ATM fees to be tinkered with, maybe

The front page of The Daily Mail on the 26th December 2014 was taken up by a report about how corner shops and petrol stations are to axe ATM charges.

The basis of the article seems to be a quote from Local Government minister Penny Mordaunt who said “We want councils to use their powers to discount local business rates to ensure better access to cash machines in all areas and on the High Street”.

The plan seems to be to get local authorities to use their powers under the Localism Act to give discretionary rates discounts to operators who change their machines from charging to free-to-use.

As the spokesperson for Cardtronics says in the article, the devil is in the detail. ATMs inside shops are not currently rated so would the relief be applied to the shop itself?  Any relief given would be subject European deminimis State  Aid limits so companies who have already used up their allowance with other reliefs, for example Retail Relief, would not be eligible.

ATMs are assessed for rates based on the number of transactions handled. Obviously a free to use machine will have far more transactions than a charging one so the rates are going to be higher. Unless the basis of assessment is changed for the 2017 Revaluation the operators of any machines that change from charging to free-to-use could be in for a shock.

A Government focused less on headline grabbing and more on doing something would maybe stop the Valuation Office Agency from backdating rates on ATMs.