Matt is Head of Corporate Finance at Westminster City Council and has worked in this role for the last five years. From 2001 until taking up that role he was Finance Manager for the Council’s Property Department. Prior to working at Westminster he has held various accounting positions across a number of London boroughs, district councils and private practice.

Westminster City Council is the largest collector of business rates in the country – collecting around £1.8bn per year from the 36,000 businesses in its area (over 7.5% of England’s total and around double that collected across Wales). In 2010, Westminster saw average increases in rateable values of 62% - significantly higher than the 20% national average.

High property prices and significant increases at revaluation place particular and unique pressures on Westminster City Council in terms of business rate appeals. To date we have had to consider the impact on our finances of 35,000 appeals being lodged against the 2010 List and expect similar levels over the life of the 2017 List. The value of refunds made against determined appeals has so far totalled over £300m – 30% of which has fallen as a cost to the Council following localised business rates.

Because of the importance of business rates to the council, Matt has spent considerable time analysing and forecasting business rate positions has sat on several national working groups examining various aspects of localised business rate retention and its accounting arrangements.