Belfast and LPS invest in big data projects to Maximise Business Rates Revenue in Belfast

Finance Minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, Economy Minister Simon Hamilton and Belfast Lord Mayor Alderman Brian Kingston today announced that two companies have been successful in the second phase of an innovative project to find more effective ways of identifying businesses that should be paying their Rates.

The two successful companies are Belfast’s Analytics Engines and Southampton’s NQuiring Minds. Each has received a contract to build working prototypes of their proposal.

Finance Minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir said, “Rates are a vital source of public revenue. Money raised through our rates funds our schools, hospitals and other essential public services and so I welcome this investment in the development of cutting edge technology to help us maximise rates revenue.”

Economy Minister Simon Hamilton said, “The project is an example of the kind of lean innovation which SBRI can help the public sector apply to policy and operational issues. There is significant scope to apply data analytics to improve public services and also boost the economy and I hope to see more of these kinds of projects in future.”

Lord Mayor Brian Kingston said, “Becoming a smart data-driven city is one of the aims of our new strategy for the city, the Belfast Agenda. This project will demonstrate the value of the approach while at the same time helping to ensure that the Rates burden is fairly shared across all relevant businesses. I congratulate Analytics Engines and NQuiring Minds for winning these contracts and look forward to seeing the results of their work over the next few months.”

The Rates project is a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition and is a partnership between Belfast City Council, Department of Finance’s Land and Property Services, the Future Cities Catapult and the Department for the Economy.  The project has been funded under the Executive’s SBRI Challenge Fund which is managed jointly by the Department of Finance and the Department of the Economy.

Notes to editors: 

1. SBRI is an initiative which uses the public procurement of research and development to incentivise the market to meet public sector policy needs. It is recognised as an example of best practice in public sector innovation both delivering savings and economic growth.
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