GeoPlace Launches Service to Help Councils Find and Keep Business Rates

GeoPlace has launched a new service to work with councils to provide a targeted report on properties missing from their business rates registers.

Most councils have a ratings shortfall, business rates that should be collected but for one reason or another aren’t. GeoPlace’s service will help councils identify these gaps in the collection of non-domestic rates, resulting in an improved ratings list for councils.

In October 2015, the Government announced its intention to enable local government to retain all business rates raised locally. At present, local government retains 50% of business rates locally and is working with central government on ways in which councils can be given greater control over their income going forward, the idea being to incentivise councils to grow their tax base by adopting pro-development planning practices supporting economic growth.

With its new service, GeoPlace uses its expertise in data mining and analytics to undertake an in-depth audit of council held data to strip out the ‘possibles’ and provide the ‘probables’ of properties missing from the business rates register. By returning a qualified list with minimal false positives, officer time is reduced during follow-up investigations.

“GeoPlace delivered a report which our business rates team readily accepted. This helped us to confirm confidence in our register as well as find the ‘needles in the haystack’ properties which were missing from our records.” said Simon Bleckly, Audit and Counter Fraud Officer at Salford City Council.