The chief executive of Britain’s third largest listed property company has written an open letter to the Chancellor claiming the current business rates system is no longer fit for purpose.
David Atkins, chief executive of development and investment company Hammerson, has informed George Osborne that the current business rates are “anachronistic, opaque and only able to function with a large number of inefficient exemptions and reliefs”.
His letter — which comes after the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement announcement that the Government would undertake a business rates review — was written on behalf of the retail property industry body, the British Council of Shopping Centres (BCSC).
The Hammerson boss is president of the organisation whose members include , Land Securities, Jones Lang LaSalle, CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield.
Outlined in the letter is the BCSC’s vision for a new business rates system, which will make it “internationally competitive, more cyclical and therefore responsive to economic conditions, whilst recognising this means some mechanism will have to be built in to protect local councils from fluctuating income”.
Atkins also points out that business rates in the UK are the highest commercial property tax anywhere within the European Union and one of the highest taxes of any kind in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In the UK, the retail sector pays around 23 per cent of all business rates, generating around £6bn a year.
Striking a more conciliatory note, Atkins also claims the BCSC has been pleased with the Government’s response to date and is grateful for the level of transparency that officials have provided.
The measures the industry body has welcomed include the introduction of a new reoccupation relief to help bring empty shops back into use and a “longer-term reform to the business rates administration to improve its transparency, efficiency and responsiveness”
