Business rates are set to rise by £1.95bn next April as September’s inflation figures are confirmed.
Unless the chancellor steps in to freeze increases or grant further discounts, business rates for the 2024 financial year will rise in line with the Consumer Price Index measure of inflation for last month.
CPI has now been confirmed to have risen by 6.7% in the 12 months to September 2023, unchanged from August. It had been expected to dip to 6.6%.
This means that business rates will rise by nearly £2bn. Commercial real estate intelligence firm Altus Group forecasts that £415m of that increase will be shouldered by the retail sector.
In addition, current discounts are expected to expire at the end of March, which will effectively add a further £2.37bn to bills.
The hike will take the UK’s business rates bill above £35bn for the first time.
The government switched the annual uplifting of business rates for inflation from the Retail Price Index to CPI in the 2017 Budget.
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