The local government finance settlement has descended into a shambles after it emerged allocations in the provisional document were wrong, The MJ can exclusively reveal.
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) officials are understood to be furious after they were told that data provided to them by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) was wrong.
The errors are understood to relate to the data used to calculate the top up or tariff that councils pay into or receive from the national business rates retention scheme.
Today the VOA, which has had its capacity slashed in recent years, updated tables it first published in October that it said used an 'improved methodology to identify rateable properties on the 2017 Rating List at 1 April 2017'.