Retailers urge chancellor to apply Retail Rates Corrector

More than 70 retail CEOs have urged chancellor Rachel Reeves to ease business rates amid warnings that a £2.7bn tax would hit retailers, leisure and hospitality firms, The Guardian has reported.  

In an open letter coordinated by the British Retail Consortium, CEOs have called on the government to introduce a “Retail Rates Corrector” as part of their commitment to reforming the business rates system.

The Retail Rates Corrector – a 20% downward adjustment in business rates paid on retail properties – aims to redress the imbalance that sees the retail industry pay 7.4% of all business taxes (£33bn), a share 1.5 times greater than its share of the overall economy. 

The letter said: “We believe now is the time to level the playing field between industries with a retail adjustment to rates as this is the best way to achieve this manifesto commitment. We are writing to ask you to use the Autumn Budget to apply a Retail Rates Corrector, a 20% reduction to rates bills for retail properties of all sizes in all locations.”

It also comes as more than 1,500 retail shops within the City of London could see their business rates bills slashed by up to £33m a year following a ruling from the Valuation Tribunal for England.

Following a dispute that arose around the value applied to the main space of a City of London shop by the Valuation Office Agency, it was found that the rateable value of a shop in the City of London should be reduced from £287,500 to £179,000, a 38% reduction.

According to the commercial real estate intelligence firm Altus Group, there are a total of 1,540 retail premises within the City of London with a combined rateable value of £157.3m used to calculate business rates bills until 31 March 2026 which could now be impacted by the tribunal ruling. 

Alex Probyn, president of property tax at Altus Group, said: “The agency had an unenviable task in producing more than 2 million non-domestic property valuations against that backdrop. It was always going to be the most subjective revaluation yet and there was always going to be significant sectoral and regional corrections needed.

“The 2023 revaluation needs a serious revisit through the urgent determination of outstanding challenges to ensure that ratepayers are paying the correct level of tax.”