Retail property organisation Revo is lobbying for new measures to reduce business rates, including a 30% cap on the rates multiplier and annual revaluations.
The organisation wants the multiplier top revised from the current 51% cap at the 2023 revaluation, estimating that it will reduce the business rates burden on physical retail by more than £3bn per year.
As part of Revo’s first-stage response to HM Treasury’s consultation on reform, it has also called on the government to scrap the requirement that revaluations are “fiscally neutral”.
It is lobbying for 50% emergency relief for the next financial year to prevent a cliff edge in April 2021, retained in the following year ahead of 2023 revaluation.
Rates relief should also be extended to empty shops for 12 months, with 50% relief after that period.
Supplementary tax streams have also been proposed, to “reflect the current reality of the retail distributer market and meet the tax shortfall from a reduction in business rates”.
Vivienne King, chief executive of Revo, said: “Successive governments have failed to deliver on promises to reform business rates, and given the crisis engulfing the high street it really is a case of now or never.
“For a decade our sector has been calling for reform of the system which does not reflect today’s economy, cannot adjust quickly enough to market conditions and places a disproportionate burden on physical retail, which sustains millions of UK jobs and is the heart of town and cities.
“We need radical action from government to save the high street for future generations.”
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