Why the Budget Needs to Be Bolder About Business Rates

We all know now that 30th October will be the first Autumn Budget for the new Government. It will be positioned as a Budget to support growth with significant impacts across the country, but what can Ratepayers expect?

In the build-up, we’ve heard various options, some more achievable than others, including Charitable Relief to be removed for independent schools, taking public occupations out of rating, the BRC lobbying for a differential rate for retail and the CBI calling for a tiered poundage…I’ve even heard the Revaluation due for 2026 will be postponed!

Everyone will have a view on these proposals; however, my prediction is that, like many, the Budget will leave me frustrated at the lack of real change with real impact and asking myself why when the Business Rates system is in crisis, and the amount charged is just too high, these more fundamental matters are not being addressed?

In my opinion, the Chancellor should be taking more decisive action:

1. Keep the Revaluation: cancellation will upset as many as it pleases and will not impact the overall levels paid; it is a distraction from the root cause of delivery and cost.
2. Support the Valuation Office: commit to a programme that achieves a workable system (whether 3 or 5 years), delivering manageable and timely appeal programmes to ensure ratepayers can achieve the correct liability within the life of the Rating List.
3. Address the cost: a multiplier that approaches 60p in the £ is simply too high and we would encourage a three year roadmap that reduces rates for ALL ratepayers to somewhere below 40p.

In my last article, my closing comment was, “Evolution or revolution, we need the Government to look at radical reductions for all ratepayers”. But as we come to the Autumn’s most important financial event, I’m reasonably confident in my prediction for the Business Rates element of the Autumn Budget: dull, nothing significantly new and another attempt to appease the call for reform through tinkering. Businesses need more, especially in the current climate.