The business rates revaluation took effect on 1 April
2017.
The government is regularly required to update the
‘rateable values’ of business properties in England to
make sure they are paying the right amount of rates.
Alongside this we’ve introduced the biggest ever cut in
business rates – an £8.9 billion package over the next 5
years.
This is about making business rates
fairer
The government will not benefit financially from the
revaluation – it is a revenue-neutral process.
The majority of businesses have seen no change or a fall
in their business rates from 1 April 2017 through the
revaluation.
As part of the £8.9 billion package of business rates
cuts over the next five years, we’ve permanently doubled
small business rates relief.
Eligible properties with a rateable value of £12,000 and
below will receive 100% relief.
Eligible properties with a rateable value between £12,000
and £15,000 will also benefit from tapered business rates
relief. This will give these businesses significant
reductions on their business rates bills.
Overall, this means 600,000 businesses now pay no
business rates at all.
Support for those businesses facing
increases
In the Spring Budget 2017, the Chancellor confirmed an
additional £435 million package of support to help
businesses in England, including those facing the
steepest increases in business rates following the
revaluation.
This includes:
-
£110 million to support around 16,000 small
businesses losing Small Business Rate Relief or rural
rate relief. This means none of these businesses will
face an increase in 2017/18 of greater than £600 a
year or £50 a month;
-
a £300 million discretionary fund to councils to
support individual hard cases in their local area;
and
-
a £1,000 business rates discount for pubs who have a
rateable value of less than £100,000 for 1 year for
April 2017
Further details on these measures will be confirmed in
due course. Local authorities then will be able to let
businesses know whether they can benefit from any of
these additional measures and will apply any of them on
bills retrospectively.
This is on top of a £3.6 billion package of transitional
relief to help with the revaluation. This supports
ratepayers by capping and phasing in any rise in bills.
Alongside the revaluation, business rates are updated
every year in line with inflation. From April 2020
business rates will switch from being linked to the
Retail Price Index (RPI) to the main measure of
inflation, currently the Consumer Price Index (CPI),
saving businesses around £1.1 billion over the first 2
years.
