Explanatory note

These Regulations make amendments to secondary legislation in consequence to amendments made by the Local Government Finance (Wales) Act 2024 (“the 2024 Act”) to the Local Government Finance Act 1988 (“the 1988 Act”) and the Local Government Finance Act 1992 (“the 1992 Act”). They also make other amendments which are not consequential to the 2024 Act and revoke statutory instruments or omit provisions which no longer have effect.

These Regulations comprise three Parts.

Part 1 sets out the title, application and coming into force provisions.

Part 2 (which consists of regulations 2 to 22) comes into force on 16 November 2024, to coincide with the coming into force of the provisions in the 2024 Act to which they relate, or in the case of provisions which no longer have effect, to remove them from the statute book at the earliest convenience.

Regulations 2 to 5, 8 and 12 to 21 ensure that the relevant statutory instruments make reference to new sections 41ZA and 52ZA of the 1988 Act (as appropriate), which deal with the compilation and maintenance of local and central non-domestic rating lists in relation to Wales.

Regulations 6, 7, 9 and 10 relate to council tax valuation lists. Regulation 6 amends regulation 6 of the Council Tax (Situation and Valuation of Dwellings) Regulations 1992 to ensure that dwellings in Wales will continue to be valued by reference to the correct dates when new valuation lists are compiled. Regulation 7 ensures that the provisions in the Council Tax (Contents of Valuation Lists) Regulations 1992 apply to valuation lists compiled under the new provisions in section 22B of the 1992 Act (as inserted by the 2024 Act) in addition to valuation lists compiled under sections 22 and 22A of the 1992 Act in relation to Wales. Regulation 9 amends the Council Tax (Demand Notices) (Wales) Regulations 1993 to ensure that the appropriate provisions of the 1992 Act are referred to. Regulation 10 amends the Local Authorities (Calculation of Council Tax Base) (Wales) Regulations 1995 in consequence of the new duties on billing authorities introduced by the 2024 Act in relation to depositing and keeping council tax valuation lists.

Regulation 11 omits articles 5 and 10 of the Local Government Reorganisation (Wales) (Finance) (Miscellaneous Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Order 1996 (“the 1996 Order”) as they no longer have effect. Regulation 11 also amends article 6(8) of the 1996 Order by restating definitions for terms used in that provision previously contained in section 41A of the 1988 Act, which can no longer be applied as this section has been repealed by the 2024 Act.

Regulation 22 revokes the Non-Domestic Rating (Discretionary Relief) Regulations 1989 to remove constraints on the powers for billing authorities to award discretionary relief. It also revokes the Non-Domestic Rating (Demand Notices and Discretionary Relief) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2006 and the Rating Lists (Postponement of Compilation) (Wales) Order 2014 as they no longer have effect.

Part 3 (which consists of regulations 23 to 27) comes into force on 1 April 2025, to coincide with the coming into force of the provisions relating to charitable relief in section 6 and the multiplier in section 10 of the 2024 Act.

Regulation 23 amends regulation 3(2) of the Non-Domestic Rating (Collection and Enforcement) (Local Lists) Regulations 1989 to clarify that for the purposes of Part 2 of those Regulations, the conditions in section 43(1) or 45(1) of the 1988 Act will not be treated as fulfilled where the chargeable amount in respect of a hereditament is zero in accordance with paragraph 2 of Schedule 4ZB to the 1988 Act.

Regulation 24 amends the Non-Domestic Rating (Collection and Enforcement) (Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 1990 (“the 1990 Regulations”) to provide that, where there is more than one owner or occupier of a hereditament, the condition in paragraph 2(3) of Schedule 4ZB to the 1988 Act will be considered fulfilled even where only one of those joint owners or occupiers is a registered community amateur sports club. This aligns the position with that of charity or charity trustee ratepayers.

Regulation 25 omits paragraph 39 of Schedule 1 to the Government of Wales Act 2006 (Consequential Modifications and Transitional Provisions) Order 2007, which amended Part 1 of Schedule 7 to the 1988 Act. As Part 1 of Schedule 7 is omitted from the 1988 Act by the 2024 Act, the previous amendments made by paragraph 39 no longer have effect.

Regulation 26 amends the Non-Domestic Rating (Demand Notices) (Wales) Regulations 2017 to reflect the multiplier provisions in Schedule 7 to the 1988 Act as amended by the 2024 Act.

Regulation 27 omits regulation 7 of the Non-Domestic Rating (Miscellaneous and Consequential Amendments to Secondary Legislation) (Wales) Regulations 2024 to expressly revoke the amendment that regulation made to regulation 3(7) of the 1990 Regulations. The purpose of the amendment is to ensure that the provisions in regulation 3(7) of the 1990 Regulations only include amendments made in relation to England.

The Welsh Ministers’ Code of Practice on the carrying out of Regulatory Impact Assessments was considered in relation to these Regulations. As a result, it was not considered necessary to carry out a regulatory impact assessment as to the likely costs and benefits of complying with these Regulations.