ACS has welcomed a new report from the Government on business
rates, setting out measures to support small businesses with
growth and investment.
The report, released today, acts on ACS' campaign recommendation
by seeking to aims primarily to address the ‘cliff edges' that
exist for small business rates relief when a small business opens
a second property. While not including specific policy
recommendations, the report states the Government's objectives on
rates as incentivising investment; supporting the high street
with a fairer system; and making the system fit for the 21st
century.
Additional measures considered in the report include enhancing
Improvement Relief, delivering meaningful Transitional Relief in
2026 to support those seeing large rateable value increases, and
using the upcoming merger of the VOA with HMRC to support
ratepayers. The Government has also ruled out more frequent
revaluations in the report on the basis of feedback from
stakeholders.
ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “It's encouraging to see
the Chancellor talking about reform of the business rates system
to encourage growth, aligning with many of the measures that
we've asked for to support local shops. Addressing the cliff
edges on small business rate relief would mark a positive step
forward, but with retail and hospitality relief likely coming to
an end next year, there is more to do to ensure that retailers
are not unnecessarily hampered by excessive rates bills.
“We continue to urge the Chancellor to use the Budget to announce
a full 20p reduction in the new permanent retail, hospitality and
leisure multipliers, which will go a long way to providing
businesses some level of certainty at a time when they're staring
down the barrel of increases as a result of the incoming rates
revaluation.”
Earlier this week, ACS wrote to the Chancellor outlining a number
of measures that could be taken to support local shops through
the rates system, particularly those who invest in growing their
business. The recommendations to the Chancellor include:
- Utilising the full 20p reduction in
the new Retail, Hospitality and Leisure multiplier
• Increasing small business rate relief
thresholds in line with increases in rateable values
• Extending improvement relief from 12
months to three years and including plant and machinery in the
eligible investment for improvement relief
• Removing CCTV from the rating list so
that retailers don't pay twice for making their stores more
secure
The interim report from the Government on transforming business
rates is available here
