Debate contribution: Unpaid Rates

Debate contribution by Ms Diane Forsythe on 21 October 2025.

MLA

Ms Diane Forsythe

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

21 October 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Unpaid Rates

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5197665

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. Rates are the main lever that the Northern Ireland Executive have to raise revenue. The rates bill is well known to every home and business across the Province. It is a necessary pain to all, in that it is required by law to be paid to bring in around £1·5 billion a year to pay for public services. A great deal of effort goes into valuing homes, setting rates bills and determining policies on relief. After the bills are set, taxpayers in Northern Ireland expect Land and Property Services to make every effort to collect everything that is owed to the Government. However, the figures on rate collection continue to be disappointing, with £18 million of unpaid rates written off in 2024-25. That brings the total amount of unpaid rates that have been written off in the past six years up to £82 million. That is a terrible statistic that requires urgent action. Departments are operating within highly constrained budgets, with huge financial pressures on our public services. Even a small proportion of the unpaid rates that are not recovered by LPS could be used to fund projects and maintenance across the country. It is unfair that law-abiding people pay their rates whilst others fail to pay and have their slates wiped clean. As of September 2025, LPS reported that the amount of rates arrears carried forward was £145·4 million. The Finance Minister reported that £73·6 million of that is still being examined for potential legal action. It must be asked of the Minister and LPS why it is deemed acceptable to deprioritise recovering almost half of the total unpaid rates in Northern Ireland to date. People are clearly struggling to pay the rates bills that they already face. Businesses are closing and many sectors are on their knees. The DUP is committed to delivering for hard-pressed working families in Northern Ireland and has demonstrated that time and again. As we continue to support the squeezed middle, who are trying their best to pay their rates, it is unfair that the Finance Minister seems to think that the only way in which financial pressures can be met is by raising the rates cap and ending the early-payment discount. Those measures will increase the burden on many households and punish those who sensibly make preparations to pay their rates each spring, whilst turning a blind eye to those who are not paying the rates that have already been billed to them. That is a concerning message to the public and leaves many frustrated. Uncollected rates debt is a barrier to us maximising the funding that is available for vital public services in Northern Ireland. It is welcome that the vast majority of rates are collected on time by LPS. However, the commitment by LPS to see 93% of the total rates bill being successfully collected is frustrating. The target should be 100% always, or, at the very least, as close to it as possible. Why would you not target full collection of the bills that you have calculated using such a comprehensive method? Why would you not choose to show the public that you are committed to achieving full collection and set an aspirational target? For example, in the 2024-25 financial year, when the target was 93% collection, if the total rates charged and due were calculated to be approximately £1·5 billion, setting out with a 93% target collection rate meant that £105 million was already expected to not be collected. What sort of tone does that set? We need to pause and look at the significant values. We see write-offs of £82 million, huge arrears of £145 million and, operationally, we begin the year expecting to fail to collect in the region of £105 million. Those numbers are huge. Think of those, and then of the financial pressures that we see facing the Northern Ireland Budget. What would those tens and hundreds of millions of pounds do for our public services or for people? We are under no illusions that, in the current economic climate, many hard-working people, families and businesses right across Northern Ireland are encountering challenges in paying their rates. We are not unsympathetic to those concerns, but for those who repeatedly or wilfully fail to meet their obligations to be effectively let off the hook, sends out a message that we should not send to the thousands of hard-working ratepayers across Northern Ireland. The collection of rates should be on a level playing field, with every household and business treated fairly and equitably. We call on the Minister of Finance to tangibly increase the target figure for gross collectable rates, the system for which is operated by Land and Property Services. We also call on the Minister to present a range of new and concrete proposals to reduce the level of rates that are unpaid or written off over the next five years to address people's key concerns. Those include: can the Finance Minister provide evidence that his rate recovery action plan is working; will he commit to increasing the number of cases that are pursued through the courts; has he any plans to review the current criteria for write-offs; and does he intend to benchmark future collection targets against those in other jurisdictions? I also ask how the Minister will ensure that there is regional balance in unpaid rates recovery, given that, in some constituencies, the level of unpaid rates arrears appears disproportionate to the size of the population and, in others, the reduction in arrears has been stagnant. The collection of rates in every corner of Northern Ireland should be on a level playing field, with every household and every business treated fairly and equitably. I welcome the Minister's progression of the strategic review of the rates system in Northern Ireland. It is long overdue. We need to see a common-sense approach to how individuals and businesses are charged rates. The people of Northern Ireland deserve a fair system. I look forward to seeing how a difference will be made to many people and the economy here. However, a 10-year span is too slow. We need to see change now, or there will be no businesses left open in some sectors. Strong voices from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), Retail NI, Hospitality Ulster, Community Pharmacy and many more are shouting loudly about how the rates that they are charged impede their trading or how they operate, and it is devastating for them. We tabled the motion to note our serious concern about the high levels of unpaid rates that are written off or sit as arrears and call on the Finance Minister to take action now, as we in the DUP continue to support the hard-pressed middle, who are trying their best to pay their rates. The Finance Minister's approach to tackling the financial pressures is unfair as it continues to increase rates bills for some, while appearing to turn a blind eye to others who are not paying their rates bills. It is time that we saw a change. I commend the motion to the House.

1,192 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:33 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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