Ratings specialist Jerry Schurder has hit out at the government, claiming its own data shows that its justification for the rate revaluation delay is untenable.
Schurder, head of rating at Gerald Eve, speaking as the government published estimates prepared by its Valuation Office Agency of the likely effects of the 2015 business rates revaluation, said that it had to backtrack on its claimed justification for the rate revaluation delay, as he predicted.
“When the Bill was introduced in parliament, the government claimed that its purpose was to provide certainty for businesses and to wipe out what would have been ‘large tax hikes’ for small shops and firms, highlighting retail as one key sector which would have been adversely affected, together with pubs, hotels and petrol filling stations.
“Our own research identified that property values had plummeted in high streets up and down the land since the last revaluation based on 2007/2008 rents and that huge swathes of town centre shops would have benefited from the 2015 revaluation.”
Schurder said that the VOA figures reveal that the government can no longer claim the retail sector, which makes up 20% of all rateable values, as one that would have faced ‘big tax hikes’.”
The government said that 800,000 properties would have faced increased bills following the 2015 revaluation, while only 300,000 would have fallen.
samantha.mcclary@estatesgazette.com
