Business rates appeals soar as property experts slam government’s ban on Covid-19 review requests
Business rates appeals have soared since the beginning of the pandemic, with experts branding the government’s decision to block reconsiderations based on Covid-19 as a “material change of circumstance” as a “disgrace”.
The latest figures showed that, between 1 April last year and the end of March 2021, 409,430 checks had been lodged by firms, launching the first stage of the appeals process, according to Colliers data.
In comparison, 158,910 checks were registered in the previous three years- since the start of the list in April 2017 to end of March 2020, demonstrating the business disruption caused by Covid-19.
However, last month the government said it would legislate to rule out coronavirus related “material change of circumstance” appeals for businesses that were ineligible for the waived fees for the hospitality, retail and leisure sectors.
Instead, HM Treasury announced it would provide a £1.5bn pot to be distributed across the country to sectors that have “suffered most economically”.
“Allowing business rates appeals on the basis of a ‘material change in circumstances’ could have led to significant amounts of taxpayer support going to businesses who have been able to operate normally throughout the pandemic and disproportionately benefitting particular regions like London,” the Treasury said in a statement last month.
However John Webber, head of business rates at Colliers, today branded the decision a “disgrace”.
“These latest figures explain why the Government acted as it did and why its Valuation Office Agency (VOA) was allowed to change the law- to prevent 400,000 business rate payers who felt their bills were unfair- from contesting them,” he said.
“It’s a disgrace. The Government ripped up the rule book retrospectively – purely because the numbers were too high.
“Over 400,000 businesses had gone to the trouble of registering through the tortuous CCA appeals system in good faith, so that their cases could be properly assessed, to find the goal posts moved before their very eyes.”