Flexible office provider Evans Easyspace has put £6m of speculative
The government’s new legislation is coming into effect from 1 April to encourage landlords to maintain full occupancy in their properties.
But Evans, the joint venture between Evans Family Trust and the £100m Kodak Pension Plan, said the new rules penalise companies that provide flexible office accommodation.
It estimates that it will add approximately £500,000 to its 2008 budget forecast.
As a result of this extra cost, developments planned in Speke, Merseyside, and
The legislation was introduced in this year’s budget, and will change the Empty Property Relief clause introduced in 1984, when local authorities were prohibited from charging rates on empty industrial and warehouse buildings.
Rates will now be charged on buildings that have been empty for more than three months, or six months in the cases of industrial warehouses.
Tom Stokes, managing director of Evans Easyspace, said: “As a business clearly we do not choose to have empty units, but it does happen in almost all our 50 Evans business centres in the
“At any one time only a limited number of small businesses will require space in a specific location so, once construction of a centre is complete, it can take up to two years to reach maximum occupancy resulting in two years of empty space.
“Why should we be penalised for offering space on the terms small businesses want and which allows them to grow and prosper?”
Evans said it maintains a vacancy rate of around 10% across its £130m portfolio.
Stokes added: “Worst of all, the areas likely to be most affected by these changes will be those that most need the seeds of new business and entrepreneurialism – our most deprived areas.
“These are the areas where buildings may take some time before they are fully occupied. With these changes, companies that would consider developing in these areas are now strongly disincentivised to do so.”
Evans has 50 business centres throughout the
