A record £1.5 billion in rates will be paid by the north’s households and businesses in the current financial year, around £140 million more than last year.
It comes as Stormont’s finance minister Caoimhe Archibald is expected to put options for an increase to the regional rate before the executive on Thursday.
The regional is added to the rate struck by councils and then multiplied by the capital value of a house, or rateable value of a business, to work out how much rates households and businesses will pay in the 2024/25 financial year.
Bills are due to go out in April.
The amount of unpaid rates in the north is also likely to increase this year.
Rating debt in Northern Ireland reached £174.3m as of March 31 2023, largely due to a two year freeze on court actions during the Covid-19 pandemic.
It’s understood LPS has issued at least 7,000 magistrate court processes since April last year, advising ratepayers of the legal action being taken against them.
Of the 7,000 targeted, it’s believed around 4,000 court decrees have been granted by the courts against those who have failed to pay.
The £174.3m rating debt also includes people who have agreed payment arrangements to pay their debt.
It’s understood around 11,000 ratepayers are currently subject to such an arrangement.
Rates accounts for 5% of total spending by Stormont and around 75% of spending by the north’s 11 district councils.
The north’s 11 councils have already struck 2024/25 poundage rates for households and businesses.
The increases range from 3.98% in Lisburn & Castlereagh to 9.78% in Mid & East Antrim for domestic ratepayers.
Mid & East Antrim council also agreed the sharpest hike in non-domestic rates (11.98%).
But bills will ultimately be determined by property and business values, meaning areas such as Belfast and Lisburn & Castlereagh, where rent and house values are traditionally higher, will in most cases pay bigger bills.
LPS is also prepared for another revaluation of non-domestic properties in the north.
The last ‘rates reval’ book place in 2023.
The next revaluation is due to launch in 2026, based on values in April 2024.
Rates on residential properties are still based on valuations from 2005.
