MORE than £1 million was doled out to businesses in Blackburn with Darwen after successful appeals against rates last year.

A total of £1.164m was forked out by Blackburn with Darwen Council, which is required to make provisions for refunding ratepayers who have successfully appealed against the rateable value of their properties.

But over the course of the year, the council also recouped £19.281m in non-domestic rates.

The council collects non-domestic rates for its area which are based on local rateable values (set by the Valuation Office) multiplied by a uniform business rate set by central Government.

There are two multipliers - the small business non-domestic rating multiplier, which is applicable to those that qualify for small business rate relief, and the non-domestic rating multiplier, which includes the supplement to pay for the small business rates relief scheme.

For 2017/18 the non-domestic rating multiplier was 47.9p compared to 49.7p for 2016/17, which was made up of a

small business rating multiplier of 46.6p plus a supplement of 1.3p.

The total non-domestic rateable value at March 31 2018 was £119,238,375, down from £128, 856,802 the previous year.

The reduction followed a full revaluation of business rates properties nationally and the issue of a new rating list (the 2017 list) by the Valuation Office with effect from April 2017.

Earlier this year, it was revealed the council failed to dole out more than 40 per cent of Government cash it was given to help businesses in the borough.

Last year, the council had more than £176,230 to distribute but it only gave out £102,144.79 in relief by April 1.

In total, £74,081.25 remained in the pot by the end of the financial year 2017/18 - a 42 per cent underspend.

The council gave cash to 149 businesses over the course of the year.

The four-year scheme, which began last year, could see successful applicants given cash to cover as much as 80 per cent of the increase in their rates to limit the impact on their business.