Rates are a property tax that you pay to provide the funding needed to improve and finance public services. Your annual rates bill is made up of two parts, the Regional Rate and the District Rate. Rates are collected by the Land and Property Services (Rating), which passes on the District Rate to the Council and the regional rates portion to government departments. The value of your property is assessed by the Land and Property Services (Valuation).

Regional Rate
The Regional Rate is set by central government (Department of Finance and Personnel) and is the same for each council area in Northern Ireland. The Regional Rate helps fund services such as agriculture and rural development, education, employment and learning, health, roads, housing, water and sewerage and personal social services.

District Rate
The District Rate is set by Banbridge District Council and is based upon the estimated cost of providing local services, including refuse collection, recycling, street cleansing, tourism, arts and civic events, leisure facilities, community centres, playing fields and parks, environmental health, dog control, building control, economic development, public conveniences, cemeteries and much more. It also covers new developments and improvements in facilities.

Rates Expenditure for 2013/14
The Council works effortlessly to develop all of its core service areas without imposing large rate increases upon local ratepayers. This year the Council has once again successfully maintained a balance between continuing to deliver a better and higher level of service within a below inflation rate level. On 4 February 2013, the Council set the District Rate for the new financial year commencing on 1st April 2013 until 31st March 2014 at 27.8807 pence and 0.3706 pence for non-domestic and domestic property respectively, a rise of 2.21% on the previous year. This will be funded by the District Rate, central government grants and fee income from service users. The Council works on many capital projects in partnership with other agencies and obtains grants where possible to help fund these.

Service	Spend in £
Leisure and Community Services	3,942,000
Tourism and Cultural Facilities	849,000
Refuse Collection/Disposal and Street Cleaning	3,547,000
Environmental Health and Dog Control	813,000
Burial Grounds	149,000
Public Conveniences	130,000
Building Regulations	238,000
Property and Minor Works	227,000
Democratic Representation	451,000
Corporate Management	360,000
Economic Development	584,000
Other Expenditure	46,000
Loan Charges	2,474,000
Total	13,810,000

Where does the Council get the money it spends?
Our income comes from four sources: the District Rate money collected from you (74%), specific grant (3%), general grant from the Department of the Environment (10%), service users who pay for the use of Council facilities and services such as leisure centres and building control (13%).

How does the Council spend this money?
Our income is split across three key areas: running expenses (43%), employees (42%) and capital financing costs (15%).