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Business rates deferment to cost the North West £682m

The Government’s two-year deferment of the business rates revaluation will cost businesses in the North West £682m, according to new research by Bilfinger GVA.

The review by the commercial property advisor calculates what the 2015 revaluation would have looked like if it had taken place when it was originally due on 1 April 2015 and compares this to what businesses will instead have to pay over the course of the deferment.

Had the revaluation not been postponed, the Total Rateable Values in the region would have fallen from £6.7bn to £5,2bn, a fall of 21%

The impact of this on North West ratepayers is that an estimated easing of the total business rates collected in the region of approximately £682m, will not occur.

Current rating liabilities are valued against the backdrop of the market in April 2008, just before the onset of the economic downturn, a level that large swathes of the market are still yet to return to.

Senior director in Bilfinger GVA Manchester Business Rates team, Duncan Harkness, said: “The research piece by Bilfinger GVA shows the harsh reality of the implications for North West ratepayers of the Government’s decision to postpone the 2015 rating revaluation for two years.

“While businesses in the South East, which should have seen significant increases in rates bills, have been cushioned from these increases, the cost of this subsidy has been borne by ratepayers in the regions.

“The North West occupiers have been hit hardest, having to subsidise more affluent areas to the tune of an estimated £682 million pounds over the next two years.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sophia Taha .