Rates

In Northern Ireland, rates are a property tax based on the capital, or market value of homes. Rates of non-domestic properties, such as businesses and offices, are based on the rental value of your property.

The income from this tax contributes towards the cost of providing local government services, such as leisure services and bin collections, and central government services, such as education and health.

Your rates bill is made up of two parts:

District rate: the district rate is fixed annually by individual councils and is used to pay for services such as bin collections, recycling and waste disposal, leisure services, street cleaning and parks.

Regional rate: the regional rate is set by central government and is used to pay for services such as roads, education and health.

Rate setting in Ards and North Down Borough Council (ANDBC) is a balance between affordable costs for ratepayers, maintaining quality of services and delivering ambitions for the Borough in relation to job creation, attracting visitors and regeneration.

More information about your rates

Rates for 2024-25

At a special meeting of the Council on 13 February, it agreed the district rate for the Borough for 2024/25.

The rate rise is 5.98% for both domestic and non-domestic properties.

This is an increase of approximately £2.75 per month for the average household and £25 per month for the average business in the Borough.

Striking the rate is always a balance - between agreeing a figure that allows us to deliver the quality services, and to make the investments, residents want, while seeking to ensure the financial burden placed on our ratepayers is as low as possible. We will continue to scrutinise council spending and are committed to making further efficiency savings where possible throughout the year ahead.

You can find more details of how your rates are spent below.

How we will use your rates in 2024-25

Alongside all the statutory local government duties we deliver, this new Council budget will enable us to deliver on some very significant priorities that are critical to the future health and wellbeing of our Borough. These include:

Supporting increased economic growth and prosperity.
Assisting those seeking to enter employment or to start, grow or expand a business.
Growing our social enterprise sector.
Developing plans for both urban and rural regeneration projects, that are 'shovel ready' when funding is available.
Reviewing our 16 Village Plans.
Moving forward with the redevelopment of Bangor Waterfront.
Developing an Innovation Hub to support our growing creative technology sector.
Maintaining core activities such as our extensive events and festivals programme, youth programmes and a wide range of leisure and recreation services.
Refurbishing community assets including the Ward Arras, Abbey Road and Islandview Sports Pavilions.
Supporting community empowerment through grants for events, environmental initiatives, youth/ community activities and sporting pursuits.
Hitting the 2030 statutory recycling target of 70% - we are committed to a review of the kerbside collection service and will be engaging with the public after the summer on this.
Delivering on our digital strategy with projects including a new Council website and new finance system.
Progressing plans for the redevelopment of Whitespots Country Park, extending our network of greenways and delivering public realm improvement projects.
Continuing work towards our vision for more sustainable civic and office accommodation.
Delivering on our new Corporate Plan running to 2028 - which commits us all to working towards 'A Sustainable Borough'.

There is much to be done and much to look forward to in the year ahead.