To ask the Minister of Finance and Personnel, pursuant to AQW 44941/11-15, whether the non-domestic rates revaluation was intended to support the regeneration of town centres: and to detail the number of non-domestic properties in (i) Coleraine, (ii) Limavady (iii) Portstewart and (iv) Portrush, that had rates increases as a result of Reval2015.

The purpose of a revaluation is not to support the regeneration of town centres but to re-distribute the overall rate burden in a fairer way. This is achieved at a revaluation by following the market and using up to date rental information when assessing the new Net Annual Values (NAVs) at the statutory valuation date.

Land & Property Services analysed market rental information for the towns of Coleraine, Limavady, Portrush and Portstewart and established the new NAVs based on this market evidence. The outcome has resulted in both reductions and increases in the NAVs at all of these locations.

It is not possible to provide the precise information of rate increases as requested, given that the amount of rates changed as a result of regional and district rate poundages, reliefs, exemptions, rate convergence and other factors, and not just Reval 2015. Table 1 compares the change in Net Annual Values (NAVs) at the end of 2014-15, compared to the NAVs in the new Valuation List on 1st April 2015. An increase in NAV, however, did not always result in an increase in rate liability.

Table 1: NAV Changes

Note: the old wards shown below have been used to define the town centre:

Limavady: Roeside and Rathbrady Wards

Coleraine: Central, Mountsandel and Waterside Wards

Portrush: Royal Portrush Ward

Portstewart: Portstewart Ward