July 6th, 2021


We seem to have been waiting to hear the review on business rates for some time. In March 2020, the government announced a new consultation and said that the first part of the business rates review would be published in the tail end of 2020, with the second part in early 2021. Since then the chancellor has announced no less than four delays to publishing its response and we are now waiting until autumn 2021 to learn the government’s full response to the consultation on reform.

This delay is disappointing, especially since the Treasury Select Committee produced a very credible report with sensible recommendations in autumn 2019, which now seems to have been largely ignored – not to mention all the consultations and reviews we’ve had in previous years. Colliers has long been an advocate of reform and we fear such procrastination will have only meant more job losses across the economy as we wait for a proper redress of the system.

Business rates review 2021 – what to expect
There is no doubt the business rates system needs a radical overhaul. The system that provides £32bn gross (£26bn net) for local authority funding is under fire, primarily because it is trying to raise too much money from too few squeezed property occupiers – a situation which has become further...


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