Colliers raises alarm over government’s “totally underwhelming” business rates review

Real estate company Colliers is waving a red flag over the government’s latest consultation on business rates – with one week to go until the consultation closes on 22 February – as it urges businesses to make a stand amid “reduced appeal rights and increased administrative responsibilities”.

While business rates experts welcome that the government’s commitment to more frequent revaluations from 2023, as it moves to a three-yearly revaluation cycle, the trade-offs, enabling the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) to undertake the work in a shorter time scale, will mean reduced appeal rights and more red tape for ratepayers to deal with, according to Colliers.

The VOA has given the government a wish list which includes the annual provision of information whereby the ratepayer will have to provide not only confirmation of physical details on an annual basis, but updates on rent and lease information as well as trading information even when there have been no changes.

John Webber, Head of Business Rates at Colliers, said: “This will pass a significant bureaucratic burden onto the ratepayer, which we believe is neither needed nor healthy for UK plc.

“To put into context, currently out of approximately 1.9 million ratepayers, 700,000 pay no business rates. These changes will therefore result in these 700,000 ratepayers being required to send one or more pieces of information annually to the VOA, involving them in a bureaucratic exercise where their information is unlikely to be used.

“This will have no effect on the amount of rates collected. At a time when business is supposedly being relieved of red tape in a post Brexit world, the government seems to be proposing the opposite!”

Colliers has also raised concerns that the VOA will be spending too much time wading through the information instead of getting the values correct or dealing with appeals in a timely way.

Sanctions and penalties will also be imposed should ratepayers either not return the information or not return it within what appears to be “a ridiculously short period of time”.

Additionally, a late return of any annual request or none-returned physical update information could result in a technical knockout of any appeal, which Colliers feel the VOA is fond of doing.

Colliers also says there is little indication from the government to impose similar time deadlines on the VOA, even though they are receiving half a billion pounds of additional funding, and Colliers believes the VOA should be “far more transparent” starting now for the beginning of the 2023 rating list.

Webber added: “Overall, the government’s failure to deliver the much-needed fundamental business rates reform last autumn - replacing it with this consultation - is desperately disappointing.

“We urge all interested parties to let the government know this and to respond before the consultation ends next week, or they could find themselves snarled up with extra expense and administration.”