Convenience store owners have welcomed a new government report, released today (Sept 11), on business rates which sets out new measures to support small businesses with growth and investment.
The report aims to primarily 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.
Commenting on the report, 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