ISSUE ONE 2016 www.cvsuk.com propertyinsight@cvsuk.com

IN THIS ISSUECVS ON HAND FOR BUSINESSES AFFECTED BY FLOODING

THE BUDGET - WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR YOUR BUSINESS

CHECK, CHALLENGE, APPEAL - CVS RESPONDS

WIN A SONOS PLAY:3

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property insight ISSUE ONE

02 Welcome from the EditorMark Rigby talks about the year ahead

03 Budget Shake-Up for Business Rates CVS breakdown the recent Budget announcements

06 CVS Battle Hard with VOAThe ongoing challenges being faced

07 Rents on the RiseAn update from our Business Rent Team

08 CVS on Hand to Help Flood VictimsWe’re here to offer advice to those affected

09 CVS does CPDLandlord & Tenant Update

10 Regional Round UpOur latest and greatest Client reductions

12 Case Study - Kia Motors CVS Driving Savings for Kia

13 Case Study - Colchester ZooA Roaring Success for CVS

14 In The PressRead all about CVS in the News

15 It’s Competition Time!Your chance to win a SONOS Play:3

If there’s one phrase that’s getting up the noses of business people I talk to it’s ‘forward guidance’.

The idea that the Bank of England will offer some direction on any likely future adjustments to interest rates is welcome but, in reality, it seems to be creating more confusion than clarity.

Businesses like predictability and dependability – especially when it comes to costs. This is one of the main reasons that CVS has been beating the drum for improved fairness, transparency and simplicity in the business rates system.

But what we have at the moment is a mix of uncertainty in global markets, volatility in commodity prices (especially oil), and a legislative framework (as least as far as business rates are concerned) that offers more by way of confusion and procrastination than it does for certainty and predictability.

And that’s without mentioning the EU referendum and the prospect of ‘Brexit’. Whether you’re lining up with Boris and Gove, or Cameron and Osborne, there are likely to be tumultuous times ahead.

So it’s with some surprise and certainly relief that I listened to the Chancellor offer a little comfort to businesses in his Budget 2016. He unveiled a package of significant measures – from permanently increased Small Business

Rate Relief, to linking future increases to CPI, rather than RPI that will make a positive difference to businesses and an impact on the bottom line. (There’s more on these measures in this edition of Property Insight.)

That said, the devil is in the detail of these reforms. While there’s a more positive outlook, I’m not sure we’ve addressed the uncertainty and certainly not the lack of transparency in the business rates system.

So, within all of this, CVS continues to offer a refreshing level of focus. We will use our skills and professional experience to save you money on your property costs – whether business rates or rent. And we will do that through a no-risk, results-focused partnership arrangement with you, incentivising us to secure results and giving you the reassurance of a partner committed to saving you money.

At CVS, we put our clients first and you can be assured that we will always be working in your interests. No ‘forward guidance’ needed to work that one out – it’s what we believe in and it’s what we’re set up to do.

I hope you enjoy this latest issue of Property Insight and find it valuable too.

Mark RigbyChief Executive

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Budget shake-up

for business rates

At first glance, these reforms represent positive steps, but there’s still more work to do to fix our ‘broken’ business rates system

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”Mark Rigby, CEO, CVS

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At first it was business as usual for the Budget – the industry calls for reform, the media speculates, and the Chancellor finally stands up at the despatch box to make his speech.

But this year, George Osborne finally responded to businesses across the country by announcing three tranches of reform that could help ratepayers save money.

Small business rate relief doubledFrom 1 April 2017, the Government is permanently doubling the rate of Small Business Rate Relief from 50% to 100%. This will apply to all firms with a Rateable Value (RV) of £12,000 and below, while properties with an RV of £12,000 to £15,000 will be entitled to tapered relief.

The Government has also introduced a higher threshold for businesses which are charged using the standard business rates multiplier (UBR) – this has been increased from £18,000 to £51,000.

While the industry is awaiting more specific detail on how the relief scheme will work and which properties will qualify, the Government reports that some 600,000 businesses will be removed from business rates while a further 250,000 firms will receive a rates cut.

The Government is also exploring the option of replacing these reliefs with new rate allowances for small businesses. If introduced, this would be applied to a business’s total property portfolio across local authority areas, allowing businesses that grow and acquire more property to benefit from rates relief.

Together, these changes remove the clouds of uncertainty hanging over small businesses each year as they wait to see if vital reliefs will be renewed. CVS has long called for the smallest and lowest paying firms to be removed from business rates altogether – this helps them to invest and prosper and it reduces the administrative strain on the Valuation Office Agency (VOA).

