Business rates cap not enough, says BRC
Sep 24 2009
The government should be capping business rate rises at five per cent in the first year, claims the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
At present, rates for businesses could rise as high as 12.5 per cent in year one and up to 25 per cent in years four and five, says the BRC.
Tom Ironside, BRC director of business environment, says: ‘Property is one of retailers' biggest costs. Shops have to be all over the country, near where people live. That leaves retailers paying a quarter of all business rates despite making-up eight per cent of GDP. In some of the toughest trading conditions seen in years, a scheme that regards a twelve per cent hike in retailers' rates bills as okay isn't doing its job.’
The rateable value of all England's business premises has been reassessed based on property values on 1 April 2008. The bills companies face from April 2010 will be the first based on this revaluation. According to the BRC, there are large regional disparities in business rates with retailers in the South West and London facing the biggest increases.
Adds Ironside: ‘At a time when shop price deflation has arrived, piling costs like these onto retailers is a direct threat to their ability to maintain and create jobs. Retailers need to be cushioned from the worst effects of revaluation on their business rates bills.
‘The government has got some key elements of the arrangements right but it needs to ensure it can deliver enough help to retailers at the time it is most needed.’
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