The September 2020 Consumer Prices' Index (CPI) figures have been published, and shows a 0.5% increase over previous year. This sets the upper limit for any increase in the Uniform Business Rates (UBR) for next rate year, 2021/22. In normal times next year's UBR would follow the increase in CPI. Ministers will have to consider the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the inflation figures, when setting the UBR for next year. Business will want some certainty on this at the earliest possible opportunity. ...Read More

The Scottish Government has published its “Programme for Scotland 2020-2021” which includes an announcement that the rating revaluation that was due to take effect in Scotland from 1 April 2022 has been postponed to 1 April 2023, and will be based on property values at 1 April 2022. The Scottish Government’s move realigns the revaluation date in Scotland with those in England and Wales, but bases its valuations on property values at 1 April 2022, rather than on 1 April 2021 as in England and Wales. ...Read More

The Minister for Finance in the Welsh Assembly Government, Rebecca Evans MS, has announced that the rating revaluation that was proposed to come into force in Wales on 1 April 2021, has been postponed. The revaluation will, instead, come into force on 1 April 2023 and will to be based on rental values at 1 April 2021. The Minister’s statement says that “postponing the revaluation to 2023 will mean that the rateable values on which rates bills are based will better reflect the impact of COVID-19". The move mirrors a similar change in England, announced in the Spring Budget. ...Read More

The Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Jesse Norman, has made a written statement on 21 July, announcing that the next rating revaluation in England will take effect from 1 April 2023, and will be based upon values at 1 April 2021. This revaluation replaces one that was due to take effect from 1 April 2022 based upon property values at 1 April 2019. The government statement says that the change in date will allow the revaluation better to reflect the effects of Covid 19 on property values. ...Read More

The Communities Secretary, Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP, has announced that the rating revaluation that was proposed to come into force on 1 April 2021, has been postponed. The legislation to bring forward the date of the revaluation from 2022 to 2021 is to be withdrawn. ...Read More

The Government has announced a further extension to its scheme of Covid-19 business rates reliefs, first announced in the Budget on 11 March, and successively extended since then as the impact of the virus outbreak has widened. The latest extension includes in the 100% rates holiday further properties that are required to close following the Prime Minister’s statement on 23 March, and includes estate agencies, letting agencies and bingo halls. ...Read More

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