Insight: Business Rates

Jeremy Hunt's Spring Budget contained several references to business rates. The most concerning aspect for those with empty properties is the section titled 'Business Rates: Avoidance and Evasion.'

It's that time of year again, and councils are busy issuing business rates bills for the 2024/25 rate year. Be warned - there will be a lot of people groaning (more than usual).

In the last 12 months, I've observed a significant shift in how the Valuation Office assesses serviced offices for business rates. The serviced office market, once dominated by Regus and local centres, has exploded with diverse operators, responding to changing work patterns and a growing demand for flexibility.

The Non-Domestic Rating Bill has now become the Non-Domestic Rating Act and the changes represent the most significant overhaul of business rates in decades. But will it make a difference to most businesses?

There is now a chance the Valuation Office will accept agreements that allow serviced office providers to maintain flexibility, while ensuring tenants retain 'paramount control.'

The government is proposing to extend the six week rule in an effort to cut down on empty rates mitigation.

Business rates has a bit of a grubby reputation because of the sharp practices and heavy-handed client management by certain ‘specialists’.

The Bill introduces new rules on a variety of points identified through consultation, including relief on improvements made to a building.

The big story in rating at the moment is the Non-Domestic Rating Bill that’s making its way through parliament.

We’re in a continued period of change with some very interesting caselaw developments and new legislative requirements on the horizon.

There has been a shortfall of £302m in relief that could have provided a lifeline to struggling businesses, but never found its way into the right hands.

We’ve been looking at whether the figures adopted by the Valuation Office are supportable.

Despite the imminent release, the government has remained tight-lipped about two rather large elephants in the room: Transitional Relief and Small Business Rates Relief.

Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves announced at the Labour Conference yesterday that she would abolish business rates and replace it with a “fairer system that is fit for the 21^st Century”.

Friday’s Mini-Budget delivered some sweeping tax cuts which, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, are the largest since the 1970s.

We’re less than three months away from the release of the draft 2023 rating list. Is postponement in the air again?

Transitional relief is designed to phase in changes in so that an occupier facing a large increase in rateable value doesn’t immediately bear the full brunt of an overnight increase in liability.

One important and disruptive section of the Levelling Up Bill aims to revitalise our high streets by forcing landlords to let properties at low rents.

After more than two years of prevarication and delayed proceedings due to Covid, a long-running battle with Trafford Council was finally settled.

There is a new obligation for owners and occupiers to inform the Valuation Office Agency of physical property and occupation changes, or else incur a fine.