Forgive me that most of my commentaries are on either business rates or pop up shops (short term lets as some prefer to call them) but in my town work I'm finding these two are recurring subjects. The latter as a proactive tool to build a pipeline of new or expanding independent retailers but the former as a recurring problem issue.
I had naively believed that the business rates revaluation implemented in April would help solve some of the "high street" challenges and even help level the playing field for town businesses. No such luck!
So quick recap. Rateable Values hadn't been revised since 2008 due to Government postponement. Consequently the RV (which is an assessment of rental value at a certain date) got out of kilter with real values. This may have been good for some commercial property occupiers where rents had increased and the RV hadn't but on properties where rents had dropped since 2008 it was bad news and frankly unfair.
In two of the towns I work in we'd been looking forward to the revaluations and were rewarded with some helpful RV reductions of up to 40%. Good news one would think - a much reduced rates bill from this April!
Sadly not. It's taken me a while to accept the significance of the words "Transitional Phasing" which trip off the lips of many a business rates council Officer.
Helpful for improving areas where RVs have increased, giving the business time to adapt, the five year transitional phasing for the full impact of the increase to kick in seems helpful and generous.
But for those who have for the past few years been paying rates based on an outdated RV well above current rent levels, for the phasing to limit the reduction to just 10% [1] is incredibly harsh.
Regent Street, Swindon where typical RV’s have dropped by 40%.
