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14 Nov 08Changes To Beach Hut Charges
Borough of Poole is contacting beach hut tenants to explain important changes to the way they pay their rents.
HM Revenue & Customs 
is introducing a new system for collecting non-domestic rates for beach huts in 2009.
Currently, the council sends a single bill to each tenant covering both the fee for the annual beach hut licence and the non-domestic rates collected by HM Revenue & Customs. However, from next year, the fee will be broken into two separate bills. This is because the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) at HM Revenue & Customs wants to give an individual rating to each beach hut.
Poole has more than 1,100 beach huts from Sandbanks to Branksome Dene that will be affected by the changes. Borough of Poole is writing to its beach hut tenants to outline the new arrangements and explain how they can cut the cost of the HM Revenue & Custom rates bill by 50 per cent.
Cllr Peter Adams, Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Leisure and Culture, Borough of Poole, said: "We appreciate that these changes are not ideal and may appear confusing. However, HM Revenue & Customs has advised us of the new arrangements which are beyond the council's control and being introduced at other beach resorts in the UK.
"We hope to know soon when HM Revenue & Customs will begin individual assessments of our beach huts. To avoid any unnecessary confusion in the meantime, we are writing to our tenants to explain the changes and hope they will be able to claim a 50 per cent reduction on the rates element."
Until Poole's beach huts have been assessed, the council can only issue a bill for the annual licence fee. Bills were sent to tenants from November 10, along with a letter explaining the changes and how to claim the 50 per cent reduction.
HM Revenue & Customs' annual rate bill is expected to be an average of £400 per beach hut but the VOA has yet to confirm the actual rates. Tenants will be able to claim the 50 per cent reduction on this element from April 2009.
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