High Street Conversations: Business Rates – The Beginning Of The End? (UK)

In an effort to tackle rising costs for businesses, The Treasury committed to new tax multipliers for small high street businesses in England. This has not turned out as expected.

The intent was to give support small businesses with a shot in the arm. However, the business rates system is so fundamentally flawed that instead, some of these businesses are facing closure when the revaluation takes place in April leading to a sense of panic in Whitehall about what this means for a key government pledge to reduce the burden of this beleaguered tax.

What is the latest on the Treasury’s attempts to protect a hospitality sector that feels under siege? Is this the moment Westminster decides tinkering with business rates is no longer sufficient? What are the alternatives to the current system? And what implications does change to business rates in England have for the rest of the UK?