The new relief scheme could have a positive side effect for the business rates appeals process, reducing the tens of thousands of small businesses

challenging their liabilities and allowing the VOA to focus on resolving bigger cases more quickly.

Switching from RPI to CPIFor many years, CVS has argued against the annual indexation of business rates against the Retail Price Index (RPI), widely considered to be an unreliable and outdated measure of inflation. In the Budget, the Chancellor announced that from 1 April 2020 business rates will be linked to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is more stable, consistent and in line with the performance of the UK economy.

While this may sound like a limited and technical measure, it could have a major impact, in particular for larger businesses. In 2020/21 alone, the Government expects businesses to save a total of around £370 million.

Despite the good news, it is disappointing that the Chancellor will not introduce this measure for another four years. Had it been introduced from 1 April this year, CVS research has shown that it would have saved businesses £211 million in 2016/17 alone.

More frequent property revaluationsWhat was arguably the biggest rates announcement in the Budget didn’t in fact make it into the Chancellor’s speech. In the detail of the Budget documentation, HM Treasury set out the Government’s more radical plan to make business rates revaluations more frequent.

From 1 April 2017, revaluations could take place at least every three years. A paper will be published in March 2016 to outline how the Government will deliver this.

It has been argued that more frequent revaluations will help bring business rates bills more closely in line with rent levels in the property market. As always, the devil is in the detail. The Government will need to closely consider the impact of more regular revaluation on local authority finances – particularly as it moves towards devolution – and crucially whether the VOA has capacity to deliver more regular revaluations with ever-tighter

You wait six years for a bus... and three come at once.

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Administrative reformBy 2022, local authority business rate systems will be linked to HMRC digital tax accounts so that businesses can manage their rates bills in one place alongside other taxes. This is a welcome measure which should provide greater operational efficiency, in particular for businesses with multiple property portfolios as it will harmonise the format of business rates bills across different billing authorities.

Unanswered questionsHaving taken these positive initial steps, the Chancellor now needs to follow through and ensure these reforms work for ratepayers. As part of its March report, CVS hopes that the Government will look holistically at all of its proposals for rates reform.

There is consensus across the sector that Government’s earlier ‘Check, Challenge, Appeal’ proposals for business rates appeals simply do not work for ratepayers. These reforms are designed to cut down the number of appeals coming into the system. However, hundreds of thousands of small businesses will soon be exempt from business rates altogether, meaning they will no longer need to submit an appeal. In addition, the three year timetable to resolve a case under ‘Check, Challenge, Appeal’ simply doesn’t fit with the Government’s new three-yearly revaluations.

Moreover, somewhere between a quarter and a half of all appeals are successful. It is a legitimate and important right and the Government’s attempts to curtail the ability of ratepayers to challenge their bill is simply an unfair approach. CVS urges the Government to review these considerations before implementing any new proposals.

CVS also calls on the Government to:

Further reform – improving transparencyThe most disappointing aspect of the Budget is that the Government has introduced no measures to improve the transparency of the system for ratepayers. It remains the case that the only way an occupier can access the substantive evidence underpinning their bill is to submit an appeal.

Business rates are an assessed tax – CVS believes that the responsibility for explaining and providing evidence for the assessment should lie with the assessor. In this case, that’s the Government and there should be much better disclosure of information.

Confirm that businesses will continue to be protected through transitional rate relief and appeals based on a Material Change of Circumstances (MCC)Respond to speculation that it will introduce business rate exemption for industrial plant and machineryExplain what support it will offer to large, property-intensive businesses, having given significant support to small firms

The Chancellor’s decision to introduce more frequent revaluations, at least every three years, will generate a mixed response and as ever the devil is in the detail. ”

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If you would like any more information regarding the recent budget announcements please visit our website where you will find regular updates:www.cvsuk.com.

Alternatively you can contact us on:0161 291 0330.

CVs battle hard with

voa

With the announcement of the 2016/17 Uniform Business Rates Multipliers now confirmed which shows that business rates will now generate £23.5 billion in revenue for local Councils, an increase of £400 million from last year, there has never been a more important time to ensure that your business rates are correct.

Whilst you are able to challenge the Rateable Value ascribed to your property, unfortunately the time taken to resolve appeals is taking longer and longer. This ever increasing delay is brought about by an appeal system that is cumbersome and outdated but more importantly administered by an under resourced Valuation Office Agency (VOA).

