Debate contribution: Unpaid Rates

Debate contribution by Ms Claire Sugden on 21 October 2025.

MLA

Ms Claire Sugden

Party at the time

Independent

Date

21 October 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Unpaid Rates

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5197738

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Deputy Speaker. I prepared a speech that took the issue at face value, in that £145 million sits outside the system. When the general public hear that figure, they think of the debate that we had prior to this one and the £110 million that we are not paying in relation to the police data issue. They also think of the money required for the holiday pay claim and the millions that, the Health Minister says, we do not have in our budget to pay nurses. I appreciate, Minister, that it is not as easy as transferring money across Departments.

However, the public are trying to understand. They see that huge £145 million shortfall and are trying to understand: is it due to Stormont incompetence or does the fact that the system is just too bureaucratic — I mentioned that in my intervention to Mr Gaston — mean that it is almost not worth recovering it, because to recover it in an efficient way may cost more? That takes us into another conversation about how we collect rates and what the issues are, and even Linda Dillon's point about the fact that people simply cannot afford it. That, in itself, is an issue, because the rates system is one of the few ways in which Northern Ireland can raise its own revenue. As budgets get cut, as services seem to cost more and as public services haemorrhage money, we need to find it from somewhere. To be honest, the only way in which to do that is through rates and, ultimately, by increasing them. We can point to the successes of recent years and the money that has been brought in by Land and Property Services, but, ultimately, that has been because you are raising rates. I appreciate that we need rates, at local, council function level and at Northern Ireland function level, because we just do not have enough money to go across all services. I am a little bit concerned that that, in itself, is what is increasing our rates generally. We need to have an honest conversation about why the system is there and what it is for. Earlier, I mentioned that I have been in the Chamber for 10 years, and that we are talking about the same issues that we talked about a decade ago. Rates is one of those issues, particularly non-domestic rates. More often than not, any business that challenges its rates bill will win that appeal because the system is so convoluted that it cannot really justify itself, and LPS will probably have no option other than to agree with the appeal. I do not want to rehash what others have said: I am trying to be a bit more thoughtful about the contributions because they point to the general concerns around the system. We need to see reform. We need to look at what we are doing there. Maybe we need to look at other ways in which to raise revenue so that rates are not the only opportunity for us to get more money for the services that we all use. The person who cannot afford to pay their rates will not pay them, and will then go through a lengthy accountability process. I suspect that the Minister has regular conversations with the Minister of Justice about the challenges and pressures that the Enforcement of Judgments Office faces. Is that an issue as to why we are unable to collect rates better — that, again, the system is so bureaucratic and convoluted? We need to have an honest conversation. I admit that I came at this by seeing £145 million and saying, "Wow, that is a huge shortfall", particularly when we put it into the context of the many millions of pounds that we need for other services. Minister, I encourage you to look at the system as a whole and speak to your Executive colleagues about this. I expect that you will stand up and tell us all the reasons why that figure exists, and it may not be as simple as some of us would have assumed at the outset. However, the fact is that there is not enough money and our system is not efficient enough to address services in a way that can justify the figures that we have to present to the public.

730 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:35 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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