Following the announcement of the enhanced retail discount last week, and in the light of the increasing grip that the coronavirus has taken on our economy, the government has announced additional business rates reliefs. Uncertainty still remains regarding the application of “state aid” limits to these reliefs. ...Read More

A firm of surveyors based in Manchester has been compulsorily wound up, in the public interest, following a High Court hearing which established that Ellis and Company Surveyors Limited of Stretford, had made misleading claims to clients regarding its success in business rates appeals. ...Read More

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced an unprecedented package rates relief aimed at supporting businesses during the Covid-19 virus outbreak. The measures will cost £20 billion, and will provide a one-year rates holiday for retail properties and for many properties in the hospitality and leisure sectors. The scale of this relief is something we have not seen before. ...Read More

Budget 2020 was delivered against a background of rising concern about the impact of the coronavirus, Covid-19. The strange days we live in are reflected in a strange set of Budget announcements in respect of business rates, from the most fundamental - a “fundamental review” of business rates to report in autumn 2020 - to the most trivial - an extension of business rates relief for local newspaper offices. Whether these, and other budget announcements, will enable businesses to weather the storm remains to be seen. ...Read More

A decision of the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has clarified the position on the use of “new” evidence in rating appeals. Practitioners will be relieved to note that the restrictions on evidence, placed on the Valuation Tribunal for England by the 2017 amendments to the appeals regulations, do not apply to the Upper Tribunal ...Read More