London’s business rates bill will increase by 11%, amid a mere 1% reduction for England’s hard-hit high streets

James Thompson, head of business rates at Deloitte Real Estate, comments on today’s draft rateable values published by the Valuation Office Agency:

“City of London Offices and London’s prime retail streets will bear the brunt of the 2017 rating revaluations. A typical Regent Street flagship store will see a 50% increase on their annual business rates bill.

“There will be local variations in certain property types but, according to the statistics published by the Valuation Office Agency, the total burden of business rates will slightly reduce across all regions in England. However, there is an overall national increase in rateable values of nine per cent.

“London’s business rates bill will increase by 11%. The ‘central rating list’, which contains major network properties such as gas, water, electricity distribution, telecoms and the railways, will further increase by 28%. One of the biggest increases in rateable values is British Telecom as their business rates bill is set to jump from £149m to £714m in April 2017. The projected upsurge in their rates bill for England increases from £74m to £344m, or 450% before the effect of the proposed transitional relief scheme.

“The bad news for the many businesses that were hoping for a significant reduction in their business rates bill, is the government’s proposals for transitional relief. The government’s preferred option would see a business with a rateable value of over £100,000 receive no more than a one per cent reduction in next year’s rates bill in order to cushion the impact on properties seeing big increases in their business rates. This comes as a blow to retailers operating in hard-hit high streets who had anticipated falls of over 50%.”

End

Notes to editors

About Deloitte
In this press release references to Deloitte are references to Deloitte LLP, which is among the country's leading professional services firms.

Deloitte LLP is the United Kingdom member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (“DTTL”), a UK private company limited by guarantee, whose member firms are legally separate and independent entities. Please see www.deloitte.co.uk/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of DTTL and its member firms.

The information contained in this press release is correct at the time of going to press.

Member of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited.