Gareth Buckley, Principal at Avison Young, responds to the Chancellor's Spring Statement 2018

Pulling an early Easter bunny out of his hat, the Chancellor in his Spring Statement 2018 has announced that the next business rates revaluation will be 1st April 2021 – one year earlier than the previously announced date of 1st April 2022.

The valuation date (AVD) will continue to be two years and will be set at 1st April 2019.  Coinciding with the with the anticipated Brexit date of 29th March 2019, this will make for an interesting revaluation. The announcement was made so that ratepayers can benefit from an earlier revaluation cycle to reflect movements in rental values more closely. Three-yearly revaluations will commence in 2024.

The government will also consider the implications of more frequent revaluations on the role and length of backdating of increases and decreases to the rating list– currently they can be backdated for up to 6 year.  As revaluations become more frequent the government will look at the AVD length – currently 2 years prior to Revaluation date.

Transitional phasing looks to continue with the government setting out the design of the scheme at future revaluations. So clearly, there is no intention to allow ratepayers to fully benefit from the impact of a revaluation in any falling market.

Self- assessment and formula based options are not being pursued at this stage. Whilst still reeling from cutbacks to staff, geographical presence and the reorganisation that Check, Challenge, Appeal (CCA) has created, the government will ensure at the next spending review that the Valuation Office Agency is sufficiently funded to carry out “high quality valuations.“

The Chancellor also aims to link local authority business rate systems to HMRC digital tax accounts at the earliest opportunity after the start of the three-yearly revaluation cycle from 2024.  This is a delay to the intended implementation date of 2022 previously announced in the Budget 2016.

A hop in the right direction for ratepayers but perhaps not the high jump that the High Street and food and leisure sector will be looking for.