Business rates standards and performance

We are committed to continuous improvement, set ourselves challenging targets and monitor our performance on a regular basis. The following are the overall standards we aim to achieve, together with specific standards for business rates.

Overall service standards

• We aim to answer 95% of all telephone calls between 8:45 am and 5:15 pm, 80% of them within 15 seconds
• We aim to answer 95% of your letters within 10 working days
• When answering the telephone, we will give our name and the name of the section
• When answering correspondence, we will use language that is easy to read and understand and provide details of a named contact or contact point
• We will use customers' complaints, compliments and suggestions as a way of improving the service
• We aim to be fair, polite and helpful
• We aim to provide a level of service that meets our customers' needs, but if we make a mistake we will apologise and give priority to putting it right
• We will not make promises we cannot keep
• We will keep under continual review the training and development requirements of our staff

Business Rates service standards

• For 2011/12 we aim to collect 98.7% of the business rates due within the current year thereby achieving an above average collection rate in comparison with other local authorities
• We aim to process 90% of all applications for charitable and discretionary relief within 10 working days
• Where there has been a change of circumstances, for example you have moved business, we aim to send a bill within 10 working days of receiving all the relevant information in 90% of cases

There may be occasions during times of peak workload when we are not able to meet our aims. We aim to manage our resources as effectively as possible to keep such delays to a minimum. Our performance for 2010/11 is shown below.

Business rates performance 2010/11

• Business Rates collected 98.9%, against a target of 98.7%
• Direct debit take-up 56.81% (average over the year) of all payers against a target of 55%