To add to the delays, the VOA have also been carrying out a revaluation which will come into effect on the 1 April 2017, much of which has been undertaken by the more experienced surveyors within the VOA. This has left the appeal side of the business in some cases in the hands of inexperienced caseworkers some of which have transferred in from other Government departments having limited knowledge of property rating.

All of this means that there are simply not enough experienced VOA staff to deal with the current number of outstanding appeals. With over 250,000 appeals currently in the system some of which date back to 2010 it is a real ‘dog fight’ to get Clients’ appeals to the front of the queue.

Currently the VOA simply do not want to discuss appeals until the case has been given a tribunal hearing date by the Valuation Tribunal (VT) but with Tribunal agenda’s running into the hundreds, and the likelihood of only four or five cases being heard at one sitting, the bottleneck is obvious. Some of our Client’s cases are approaching double digit abortive hearing dates and with over 27,000 shops having disappeared since 2007 and 20% of public houses having closed since 2006, the threat from both the delay and level of rates liability is obvious.

There is a small ‘chink of light’ on the horizon: the 2017 Revaluation, we are told, is on schedule which should then release a crop of VOA caseworkers back to deal with outstanding appeals in an effort to eat into the backlog. This is anticipated in May or June of this year. The system certainly needs to address the increasing number of unresolved appeals and with 8,000 new challenges a month the VOA needs to ‘up its game’!

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Business rent services can be a complex area to deal with as comparable rental evidence is generally unavailable for occupiers to source and varying lease terms will have an impact on the ultimate rent being achieved. Our surveyors are very experienced in this area of property and with hundreds of rent reviews, lease renewals and dilapidations claims ongoing all the time, we are very fortunate to have the very best in comparable evidence data in the market place. The CVS surveying team are based across the country and have the local knowledge and insight in property deals being transacted which could impact on your rent.

A large number of CVS Clients are utilising multiple services from us as they are fully aware that we will negotiate strongly on their rent because this also sets a rough guide for their business rates assessment and we are fully incentivised to achieve the best results on their behalf.

In London and the South East we are seeing a continued rise in occupier demand, but the supply is falling which is having a knock on effect with the rise in rental growth. As reported in the Estates Gazette London Supplement in September last year, occupiers on the end of sharp rises to rents now will also face a further substantial increase in their occupancy costs from the revaluation date on the 1st April 2017.

Affordability crisis?Over the past four months London landlords have been quoting an average of a 48% uplift in rent at lease renewal. The looming 2017 business rates revaluation could also hurt London occupiers, as it will be on values at 1 April 2015. “Given the general increases in rental levels, London offices can expect to see some of the largest increases in business

rates when the new list comes into force,” says Head of Business Rents John Hayward. It is bad news, too, on service charges says CVS. “They are rising well above inflation levels,” Hayward adds.

The recently released Q4 2015 RICS UK Commercial Property Market Survey only confirms our opinion of the market place with the supply demand imbalance continuing to drive rents and capital values higher, and 81% of Central London respondents in the survey now viewing the market as overpriced.

The market survey also confirms that the demand for leasable space continues to rise across all property sectors as it has done since the early part 2013. All sector rent expectations continue to point to strong growth in the near term. The prime industrial sector is being seen as the most likely in rental increases +87% and even secondary retail at the other end of the scale, the respondents predict +51% expecting rents to grow.

The regional breakdown of the survey shows London and the East of England indicating the strongest rental growth predictions, but all sector rents are expected to rise, to a greater or lesser extent, across all areas of the UK during 2016.

Rents on the rise

If you have a rent review, lease renewal, only have a couple of years unexpired on your leased property or have a break option, we can help by identifying terms in the lease that will have an impact on value; we thoroughly research rental evidence leaving no stone unturned and can react to market conditions or use break options as leverage to keep rents low.

Please call now to discuss further on 0161 291 0330 or visit our website for more information www.cvsuk.com

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cvs on hand to help businesses affected by flooding

CVS work hard on behalf of ratepayers throughout the country to reduce the amount of commercial tax they pay on their premises.

Over the last few months, parts of Northern England have faced torrential downpours which have resulted in severe flooding, with some of the worst affected regions being Cumbria and Lancashire. This has resulted in many businesses not being able to open and their premises suffering severe damages.

Chief Executive, Mark Rigby said: “In this regard CVS sympathise with those who have been affected and are dealing with the consequences of these severe floods. CVS’ team of specialists will be on hand to give advice and offer help on how to reduce their business rates during this traumatic period.”

