Falling rents bolster case for rates review, says Grimsey
BILL Grimsey has repeated his calls for the Chancellor to reinstate a revaluation of business rates after new research has highlighted a sharp fall in commercial property rents.
The Government has postponed a revaluation of business rates from 2015 to 2017 which means retailers and other businesses continue to pay rates based on pre-recession rents.
Research carried out by Colliers International for Mr Grimsey’s team, which has published a report into the future of the High Street, suggests commercial property rents in Greater Manchester have fallen on average by 31% since the last revaluation in 2008.
The highest fall in prime zone A rents was in Stockport, where they fell by 47%. This was followed by Rochdale, which has seen prime rental values fall by 40% and Oldham by 36%. Manchester had the lowest prime rental fall at 17%.
Mr Grimsey, The former chief executive of Wickes and Iceland, said it was further proof that business rates were no longer fit for purpose.
“Is it any wonder why Stockport has some of the highest levels of empty shops in the country when they’ve seen rental values fall by 47% and last year they had the biggest increase in business rates in 20 years,” he said.
“Too many small businesses are paying artificially high business rates. The Chancellor needs to make this a fairer tax because it’s holding the high street back and pushing businesses over the edge.”
John Webber, head of ratings at Colliers, said: “What is becoming very clear and beginning to dawn on business people in the North is that the postponement of the rating revaluation from 2015 until 2017 will mean businesses in parts of the south east will be subsidised by those less able to afford it.
“There is no justification for hard pressed retailers in Oldham, Rochdale and Stockport to be forced to subsidise the business rates of jewellers in Bond Street and tailors in Mayfair – it only seeks to illustrate how out of touch this Government is with life outside of central London.”
