UK entrepreneurs set for first business rate evaluation since 2010

Entrepreneurs across the country have learnt more about the impact of the biggest change to business rates in the UK in a generation.

The changes, which are set to come into law in April 2017, include an increase in rates relief to £12,000. Yet the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) has performed a revaluation of rentable values and subsequently changes to business rates will be felt differently right across the country.

The rate increases are likely to affect London-based firms more than those elsewhere, with SMEs in the Midlands and the north more likely to see their business rates remain the same of even reduced.

The last time the VOA collected this type of data was back in 2008. This latest revaluation is measured on rateable values from 2015 and unsurprisingly rents in the capital have risen sharply in that seven-year period.

Elsewhere, businesses in Brighton, Winchester and Oxford are most likely to see their business rates increase.

The report states: “The 2017 rating revaluation will produce the largest changes in rateable value for a generation – businesses may be sleepwalking into the effects without planning for the consequences, both good and bad.”

The Government has defended the changes, insisting that it is cutting business rates and that the system needed updating. It also states three-quarters of businesses will experience no change to their existing rateable values and that 600,000 firms across the country will see their rates cut entirely.

Marcus Jones, minister for local government, said: “But for the small minority of businesses that do face an increase, we’re putting in place £3.4bn of transitional relief to provide vital support as they adjust to these fair and impartial changes.”

Date published 6 Oct 2016 | Last updated 6 Oct 2016