Placing faith in the pilots

Neil Amin Smith
David Phillips

Published on 17 April 2018

In a new Municipal Journal article, David Phillips and Neil Amin-Smith discuss what the government might be hoping for from its business rates retention pilots and analyse the financial implications of the pilots for both pilot and non-pilot councils.

Government finances and spending
Local government finance

In this article we explore the implications of recent IFS findings that the 100% business rates retention pilots will cost £870m - even though the government said the policy would be 'cost neutral at the point of delivery'. We also discuss how much it will be possible to learn from the pilot schemes and whether the government may have had wider strategic objectives when setting the second wave of pilots up.