Partner Article

Business Rates – are you getting a fair deal?

The issue of business rates is still being hotly contested by business owners and politicians.

At the recent Labour Party conference, Labour leader Ed Miliband has vowed to freeze business rates for small firms should they win the next election.

Many still feel this would not go far enough to ease the burden of current rates on commercial property, but, given the lack of action under the coalition, may represent progress.

Earlier this year, we published a news article criticising the Government’s decision to postpone the next business rates revaluation from 2015 until 2017.

Our Rating Director Rod Edwards described the Government’s decision as ‘a badly thought out move, which will prevent any hope of rateable value realignment which ratepayers so desperately need’.

At the moment rates are based on rents in 2008, when the market was at its peak. The delay means that business rates liabilities will continue to increase in line with RPI through until the 2016/2017 rate year.

Property occupiers are having to pay rates that in no way reflect their circumstances or the current value of the property.

To illustrate our view, we’ve broken down the issue into an easy-to-digest infographic that asks: are you getting a fair deal on business rates?

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Carl Gledhill .