North West winners revealed in new business RVs for 2017

The big business rate winners nationally have been revealed for when the new Rateable Values are introduced on 1 April 2017.

Retailers in Wales’ Port Talbot, Neath and Newport, Tamworth in the West Midlands and London’s Ealing are top of the list with, frankly, staggering reductions of 63.51%, 55.84% and 55.67% listed respectively. Dozens of other towns and cities will also enjoy substantial reductions – mainly in the 40%+ category, according to the latest report from Colliers.

This will undoubtedly very welcome news for the hardest hit centres across the country but April 1, 2017, probably still feels like a very long way off for any struggling businesses out there.

The North West’s top 10 towns to benefit from reduced RVs in retail include Rochdale (-40.20%), Crewe (-37.90%), Stockport (-35.41%), Ashton-under-Lyne (-35.41%), Oldham (-33.36%), Stretford (-32.30%), Barrow-in-Furness (-31.11%), Northwich   (-29.41%), Warrington (-16.82%) and Manchester City (-17%).

Retailers in major regional cities and towns will also experience significant falls in RVs with Middlesbrough by -37%, Bournemouth by -30%, Newcastle by -25%, Sheffield by -24% and Liverpool and Manchester both expected to see a -17% fall.

Across the Pennines in Yorkshire, the top towns to see a drop in RVs are: Dewsbury (-43%), Scunthorpe (-41%), Keighley (-40%), Sheffield (-24%), Bradford (-23%), Rotherham (-19%) and Grimsby (-17%).

On the flip side of the coin I will be very interested to see who the losers are going to be on 1 April 2017 – retailers in London’s more affluent post codes must be holding their breath right now.