OneSource (London Borough’s of Bexley, Havering and Newham)

Business rates maximisation

7 Incomplete applications

6 SME, 1 large

2 SME, 0 large

Summary of the work: Identify commercial properties in the London Borough of Bexley that are new, missing or have significant changes to them over 12 months ago and have not been identified by the local authority and for which LB Bexley has not submitted a Billing Authority Report.
Latest start date: Wednesday 1 April 2020
Expected contract length
Location: London
Organisation the work is for: OneSource (London Borough’s of Bexley, Havering and Newham)
Budget range

Why the work is being done: The business rates retention scheme, that was introduced in 2013-14, means that Councils bear a proportion of the real-terms change in business rates revenues in their areas. Therefore, Councils need to ensure that the rating list which is updated by the Valuation Office Agency is accurate to ensure the correct Business Rates are being levied.
Problem to be solved: To identify changes, new builds or missing commercial properties that may have a significant effect on the rating list.
Who the users are and what they need to do: Business Rates are levied by the local authority based upon the rateable value in the rating list which is set by the Valuation Office Agency and the multiplier rate set by central government annually. The revenue is collected by the local authority and a proportion is retained for funding local services.
Early market engagement
Any work that’s already been done
Existing team: The supplier will provide reports to the Business Rates team who are Capita, a contractor to the Council, to be agreed. Invoices will be sent to the Council for payment.
Current phase: Live

Address where the work will take place: Business Rates
Tourama House
17 Homesdale Road
Bromley, Kent
BR2 9LY
Working arrangements: Work remotely and send reports through to Business Rates that can be discussed by email or phone. Will need to agree which properties we will not be looking for updates on e.g. where business rates is covered by Small Business Rates Relief.
Security clearance: No system access required so not relevant.

Buyers will use the essential and nice-to-have skills and experience to help them evaluate suppliers’ technical competence.

Essential skills and experience: To identify any non domestic properties that are not assessed for Business Rates

To identify any non-domestic properties that are under-assessed due to, for example, alterations made to the property that are not reflected in its current assessment.

Report changes to the Valuation Office Agency and monitor them to ensure they are reflected in the Rating List

To subsequently record and monitor the additional Business Rates income achieved because of the rateable value change
Nice-to-have skills and experience

All suppliers will be asked to provide a written proposal.

How many suppliers to evaluate

Proposal criteria

Technical solution
Approach and methodology
How the approach or solution meets user needs
How the approach or solution meets your organisation’s policy or goal
Estimated timeframes for the work
How they’ve identified risks and dependencies and offered approaches to manage them
Team structure
Value for money

Cultural fit criteria

Payment approach

Fixed price

Additional assessment methods

Evaluation weighting

Technical competence

55%

Cultural fit

Price

40%

1. What is the budget for the work?: We have no specific budget to cover this service as we expect suppliers to submit proposals that are based on a percentage fee of the rateable value of properties identified, therefore we would not have a cap on what is ultimately paid.