Rating Chairman, Stephen Philp commented: “As a result of the impact this event is having, along with previous flooding events in Cumbria, Lancashire and other areas, it is likely to influence the rental values in those areas affected which is ‘a key driver’ with regard to the rateable

value of commercial properties. CVS will now investigate what action to take on behalf of our Clients. If we find there has been a detrimental impact on the rental values in the area we will look at how this has impacted the rateable values also.”

However, The Chancellor, George Osborne has announced that any businesses affected by the floods will not have to pay business rates whilst their premises deal with the effects of the floods.

To find out more about savings your business is entitled to and to discuss further, please contact us on:0161 291 0330.

You can also visit our website for more information and updates:www.cvsuk.com.

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Councils to keep £26bn in business rates by 2020

cpd seminar ‘landlord & tenant update’

In November we held our second CPD seminar of 2015 at our London Office. The event was attended by more than 100 property professionals and provided a ‘Landlord & Tenant Update’ for the lease consultancy sector.

The seminar was given by leading practitioners Wayne Clark, Barrister at Falcon Chambers, and Graham Chase, Senior Partner at Chase & Partners and a former President of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). It offered fresh insight into current best practice in the Landlord & Tenant sector, including rent reviews, lease renewals, and lively debate was generated about the PACT (Professional Arbitration on Court Terms) system of dispute resolution and its benefits over going through the courts in terms of cost and speed to resolution.

Undertaking continuous professional development is a requirement of membership of the RICS and it means that members are committed to continually updating their skills and knowledge in order to maintain their expertise. CVS’ seminars allow attendees to record two hours towards their annual CPD requirement of 20 hours.

Chief Executive, Mark Rigby said:“CVS was delighted to welcome Wayne Clark and Graham Chase to our latest CPD

seminar. These leading experts in their field provided some fantastic insight into the latest on Landlord and Tenant practice to a packed house at Woolgate Exchange. Lots of surveyors left thinking differently about the PACT system of dispute resolution and how it can serve our Clients by delivering authoritative resolutions quickly and for less cost. At CVS, we’re focused squarely on getting the best deal for occupiers of commercial property – both in terms of their rent and rates – and our professional team is always looking for new opportunities to reach positive resolutions.

“All Chartered Surveyors know the importance of keeping up with case law, industry developments and best practice. CVS runs outstanding CPD events to ensure our surveyors and our colleagues across the industry can do this in a way that’s relevant, insightful and engaging.”

cvs on hand to help businesses affected by flooding

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Northern Home Counties & London north

London South & CentralChris Baker worked on behalf of Hailo Network Holdings and achieved an RV Reduction of £72,500 for their property in London, this will save them over £122,000 over the seven year Rating List.

Rupert Boheimer achieved an RV reduction of £65,000 for Precise Media Monitoring on their London property, this has saved them over £107,000 over the seven year Rating List

James Wellings achieved a substantial saving for The Graphical Tree Ltd when they approached us about their rent review. James saved them £49,000 for the first year on their London property.

Fuji Seal Europe Ltd approached us to act on their behalf, in doing so Adam Handley secured an RV Reduction of over £70,500 for their property in Kent, this will save them over £107,000 over the seven year Rating List.

Nigel Brewitt secured an RV Reduction of £117,500 for Tower Transit Operations Ltd for their site in London. This will save them over £225,000 over the seven year Rating List

regional round upTake a look at our most recent Client reductions

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Northern Home Counties & London north

thenorth

South West & West Midlands

Jason Gray secured a staggering £245,000 RV Reduction for Peninsula Business Services Ltd for their Manchester office building, achieving a saving of over £755,000 over the seven year Rating List.

Steve Bassett worked with SEW Eurodrive Ltd and achieved a huge RV reduction of £120,00 for their site in West Yorkshire, this will save them over £219,000 over the seven year Rating List.

Steve Bassett secured a RV Reduction of £52,250 for Enviromental Scientifics Group Ltd based in Burton-On-Trent and saved them over £171,000 over the seven year Rating List.

Sean Keogh achieved an RV Reduction of £60,000 for Intel Corporation Ltd on their Swindon property, saving them over £91,000 over the seven year Rating List.

A fantastic rent reduction of £28,045 was achieved by James Wellings for Hampshire based Scorpion Ribs. The Client approached us to carry out a rent review after their rent was increased for their warehouse property.

