings in multiple occupation, and had provided reasons justifying a departure from it.

The Non-Domestic Rating ( Designated Areas ) Regulations 2024, S.I. 2024/183, designate areas in England for the purpose of local retention of non-domestic rates pursuant to Section 59A of and para 39(1) of Schedule 7B to the Local Government Finance Act 1988,as inserted by the Local Government Finance Act 2012. The Regulations provide rules for calculating in respect of a billing authority in England all or part of whose area falls within a “ designated area “ the billing authority’s non-domestic rating income in respect of the designated area for a specified year, and the proportion of that income that is to be disregarded for the purposes of specified calculations under Schedule 7B.

The Chargeable Dwellings and Liability for Owners, SI 2023/1175,amend 1992 council tax measures (1) so that a house in multiple occupation is always treated as a single dwelling for the purposes of council tax in England and (2) to expand the prescribed class of houses in multiple occupation for which the owner, as opposed to the resident, is responsible for paying the council tax.