Colliers International’s South West and South Wales Business Rates team has called for this year’s Autumn Statement to provide a clear target that will ensure all appeals are resolved by the time the 2017 Rating List goes live.
Ben Batchelor-Wylam, who is based in the Bristol office of Colliers International, said: “The Government needs to provide the Valuation Office Agency with a clear target that will ensure all appeals are resolved by the time the 2017 Rating List goes live.
“The VOA has now amassed a record 255,000 outstanding rating appeals, which in part was caused by the cut off in appeals announced in last year’s Autumn Statement. It is unacceptable for businesses to wait years for the resolution of appeals whilst also being subject to huge business rates over payments.”
He pointed out that it was recently announced that 17 Valuation Offices would be closed – including ones in Taunton, Dorchester, Bournemouth and Merthyr Tydfil – and addition, legislative changes that allow the VOA to reduce current assessments back to 1 April 2010 would expire on 31 March 2016.
“The combination of a bottleneck or appeals, office closures and legislative change will impact upon business ratepayers who could lose out on five years’ worth of savings,” he said.
Mark Charlton, Head of UK Research at Colliers International, meanwhile called for changes to the way stamp duty is levied.
“It would be great to see some recognition from the Chancellor that the higher stamp duty levels introduced earlier this year are impacting on mobility, restricting sales and, at the upper end of the market, actually raising less tax than before,” he said.
“Best case scenario is Osborne announces a complete overhaul of the “step-based” system to create a fairer system that avoids skewing the market.”
Walter Boettcher, Chief Economist and Researcher, Colliers International, added: “We would all like to see the Chancellor step up and say that the Budget was balanced and that the EU had already made so many concessions that there is no need for an EU Referendum. This would allow us to focus on the real tasks at hand, which are; devolving, restructuring and developing the UK regional economies.