Chapman Fraser approached us to look at their lease renewal for their factory property in Leicestershire. David Collett achieved a saving of over £19,000 for the first year.

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Driving savingssavings of £39,000Bolton Kia is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kia Motors UK and are proud to boast the enviable title of ‘Europe’s No.1 Kia Dealer’ selling more cars at the Bolton dealership than any other Kia dealer throughout Europe.

Today, Kia produces more than 1.4 million vehicles a year at 14 manufacturing and assembly operations in eight countries. These vehicles are sold and serviced through a network of more than 3,000 distributors and dealers covering 172 countries. The Corporation has more than 40,000 employees and annual revenues of more than US$17 billion.

RESULTSFollowing inspection of the property, our CharteredSurveyor discovered that the Valuation Office Agency(VOA) had over assessed Kia’s premises in Bolton.

An appeal was submitted to the VOA against the ratingassessment ascribed to the property and following thesuccessful prosecution of the appeal a reduction of£21,000 in Rateable Value was achieved.

SURVEYOR COMMENTS“A comprehensive measured survey and reference ofthe property was carried out, which revealed incorrectsurvey data, namely incorrect floor areas and excessive

car display spaces. In addition, we also secured an endallowance for lack of on-site vehicle workshop facilitiesrequired for car repairs, servicing and MOT’s. Wedeemed this to be a disadvantage for a motor dealershipand an allowance in the rating assessment was thereforeconsidered justified, which we successfully secured forour client.

Following detailed discussions with the Valuation Officer,we successfully persuaded him to reduce our Client’sassessment from a Rateable Value of £172,000 to £151,000,resulting in a total rate saving of £39,000 over the seven year Rating List.

Jason Gray, Rating Director, CVS

“We are delighted with the overall results CVS achieved for us. The whole appeal process was hassle free as we were assigned a dedicated Account Manager, who kept us well informed throughout our appeal.”

Peter Stanley,General Manager, Bolton Kia

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a roaring successsavings of £63,244

Colchester Zoo is certainly an animal lovers favourite, having been awarded ‘The TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice Attractions Award’, which rated Colchester Zoo as one of the top 20 zoos from around the world and in the top 10 zoos in the UK. There are currently over 270 species to see, set in 60 acres of beautiful parkland and lakes.

RESULTSCVS has worked for many large leisure Client’s like Go Ape and Chester Racecourse in the past, so Colchester Zoo felt in safe hands appointing them to lodge a successful appeal.

Adam Handley worked closely with the Client using their trade information to ensure enough evidence was presented to the Valuation Office Agency to generate a reduction in Rateable Value. The appeal was a great success and savings of over £63,000 will be returned to the Client across the seven year Rating List.

SURVEYOR COMMENTS“This particular assessment is a receipts based valuation where the trade supported the current valuation. The

challenge for me was to successfully reduce the rental percentage by arguing an element of over-trading when compared to charity run Zoos, as these make up the majority of this sector. Colchester Zoo has grown significantly throughout the years, with the family operation investing heavily. In my view they are an exceptional operator which should be distinguished from a reasonably competent operator in valuation terms.

The 2005 adopted rental percentage of 7.25% was carried over between Lists. I managed to negotiate this down to 7%, leading to a £25,000 reduction effective from 01/04/10 based on my over-trading evidence, in turn producing a large rebate for our Client.”

Adam Handley, Senior Surveyor, CVS

“We trusted CVS to assess our property because we knew that they had worked for similar business operations before. We were not disappointed.”

Anthony tropeano,director, colchester zoo ltd

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in the press

Biggest companies left out of party as shopkeepers celebrate £7bn windfall Small shopkeepers were united in approval after George Osborne finally responded to a longrunning campaign to reform business rates.

The chancellor promised to change the way in which business rates are charged and calculated that 600,000 small businesses, such as corner shops and hairdressers, will no longer pay a levy.

Rates will be cut for a further 250,000businesses, while big companies will benefit from 2020 when increases will be linked to the lower consumer prices index — the government’s main measure of inflation— rather than the retail prices index.

Mr Osborne said that the changes represented a “£7 billion tax cut for our nation of shopkeepers” and would result in rates on half of all British properties either falling or disappearing altogether. “A typical corner shop in Barnstaple will pay no business rates. A typical hairdresser in Leeds will pay no business rates. A typical newsagents in Nuneaton will pay no business rates. A £7 billion tax cut for our nation of shopkeepers. A tax system that says to the world: we’re open for business. A government that’s on your side,” he told the Commons.

