£1.9m Etihad business rates higher than Olympic Stadium

NEW research shows Manchester City Stadium pays a business rates bill of £1.9m, placing it ahead of London’s Olympic Stadium.

The data from independent property consultancy Daniel Watney has revealed the collective £13m business rates bills for stadia preparing for this month’s Rugby World Cup.

The 13 stadiums will host 0.5 million spectators during the event which is expected to deliver £2.2bn to the economy but these venues come with a large price tag.

The rates are based on the stadia’s overall annual rateable value of £27m which is used alongside a multiplier set by the Valuation Office Agency to produce the rate liability.

Wembley Stadium has topped the list with a staggering £3m annual bill.

Twickenham and Newcastle’s St James came in close behind with bills of £2.1m. Manchester City’s recently expanded Etihad stadium faces an impressive £1.9m bill while the historic Villa Park faces a slightly lower liability of £1.2m.

The other stadia listed include the new £537m Olympic Stadium with a relatively low rates bill of £590,000 – a quarter of the cost faced by Wembley’s £798m stadium.

Kingsholm Stadium in Gloucester and Sandy Park in Exeter were found to pay the lowest bills with far lower ratable values in comparison.

Research from the firm earlier this year revealed that the Home Office was paying the highest rates bill in Central London at £12.5m, beating both Harrods and Citigroup in Canary Wharf.

Debbie Warwick, head of business rates at Daniel Watney said: “The research reveals just how high the take is from these kinds of properties. The World Cup may help to meet the high costs but this isn’t the case for thousands of business owners.

“Any moves to overhaul the business rates system before April 2017 are pre-destined to be cash neutral for the Government which raises more than £26bn annually from this tax with very low collection costs.”