Pre-Budget Report 2009: Lambert Smith Hampton comments
Having been overshadowed by the desperate need to rebuild public finances, the commercial property sector was left somewhat under-whelmed by Chancellor Alistair Darling’s latest ever Pre-Budget Report (PBR) according to Richard Wackett, Head of National Rating at Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH).
The Chancellor’s extension of the empty property rates relief for small properties for a further 12 months is welcomed but simply doesn’t go far enough.
The threshold for the exemption, which will come into effect next April, will be raised from £15,000 to £18,000. This will take into account any increase in rateable values following revaluation in 2010.
The fact remains that the punitive imposition of Business Rates on empty properties continues to stifle development and urban regeneration. The extension will be of little use to larger regeneration areas and will not cover most major office, warehouse, industrial or retail schemes. The exemption is designed to cover the interests of the small scale investor holding nursery units or small commercial interests.
However, as far as Business Rates are concerned, the PBR is more interesting for what was not featured rather than what was.
When the Valuation Office Agency changed its policy to rate individual businesses instead of the statutory port owner last year, occupiers across the 56 statutory ports in England and Wales became liable for large Business Rates demands that were then back-dated to 1 April 2005.
It was hoped that the Chancellor would provide some form of relief for port operators in his long-awaited PBR. This glaring omission will continue to exert unnecessary pressure on an already over-stretched industry.
It is not yet clear whether the Conservatives intend to drop the £1bn annual tax grab that the Government currently receives from empty rates if successful at next year’s General Election. However, one would hope they are more helpful towards investors and developers, who are currently suffering from the burden of paying Business Rates on empty properties, in order to stimulate positive movement in the economy.
View the RICS and LSH Empty Property Rates Survey findings 2009
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9 Dec 2009
For information about the services covered in this news story please contact Richard Wackett
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