The King’s Speech may have contained 40 proposed bills, but some previously mooted ideas were missing, including business rates reform.
Colliers is among the many firms that believes business rates must be fundamentally reformed, with a view to delivering a fair property tax that would be affordable, transparent and easy to administer.
Having launched its first business rates manifesto in August 2018, Colliers has long been campaigning for change. The company has made constant revisions, petitioning MPs on both sides of the house to listen.
John Webber, head of business rates at Colliers, believes that the current system which provides £30bn a year for local authority funding, “is not fit for purpose”, and so it comes as no surprise that he has expressed disappointment, given that there was no mention of business rates reform in the King’s Speech yesterday.
“This indicates this [business rates reform] is not a priority for the new government and goes against its pledge to abolish the tax and support the high street,” he said.
Webber continued: “After more than 30 years of mismanagement from successive governments, we now have a system with a multiplier at over 50p in the pound, which effectively means a 50% tax on property occupation, a complicated relief system with business rates deserts in some parts of the country and an appeal system that’s inefficient, lacking transparency and increasingly difficult for businesses to negotiate without an adviser. The current system is just not fit for purpose. This situation is unsustainable.
“With declining high streets across the country, there is no excuse for the new government to avoid addressing the business rates problem or to introduce significant reform. We urge them to act soon.”
