Policy and Reform Minister Chris Thomas says nothing has been decided on rates modernisation, and an ongoing public consultation on the issue is simply ’presenting the facts’.

It comes after several local authorities have come out against the idea of an all-island business rate - one proposal floated in the consultation.

As last week’s Courier reported, Douglas Council leader David Christian said: ’My major concern is that this is just an attempt to grab commercial rates and let them be collected by an agency and we don’t even know who that agency will be.

’We are then supposed to go with our begging bowl to ask for money. We must strongly oppose these changes.’

The Cabinet Office survey covers a number of matters including the collection and distribution of both domestic and non-domestic rates, as well as how a property’s value is assessed.

Mr Thomas says the questions in the consultation are shaped to be objective, and present the current ’lay of the land’, including how rates income is spread across the Island.

He says there’s been demand for years for rates modernisation, and the Cabinet Office is trying to do something about it, not kick the issue down the line.