Critics said that the chancellor’s largesse had come at the expense of big business, particularly supermarket groups who had already paid a “disproportionately” heavy share of the country’s business tax take. Business rates are calculated as a proportion of the value of the property and paid in instalments. Retailers with very large store estates are especially hard hit, while online retailers with no outlets have a competitive advantage.

The levy has long been described as one of the main obstacles that Britain faces in reviving its high streets.

Dominic Taylor, chief executive of PayPoint, which supports a network of 28,000 retailers (including about 20 in Barnstaple), said that the changes would be a “relief to thousands of convenience store owners and should be a boost to the high streets of the country, which in all too-many cases have seen the post office move out and local bank branches close”.

Mark Rigby, chief executive of CVS, which represents more than 50,000 businesses in England and Wales, said: “After years of pressure from businesses, from small shops to steel plants, the chancellor has finally listened to ratepayers and abolished the link between business rates and RPI, an outdated, ineffective measure of inflation. At the same time, he has removed the cloud of uncertainty hanging over small businesses. At first glance, these reforms represent positive steps, but there’s still more work to do to fix our broken business rates system.”

Mike Coupe, chief executive of J Sainsbury, which is the sixth-largest taxpayer in Britain despite being only the 80th biggest company, said that the chancellor had missed the opportunity to make business rates a tax “fit for the future”.

He said: “While we welcome the benefittoday’s budget will bring to small businesses, it continues to ignore consumers’ rapidly changing shopping habits and fails to create the much needed level playing field between traditional retailers and online-only operations. Business rates remain an analogue tax in a digital age and they still require reform.”

By Deirdre Hipwell

Stores to save£370m a yearafter change tobusiness ratesRETAILERS have been handed a big boost by a shake-up of the business rates system.

The existing system costs firms £2.40 for every £1 they pay in corporation taxand has been criticised as the largest property tax in the world.

This year business rates will bring in £28bn for the Treasury, putting it just behind council tax as a major income driver.

However, the annual rise in business rates is now to be shifted to fall in line with the consumer price index rather the higher retail price index.

Mr Osborne called the shift a “permanent long-term saving for all businesses in Britain”.Unlike CPI, the official measure of inflation, RPI includes housing costs, which considerably inflate the rate, andit means it has largely fallen out of favour as an economic measure. It hasbeen estimated that such a move couldsave UK companies £1.5bn by the endof the decade.

However, while the switch to CPI will save companies £370m in 2020, the Chancellor was criticised for not introducing it sooner. Jerry Schurder, abusiness rates expert at Gerald Eve, said: “Leaving it until 2020 is a cynicaldelay and will mean companies will still be paying an unnecessary £5bn forthe next five years.”

Mark Rigby, chief executive of the business rates specialist CVS, said: “Had it been introduced today, the switch from RPI to CPI would have saved businesses £211m this year alone.”

However, businesses were cheered by the Government’s news that it will also launch a consultation later this month to introduce more frequent rates reviews, at least every three years. Revaluations are scheduled to take place every five years, but the Government postponed the revaluation in 2015 until 2017, meaning that some shop owners are still paying tax based on property values dating back to the financial crisis.

The British Retail Consortium said the moves, following on from the Government’s 17-month review of business rates, were “recognition that the system is no longer sustainable and in desperate need of fundamental reform”.

The switch from linking the rate rises from RPI to CPI in April 2020 will cost £370m in that year while a move to permanently double small business rates relief will cost £5.9bn over the next five years. However, business rates are still forecast to rise from £27.5bn last year to £27.8bn in 2016 and jump by 10pc to £30.5bn by 2020.

Carolyn Fairbairn, director general of the CBI, said the rates overhaul was very welcome and the change to CPI was “really significant”. However, she said “we would like to see more rates reform over time. We would like to seemore frequent revaluations. There is more to do in that area.”

The Government also plans to introduce the devolution of business rates, in a pilot in 2017 in Greater Manchester and London, five years earlier than planned.

By Ashley Armstrong

To see more CVS news head to

our website www.cvsuk.com

Competitionwin a new Sonos play: 3

For your chance to win a new SONOs play: 3 simply email propertyinsight@cvsuk.com with your name, company name and contact details to be entered into the prize draw raffleentries close on the 29/04/2016.

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win

Remember to email your details to propertyinsight@cvsuk.com by 29/04/2016 for a chance to win

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